Emerging stronger

A Massachusetts district uses curriculum, teacher support, and data to fuel student academic growth.

The COVID-19 pandemic hit the Pentucket Regional School District hard. We’re a 2,200-student regional school system serving three small suburban communities north of Boston. Our district historically enjoyed high student achievement, but scores had been steadily declining for about a decade. We were starting to reverse those losses shortly before the pandemic, but the disruptions that began in March 2020 set those efforts back. We operated remotely in the spring of 2020, followed by a hybrid schedule for a few months in the fall of the 2020-21 school year. By mid-winter in 2021, almost all our students had returned to a full in-person schedule. Teaching and learning were still not quite the same that year, but our staff remained focused on student outcomes while also attending to student well-being.

Now, we safely can say we have emerged stronger, thanks to a new curriculum and a data-driven approach to help teachers address the specific needs of individual students. Our teachers are focused and growing in their craft. Our families are engaged. Our community leaders are supportive. And, most important, our students are learning more than ever.