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Superintendent Jason McCandless discusses the conversations regarding ESSA during his report to the School Committee on Wednesday night.

Pittsfield Super Tracking Impacts of Federal Education Act

By Andy McKeeveriBerkshires Staff
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PITTSFIELD, Mass. — Superintendent Jason McCandless said he is watching closely what the federal replacement to No Child Left Behind will ultimately mean for the district.
 
Last year, the federal government adopted the Every Student Succeeds Act that was signed into law on Dec. 10. The program replaces No Child Left Behind but it does retain some of those provisions.
 
When it comes to the local level, the largest changes would be regarding the ranking system.
 
"We continue in Massachusetts to work through was ESSA actually means for us," McCandless said told the School Committee Wednesday night.
 
The act does continue to keep standardized testing, requiring every state to have a student assessment. Massachusetts is already in the middle of making changes to that statewide exam. 
 
For years, the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System was the test. A few years ago, the state piloted the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers exam — Pittsfield being one of the districts to join the pilot. And next year the state will roll out what has been dubbed "MCAS 2.0." 
 
The state does call for a 95 percent participation rate in those exams, and some schools had been docked in their rankings because they had failed to reach that threshold. 
 
"There were schools in Berkshire County that were dropped a level — generally from Level 1 to Level 2 — because they did not reach that 95 percent testing participation rate," McCandless said, calling it a "serious move" to harm a district because of decisions parents have to opt the children out of the exam.
 
But, McCandless says the participation rate in Pittsfield schools is 99-100 percent, so that isn't so much of a concern. The exam will continue as the state has been moving and those exams are what dictate school rankings. 
 
ESSA continues the requirement that the states rank schools. But, it does give flexibility to states and encouragement to craft ambitious and flexible ways to make that assessment. The focus will remain on closing achievement gaps, McCandless said.
 
"The gap in scores that exist behind very high scoring students and students who are struggling," McCandless said.
 
The various concepts being kicked around by education officials in the state are "fascinating," McCandless said. ESSA provides lists of focuses for the state to design their programs. One welcomed idea, McCandless said, is that graduation rates begin to differentiate four-year graduates and five-year graduates.
 
"For some students, high school is a four-year thing. For others, it is simply not," McCandless said.
 
Other concepts include using student achievement for the following years after graduation as a reflection in school rankings, an idea McCandless isn't too enthused about.
 
"That to me is a real challenge to be accountable for students who have moved on," he said.
 
He said school climate surveys could be included, and the state is looking at ways to assess school's ability to provide a broad range of curriculum — classes and opportunities outside of the four major subject areas. There are concepts looking at chronic absenteeism.
 
Two bright spots for Pittsfield is that ensuring English Language Learners make progress toward proficiency and providing advanced coursework such as AP classes could also become part of the assessments - two areas of strength for the city. 
 
"This is really fascinating work," McCandless said.
 
But, the picture isn't really clear right now and earlier this month a new president was elected, and with that new education leaders. The entire program could be changed, or even replaced, soon and the impacts of ESSA are still unclear.

Tags: Education,   MCAS,   Pittsfield School Committee,   

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EPA Lays Out Draft Plan for PCB Remediation in Pittsfield

By Brittany PolitoiBerkshires Staff

Ward 4 Councilor James Conant requested the meeting be held at Herberg Middle School as his ward will be most affected. 

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — U.S. The Environmental Protection Agency and General Electric have a preliminary plan to remediate polychlorinated biphenyls from the city's Rest of River stretch by 2032.

"We're going to implement the remedy, move on, and in five years we can be done with the majority of the issues in Pittsfield," Project Manager Dean Tagliaferro said during a hearing on Wednesday.

"The goal is to restore the (Housatonic) river, make the river an asset. Right now, it's a liability."

The PCB-polluted "Rest of River" stretches nearly 125 miles from the confluence of the East and West Branches of the river in Pittsfield to the end of Reach 16 just before Long Island Sound in Connecticut.  The city's five-mile reach, 5A, goes from the confluence to the wastewater treatment plant and includes river channels, banks, backwaters, and 325 acres of floodplains.

The event was held at Herberg Middle School, as Ward 4 Councilor James Conant wanted to ensure that the residents who will be most affected by the cleanup didn't have to travel far.

Conant emphasized that "nothing is set in actual stone" and it will not be solidified for many months.

In February 2020, the Rest of River settlement agreement that outlines the continued cleanup was signed by the U.S. EPA, GE, the state, the city of Pittsfield, the towns of Lenox, Lee, Stockbridge, Great Barrington, and Sheffield, and other interested parties.

Remediation has been in progress since the 1970s, including 27 cleanups. The remedy settled in 2020 includes the removal of one million cubic yards of contaminated sediment and floodplain soils, an 89 percent reduction of downstream transport of PCBs, an upland disposal facility located near Woods Pond (which has been contested by Southern Berkshire residents) as well as offsite disposal, and the removal of two dams.

The estimated cost is about $576 million and will take about 13 years to complete once construction begins.

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