District shines on EQA
The Educational Quality and Accountability (EQA) team who reexamined Lowell schools in December reports that the district has shown significant improvement since their previous visit in the Winter of 2005. At that time, Lowell had been placed on a watch list because of poor or unsatisfactory ratings on 51 indicators. The EQA’s latest report recommends that Lowell be removed from ‘watch’ status and ‘commended for the advances made in K-8 during the period.’ EQA also analyzed the MCAS scores of the 10 largest districts in the state. Lowell showed the largest improvement among all 10 districts and is now the third highest scoring urban district. Congratulations to all the teachers and administrators who made this happen and especially to Dr. Baehr for her focused and visionary leadership. While we are sorry she is leaving Lowell, she should be extremely proud of what she has accomplished here. The responsibility now rests with us to keep this momentum going. On that note, the EQA team identified three challenges currently facing the district: (1) Articulation between the middle schools and the high school; (2) Special Ed student achievement and (3) an inadequate budget. These will be the front-burner issues for our new superintendent, whoever he or she might turn out to be.
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