Rural Regional School District Achieves Significant Increase in State Science Test Scores With New KnowAtom Curriculum
Massachusetts’ Orange School District Achieves 26-Point Increase in Science Proficiency
ORANGE, Mass., November 7, 2024 (Newswire.com) - Fifth-grade students from Fisher Hill Elementary School achieved their highest-ever proficiency levels on the Next Generation Massachusetts Common Assessment Program for Science (MCAS) in 2024. The school district partners with KnowAtom, a nationwide provider of Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS)-based hands-on curricula. Leanne Lovell, a 5th grade teacher at Fisher Hill says, “The students are more engaged than ever using KnowAtom. Each student has their own supplies, and they feel like real scientists.”
Students from the rural Massachusetts community of Orange, MA, gained 15 points over last year’s state test results. These scores also represent a 26-point improvement over the district’s results in 2022 and are just nine points shy of the statewide average.
“I’m not surprised at all!” says Fisher Hill’s 6th Grade Teacher Chrislyn Newton, “Science has never been more engaging! Our students have a limited background in grade-level science topics, and they have absolutely blown us away with what they are capable of doing in our science classrooms. We wanted a science program that was science-focused and hands-on for our students. It was important that we not just sign on for another reading anthology disguised as science. This program does a wonderful job of delivering important information with consistent application and hands-on opportunities. The materials are wonderful and prepared with students and busy teachers in mind!”
Fisher Hill Elementary School uses KnowAtom’s hands-on science curriculum for grades K-6, which is designed to teach Massachusetts Science and Technology Engineering Frameworks entirely hands-on screens-off. In 2024, Consumer Affairs ranked Massachusetts the best in the country for public education, noting that “the state has the best fourth-grade reading and eighth-grade math scores in the country on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) tests,” (Consumer Affairs, 2024). This year, two of the top four districts in the state are KnowAtom curriculum partners.
“Rural schools face a lot of unique challenges, and to see a district’s science test scores rise 15 points in one year and 26 points in just two years is remarkable,” said Francis Vigeant, CEO of KnowAtom. “KnowAtom’s hands-on curriculum gives teachers the tools, training, and resources to engage their students to think like scientists and engineers in the classroom. The success of the Fisher Hill Elementary School’s students this year highlights the impact that teachers with the right resources have on learning outcomes when they engage students’ thinking about phenomena and empower them to use their own ideas to solve problems and answer questions through prototyping and experimentation.”
About KnowAtom
KnowAtom makes real science possible with complete K-8 resources designed for mastery of NGSS: fully aligned curriculum, integrated hands-on materials, and targeted professional development.
Explore more at www.knowatom.com
Source: KnowAtom
