Cambridge School Committee Talks MCAS Scores, Superintendent Search

The Cambridge School Committee discussed bus delays, the city’s Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System results, and the search for a new superintendent during a marathon five-hour meeting Tuesday evening.

Tuesday’s session also marked the third time the School Committee postponed making a decision on when and how to begin the search for a new superintendent after Victoria L. Greer was pushed out in May. Initial timelines submitted in June had originally proposed posting the superintendent listing by Sept. 15.

Though School Committee members Elizabeth C.P. Hudson, David J. Weinstein, and Rachel B. Weinstein motioned on Tuesday to commit to a search timeline “no later than October 15,” their proposal was quickly halted by Mayor E. Denise Simmons, who chairs the committee.

“I see this date of Oct. 15. I think that’s a little too soon,” Simmons said, adding that she wanted more time to discuss the topic. “So I’m going to lay this on the table. That’s not debatable.”

Though some members appeared open to selecting a superintendent by December 2025 at the Sept. 16 School Committee meeting, the body still lacks a desired end date for the search. In recent weeks, committee members and parents have said they want to see a nationwide search with ample community feedback.

As the committee defers initiating a permanent superintendent search, interim Superintendent David G. Murphy has assumed more responsibility over the district, even making a slew of top administrative appointments last month.

In an interview last week, Murphy did not rule out the possibility that he might be hired permanently, but stressed that it was still early on in the process.

“Whether I’m a candidate or not, I think it’s just way too soon for me to really think about that,” Murphy said. “When you’re serving in a transitional period you have to focus exclusively on the needs of the organization, and what that might mean for my own career has to take a back seat for the time being.”

“At some point, both myself and the School Committee will have to address that, but right now, it can’t be my focus,” he added.

At the meeting, committee members also discussed the unpredictable and delayed busing that affected the first few weeks of school, prompting the district to announce systemic corrections across the bus system.

The committee unanimously voted to approve a motion requiring the district to provide regular updates to families affected by late buses and respond to all parent communications regarding late buses within five business days.

The motion also asked the district to present a plan to add tracking to out-of-district transport for students accessing special education services, following a federal complaint in March from Cambridge parent John H. Summers.

But Murphy said that it will take district officials “some time” to figure out how the motion “will be operationalized,” stressing the highly variable and shifting nature of tracking late buses. Still, he committed to “better operations” and “better communication” with parents.

The committee also discussed Cambridge’s Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System test scores — released on Sept. 24 — and the persistent racial and socioeconomic achievement gaps that the results revealed.

But rather than focus on the negative, committee members celebrated two apparent success stories in Tobin Montessori School and Martin Luther King, Jr. School, which were recognized by the state and federal government, respectively, for their progress on bridging achievement gaps.

The principals of both schools presented their approaches to the committee, with MLK Jr. Principal Gerald Young centering a positive and collaborative school culture and Tobin Principal Jaime Frost emphasizing building interdisciplinary educator teams to implement the school’s goals.

“We have a team for every section of our school improvement plan,” Frost said. “Those teams function and are created out of data, and then they use data to make all of the decisions.”

In particular, she said that an initiative last year to correct reading and writing discrepancies led to a 7-10 percent improvement in writing proficiency in just one year.

Members discussed how the rest of the district can learn from these schools’ successes, with a particular focus towards the kindergarten lottery, in which parents rank their top elementary school choices.

MCAS scores and state and national distinctions are key factors for many parents ranking their choices, and Hudson — who noted that MLK and Tobin are among the most in-demand — asked whether these successful programs could be replicated at other schools.

But Rachel B. Weinstein said that rather than try to replicate programming, MLK and Tobin should serve as models of school culture.

“We need standards,” Weinstein said. “But we don’t necessarily need standardization, because I think what’s working in these schools is that they each have their own identity that the community of the students and staff and families is bought into.”

This is “the promise of controlled choice,” she said: “that each building would be its own magnet.”

The presentation was the first installment of the district’s three-part delivery of MCAS results. In future meetings, the committee will discuss high school and science MCAS scores in depth and focus on moving forward in light of the results.

—Staff writer Darcy G Lin can be reached at darcy.lin@thecrimson.com.

—Staff writer Emily T. Schwartz can be reached at emily.schwartz@thecrimson.com. Follow her on X @EmilySchwartz37