Community Contra Dance

05:05PM / Wednesday, February 11, 2026Print Story | Email Story

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass — On Saturday, Feb. 14, North Berkshire Community Dance will hold its monthly contra dance with calling (teaching) by Steve Howland, and live music by Seamus Connor, Alex Moon and friends.

According to a press release:

Contra dancing is a living New England folk tradition. The music is live, the dances are taught, and anyone is welcome, with or without a partner — it is common to change partners for each dance of the evening. The caller teaches dance moves and skills as needed so that newcomers can participate fully from their very first event.

The dance will run from 7:30 to 10:30 p.m. in the Community Hall of the First Congregational Church, 906 Main St., Williamstown. Admission is pay-as-you-can, $12 to $20 suggested, and barter is also welcome. An introductory lesson will be held at 7:15PM. For more information, visit www.NorthBerkshireDance.org.

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Mount Greylock School Committee Hears 'Remarkable' MCAS Data

By Stephen DravisiBerkshires Staff
04:54AM / Tuesday, October 13, 2026

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — The Mount Greylock Regional School Committee on Thursday heard that students across the district showed significant growth in their performance on the commonwealth's spring 2026 round of standardized testing.

Superintendent Joe Bergeron and committee member Curtis Elfenbein offered the panel its first look at the results of the most recent Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System tests.

"One thing I do want to say is that many people can look at scores and see them in a vacuum and think the score is the thing," Elfenbein said. "But in an academic setting, there's performance and then there's growth. And over the last decade or so of my teaching career, there was a massive shift toward an increase in focus on growth."

Elfenbein explained that the "student growth percentile" in MCAS reporting measures how an individual student performs in a given year relative to students who got the same score on a given test (mathematics or English language arts) in the prior year.

"So Timmy and Joanny each get 75 percent of the questions right on the fifth grade ELA MCAS," Elfenbein said. "Then they take the sixth grade ELA MCAS, and whoever improves on their score more gets a higher student growth percentile."

An SGP of 50 percent means that a student showed typical growth relative to his or her peers.

And in that measure of growth, Elfenbein said the district's results are "remarkable."

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