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The results are in
school officials look at new MCAS scores
By Andrea Gregory
The MCAS results are in. Somerville is assessing its scores, but Superintendent Tony Pierantozzi says it is more important to focus on the individual needs of each student, than the overall pass-fail ratio.
“The collective data gives us trends. We are focusing on continual improvement for each individual,” said Pierantozzi. “All of our efforts are coordinated to the effect.”
Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System (MCAS) was formed in response to a 1993 statewide education reform. All public school students are tested at specific grade levels. Furthermore, graduating high school is contingent on passing the MCAS. Test scores illustrate the performance of individual students as well as the schools and districts. According to the Massachusetts Department of Education, MCAS testing creates a level of accountability, while fulfilling the needs of the No Child Left Behind Act.
On Monday night, Pierantozzi presented a brief overview to the School Committee. He said the plan is to work with the students who did not pass the test administered last spring. Students who need additional help passing the test are receiving help at the high school.
“At first blush, our MCAS performance for the 10th graders has slightly improved,” said Pierantozzi.
Overall, the ELA scores went slightly up, the number of high performing students increased a little, and the number of low performing students dropped a little, as well.
“The collective data gives us trends,” he said.
However, 44 students at the high school failed one or both tests, said Assistant Superintendent of Curriculum Robert Snow.
The number of failing students is down from last year. In 2004, the Somerville School Department learned 23 percent of its 10th graders failed the English portion of the test, and 23 percent failed the math section. The new results show 18 percent failing English and 20 percent failing math.
Pierantozzi said an MCAS profile is put together for each student who has failed the test. He said those students are already enrolled in remediation courses to help boost their scores by graduation time.
For the first time, teachers and administrators who have direct contact with the students, such as guidance counselors, will also get copies of individual student reports. Pierantozzi said the reports will travel with the students through their high school career so educators may be more aware of certain academic needs or certain areas calling for more attention.
Pierantozzi said he is pleased by the final results of last year’s graduating class. In 2005, 99 percent, or all but five students, passed the MCAS by graduation time. In the two years prior, the percentage of students that passed was also in the high 90s. Taking the dynamics of Somerville into consideration, such as how many students speak English as a second language, the students have managed to perform quite well as a whole, said Pierantozzi. He said he expects continued success in the future.
Potential abduction
12-year-old girl says cab driver tried to take her to the fair
By Elizabeth McNamara
Police are looking for a man who possibly tried to lure a 12-year-old girl into his cab on Thursday morning.
The man was driving a white taxicab with green lettering when he stopped to offer the young girl a ride to the Topsfield Fair. The girl refused the ride and was made it to school safely.
Lt. Paul Upton said the driver did not touch or threaten the girl in a violent way. But police believe he did circle the girl’s location several times before leaving, raising some suspicion.
Upton also said “lack of chargeable elements” makes this a unique case. Even if investigators pinpoint the perpetrator, police may not be able to make an arrest if the law was not broken, said Upton.
Police describe the man as white, in his 30s or 40s with a reddish or brown mustache. Police say they are not sure whether the driver worked for a Somerville or out-of-town cab service.
Green Cab, the only cab company in Somerville, does use white vehicles with green lettering. Bill Horan, Green Cab general manager, said he all of the vehicles and keys to the vehicles were accounted for at the time of the incident.
“I verified the keys and no vehicle was missing,” he said.
Green Cab used their Global Positioning System (GPS) to identify where the 53 on-duty cabs were during the half-hour time both before and after the girl’s report.
“We checked who had taken a job in that area, and there were eight or nine cabs around there within that time frame,” said Horan. “We eliminated seven of those because they were black or yellow cabs. And, out of the others, the drivers had no facial hair.”
Horan said the company cannot account for any cabs that were off duty, but he does not believe “that someone slipped through the cracks.”
School officials sent home notices and safety tips as a precaution.
“What happened had the potential to be horrific if at least just scary,” School Superintendent Anthony Pierantozzi said. “Obviously, we’re taking it very seriously.”
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Somebody hates yuppies
police work to control spray painted hate-speech
By Andrea Gregory
Hateful slogans targeting yuppies have been spray painted around Somerville over the past few months.
On Monday, the city cleaned up the latest anti-yuppie graffiti on Highland Road. The graffiti was reported on Saturday. Lt. Paul Upton describes the tagging as a serious crime and an arrestable offence. He said this is more than just vandalism due to the content of messages.
“It targets a specific group. It’s all directed toward so-called yuppies,” said Upton. “We are seeking to determine who is responsible for the tagging, and we are concerned with the messages that are up there. They are not nice, some of them even threatening in nature.”
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SCC wants to hold candidates to their words
By George Hassett
A non-profit community development organization will host a candidate’s forum for the aldermanic candidates Oct. 19 at the Visiting Nurses Association.
