PEMBROKE — Oct. 6, 2026 — Pembroke students in grades 3 through 8 scored below the state in English language arts on the latest MCAS, and high school biology results fell below the state for the first time, the Pembroke School Committee heard last Tuesday. The same report showed AP qualifying scores holding steady, and a separate Oct. 1 count showed enrollment rising for the first time in 25 years.
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The assessment report, presented on behalf of the district’s teaching and learning team, framed the MCAS results around the 2025 change in state law that ended the test’s role as a graduation requirement. Students still must take it, Assistant Superintendent Marybeth Brust said, but it no longer decides whether they graduate.
In grade 10, where 74% of students met or exceeded expectations in 2019, results had climbed back toward that mark by 2024. The past two years have hovered around 50%. Essay writing showed the steepest decline.
And then the law changed, and the test was no longer required as a competency determination, and I have a feeling that the students knew that.
— Marybeth Brust, Assistant Superintendent 13:10
Districtwide ELA for grades 3 through 8 is now below the state, a result the presenter said they never anticipated for Pembroke students. Biology dropped below the state for the first time. Brust noted biology results have tracked ELA, and that students now in grades 6 through 9 were in kindergarten through third grade when the pandemic hit. The district is working with biology teachers on last year’s results.
Other results were stronger. Grades 3 through 8 tested above the state in math at almost every grade. Grade 8 math climbed from 54 to 67 for a class of roughly 180 students, which the presenter called a large gain. Districtwide science rose from 27% in 2025 to 44%, ahead of the state’s 41%, and grade 5 science reached 52%, against 39% statewide. Pembroke High School is making moderate progress toward its state targets and carries an accountability percentile of 58.
Chair Allison Glennon asked whether MCAS captures how quickly students click through the test, to compare effort now with years when it counted. Brust said such data exists on many district diagnostic tests but would have to check whether MCAS collects it. A member asked whether any of the comparison districts still require MCAS for graduation; Brust did not believe any do but would confirm. One member put the motivation problem bluntly.
Like, if we decided MCAS is required in Pembroke, for example, that’s the only way to make them care.
— Susan Bollinger, School Committee 26:07
Brust answered that some communities did, though not many, and that it is complicated when voters have said they do not want it.
Next steps focus on literacy. A writing program is in its second pilot year. Reading specialists are learning Word Origins, an upper-grade extension of the district’s foundational reading program, to roll out in grade 3 this year and in grades 3 through 5 with teachers over the next two years. The district is about to contact a few large companies for instructional materials to review for grades 3 through 5 and 6 through 8. Next year’s grade 5 and grade 8 science test becomes a two-day, simulation-based exam, and the state is leaning toward end-of-course assessments at the high school, though no proposal has been fully formed.
