DESE Accountability Report

New Bedford, Massachusetts –Greater New Bedford Regional Vocational Technical High School (GNBVT) performs in
the 64th percentile of high schools in Massachusetts in the 2019 Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary
Education (DESE) Accountability Report issued today (up from the 61st in 2018). Each year DESE establishes and
measures each school’s performance against internal goals and compares school performances across the state. The
Report highlights the success of all students, the lowest performing subgroup of students, minority students, and high
needs students which includes economically disadvantaged students, English Learning (EL) students, and students with
disabilities.

Beyond the overall statistics released that show all GNBVT students meeting or exceeding achievement targets in ELA,
Math, and Biology, the report highlights tremendous successes for students in the high needs category (economically
disadvantaged students, EL students, and Students with Disabilities). High Needs students’ performance at GNBVT when
compared to the same subgroup of students across Massachusetts high schools found the group outperformed nearly 90%
of their peers. Within the subgroup, both GNBVT Economically Disadvantaged students and EL students outperformed
92% of their peers in the Commonwealth and Students with Disabilities outperformed 70%. The High Needs subgroup
achieved Mean Student Growth Scores that demonstrated ‘High Growth’ in ELA and ‘Exceeded Typical Growth’ in
Math. The Mean Student Growth indicator compares students with peers across the state that shared prior assessment
scores in middle school and measures their change in performance on the 10th grade assessment.

“This report continues to demonstrate the academic growth of our students, especially in federally designated student
subgroups, whose proficiency in ELA, Math and Science is growing faster than their peer groups across the state from
middle school to high school. It is a testament to the great work our teachers are doing in remediating skill gaps and
challenging students with an interactive, skill based education,” said James L. O’Brien, Superintendent/Director of
Greater New Bedford Regional Vocational Technical High School. “Quite simply, these students are demonstrating
higher growth in 10th grade when compared to their peer groups statewide. We are even more pleased with the progress of
our high needs students who all continue to show significant academic progress year over year.”

Beginning in 2018, the DESE began measuring the performance of every school’s lowest 25% of students. In the last two
years the lowest 25% of GNBVT students have sustained a 6-point increase in ELA, achieved a 10-point increase in math
and 12-point increase in science achievement scores. The school continues to “raise the floor” in student achievement by
increasing the results of its lowest performers.

Among the 2019 highlights for GNBVT: In English Language Arts, students achieved a Composite Performance Index
(CPI) score of 99.2 which exceeded the target; in Mathematics, students achieved a CPI score of 95.6 and in Science
students achieved a CPI score of 93.7, with both assessments meeting the targets identified by DESE. The report also
found GNBVT’s graduation rate increased over the previous year growing to 90.1% and the drop-out rate decreased by
more than 25% over 2017, exceeding the target rate for GNBVT.

Our full report can be found on-line here.