By Joseph A. Curtatone

(The opinions and views expressed in the commentaries of The Somerville Times belong solely to the authors of those commentaries and  do not reflect the views or opinions of The Somerville Times, its staff  or publishers)

Everything we do in Somerville is evidence-based. Whether we’re figuring out which streets to repave first, what kind of development fits a neighborhood, or how we can best educate our children, every action we take is born of a fastidious process based on our core values, analyzing the data-driven facts, projecting the long-term effects, engaging in thoughtful community discussion and then investing with patience. That patience and our belief in evidence-based decision making is paying off, as Somerville’s results on the Spring 2013 MCAS exams show the clear evidence that our approach is working, in the form of phenomenal growth by all our students.

Somerville Public Schools’ improvement in Student Growth Percentile this past year puts the district on par with some of the highest-performing districts in Massachusetts. Somerville surpassed hundreds of districts as it rose to the 81st percentile rank in combined Student Growth Percentile, for both Math and English Language Arts. That means Somerville students performed as well as or better than students in 320 districts out of the 397 in Massachusetts. When you remove small districts with fewer than 500 students, Somerville Public Schools’ percentile rank jumps to 92.

This isn’t a case of a district making great gains because it’s playing catch up. The data clearly shows that higher-performing districts consistently rank higher on Student Growth Percentile, because those districts are doing the job of educating all their students, regardless of where they start academically, and helping them to continually improve. That’s exactly what we’re doing here in Somerville with our diverse population of students from all walks of life. Our flagship school, Somerville High School, is now designated a Level 1 school on the state’s five-level Accountability scale, a two-level leap from last year’s designation. The John F. Kennedy School is also now a Level 1 school, rising from last year’s level 2. Somerville Public Schools overall made great gains in students progressing toward proficiency on the MCAS exams, with the number of students scoring Advanced or Proficient in Math leaping 7 percent and in English by 5 percent. By every measure used by the state, Somerville Public Schools have improved.

Change doesn’t happen overnight. It requires the aforementioned values of smart, long-term planning and patience, while remaining flexible enough to innovate based on what the data is telling us. In recent years, Somerville Public Schools have made steady, incremental progress in Student Growth Percentile, the measure by which the state puts student achievement in context, comparing how much progress students in each district are making compared to students across the state with similar past MCAS results.

Our SGP this year shows that Somerville students at every level of achievement, and in nearly every grade in both core subjects of Math and English Language Arts progressed more than most of their academic peers in other school districts in the state. The data shows in short that our students are making greater gains in their level of achievement than in most other districts, whether they are A students moving from advanced to outstanding or high-needs learners progressing from needing improvement to proficiency. And again, the highest performing schools tend to have the highest SGP, as we now do, and we got here by design.

Our approach to education starts with our commitment to educating the whole child and ensuring that every student is exposed to the same rich curriculum. That’s an end, and the means to that end is using a highly data-informed systems approach that takes a holistic approach to educating and supporting each and every student. Every student is unique and we know that we must enable each one to reach his or her full potential.

So we set high standards and make them clear to everyone, including students, parents and guardians, teachers and administrators. We use our data analysis to target the individual needs of each student and to raise the bar for their next challenge. We use technology that quickly returns data points to our teachers so they can remain nimble and proactive in adapting to each student’s current needs, and intervening before a student’s progress stalls or declines. We expand academic enrichment opportunities both before and after school, we reject the pay-to-play fees that are all too common in other districts so that all students can participate in athletics and the arts, and we invest in active, engaging education, and that means engaging students, parents and guardians and our whole community.

Our educators have all committed to this approach, from Superintendent Tony Pierantozzi to every tireless teacher on the frontlines each day in the classroom. These results are a direct testimony to their commitment and hard work. On the city side, last year we had one of the largest increases in funding for Somerville Public Schools in city history. We surpassed that increase in this year’s budget, but it’s not blindly throwing money at the schools and hoping for the best. These are targeted investments based on analysis of hard data, investing in active, engaging education not only within the classroom but outside the school walls.

As Superintendent Pierantozzi said, this is not a destination but a foundation. Yet these results send an undeniable message: Somerville has the right formula. The future for our students, and our whole community, has never been brighter.