The Somerville Community Corporation (SCC) will devote the entire night’s discussion to affordable housing in the city, said SCC Community Organizer Jesse Kanson-Bennanav.
“This will be the only specific issue based forum in this campaign season,” said Kanson-Bennanav.
Kanson-Bennanav said the debate will give his organization the chance to get the candidates on record on the policies they will be voting on in office.
“When the linkage fee issue came up in front of the Board of Alderman, we already had them on record as supporting it, so they could not backtrack from what they had said earlier. It is a great way to hold candidates accountable once they are in power,” said Kanson-Bennanav.
SCC’s candidate’s forum will be held October 19 at the Visiting Nurses Association at 6 p.m.
Louisa Solano to be Honored at the Somerville News Writers Festival
By Amy E. Brais
Louisa Solano will receive the Ibbetson Press Lifetime Achievement Award Nov. 13 for her work with the Grolier Poetry Shop over the past three decades. Solano said she came to own the Grolier Poetry Shop – America’s oldest store that sells only poetry and the only store of its kind in Harvard Square- because when she was 15 years old, terribly shy to the point of being almost mute, she walked up the stone steps to the store and “had an epiphany.” She knew she would own the Grolier some day. The store is known to have had copies of Joyce’s Ulysses before it graced the shelf of every bookstore and library, housed greats such as Jack Kerouac and Alan Ginsberg in volume and in voice, and is frequently visited by Donald Hall, Philip Levine, and Seamus Heaney (to name a few) and was run for years by the infamously cantankerous Gordon Carnie, to whom Solano is quick to show her continued respect and admiration.
Her first visit to the Grolier Poetry Shop soon turned into a regular occurrence. Solano recalled sitting at the end of Carnie’s couch, taking in the conversation of poets and visitors and eagerly doing whatever she could to help around the store.
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Police recognize a familiar face on bank robbery footage
By Andrea Gregory
A man with a criminal past was arrested for robbing Central Bank.
Police caught Paul Nolan in his Somerville home on Friday and are charging him with armed robbery.
Nolan allegedly walked into the bank at 399 Highland Ave., planning a hold-up on Sept. 23. Police say he matches the description of a man who passed a note to a teller stating “This is a robbery.”
According to the police report the note also said he was armed with a gun and willing to shoot people if his demands were not met. The teller told police his robbery letter said, “No dye pack and no tricks.”
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Vegas, Reno, Tahoe now Somerville
By Andrea Gregory
Fran Owens is one of those people who were meant to sing. When her hands cradle a microphone and her mouth releases the lyrics of decades-old love songs, her slim figure and powerful voice demand attention. Owens has been singing most of her life.
Now in her 60s, the only thing that has really changed is her stage. Having worked Reno, Vegas, Tahoe and South Florida, Owens is hoping to appease a more local crowd. She said her background makes her a great asset to the community. And like always, she is ready to sing.
“They are going to get real top-entertainment in an area where you really don’t get that caliber,” she said.
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The View From Prospect Hill
Steven Glines, candidate for alderman-at-large, recently knocked on a Somerville door, asking for a residents consideration come Election Day. He was met with a distant voice, which yelled, “Nobody’s home. Go away.”
The first-time candidate laughed and went to the next home. Most of his door knocking experiences had not been as interesting.
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New plan for Magoun Square, what plan?
By George P. Hassett
A plan to revitalize Magoun Square, four years in the making, has been scrapped by Mayor Joseph A. Curtatone in favor of an unnamed and unfinished project expected to cost twice as much.
Neighborhood activist Joseph P. Lynch said the shortcomings in Magoun Square will not be fixed as long as the plans remain vague and incomplete. And the entire city will suffer, he said.
“A lot of people are concerned with the direction this administration is going in. There is a lack of information coming out into the community. Where were the public meetings? Where was the alderman (Sean T. O’Donovan) in all of this? Who is he working for? The Mayor or the people who elected him into office?” said Lynch.
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Sullivan says he is ready to take on “the good ‘ole boys”
By Arthur Dudney
John L. Sullivan is a Somerville resident with a lot of his mind. He is the challenger in the hotly contested election for Ward Five Alderman and is thinking about schools, developers and the future of local politics. Sullivan spoke at a Somerville News October 7 contributors’ meeting.
Sullivan presents himself as an honest new-comer to politics who knows the city government and the community well. He currently works as an inspector in the Housing Authority. However, observers have pointed out that the Ward Five race is a microcosm of the last mayoral election: Sullivan is a supporter of the Mayor’s narrowly defeated challenger in that race, Tony LaFuente, and the incumbent Ward Five Alderman, Sean T. O’Donovan, supports the incumbent Mayor, Joseph A. Curtatone. If Sullivan is elected, it could signal a shift in Somerville politics, he said.
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