SWAMPSCOTT PUBLIC SCHOOLS

2024-2027 Student Opportunity Act Plan Summary

Approved by SPS School Committee March 14, 2024

(Pending Approval by the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education)

The Swampscott Public Schools is eager to raise MCAS achievement levels of our lowest performing students. After extensive data analysis, we have concluded that to support this general goal, this Student Opportunity Act Plan will focus on reducing chronic absenteeism for our multilingual learners and Boston resident students and narrowing achievement gaps for our students with disabilities in the middle school grade span. The evidence-based programs below were chosen both to impact these specific gap closing goals and to improve the learning outcomes for our lowest performing students.

  • Positive School Environments: The opening of our new elementary school in fall 2024, consolidating our three out-dated elementary schools, will introduce high quality facilities and new and more equitable opportunities to support positive youth development activities for all students.
  • Comprehensive and Effective Tiered Student Support Systems: We will continue to bring our current tiered support systems into alignment with best practice in terms of using data to identify students’ strengths and needs, matching students with appropriate supports, and monitoring progress. We will also expand our current tiered support system to address literacy skills in grade 4-6, and absenteeism in grade 1 to 12.
  • Diverse Approaches to Meaningful Family Engagement: We will provide professional development to all educators on strategies for developing effective family partnerships.
  • Inclusive Curriculum Adoption Process & Supporting Educators on Curriculum Implementation: Building on our positive results from the adoption of high quality instructional materials in K-8 math as part of our prior Student Opportunity Act Plan, we will continue to expand our adoption and supported implementation of high quality instructional materials with the adoption and implementation of new literacy curricula in grades K to 8.
  • Collaborative Teaching Models:  To improve academic outcomes for our students in the middle grades, and particularly students with disabilities, we will expand our co-teaching model down to grades 3 and 4 and provide co-teaching professional development to all teacher teams in grades 3 to 8.

In total across each of these initiatives, Swampscott will invest nearly $3.3 million in aligned evidence-based programs as follows: EBP 1.1C Positive School Environments $1,370,000; EBP 1.2A&B: Comprehensive & Effective Tiered Support Systems $1,320,000; EBP 1.3A: Diverse Approaches to Meaningful Family Engagement $129,500 

EBP 2.1A&B Inclusive Curriculum Adoption and Implementation Process $368,000; EBP 2.2C Collaborative Teaching Models $84,500.