Erin Linville
Chief of Strategy and Turnaround
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Our HPS team is proud of our accomplishments, although we recognize there is more work to do to ensure an excellent education for every student and a top-quality work environment for every employee. We thank our students, families, partners, community leaders and friends for their partnership and support!

We are creating learning opportunities that nurture, engage, and ensure that Holyoke students are poised to excel in college, career and community leadership. Since the beginning of the turnaround efforts, signature initiatives include:

• A school day with more enrichment, academic and social/emotional opportunities for students in Pre-Kindergarten through 8th grade.

• High School Redesign, which includes a Freshman Academy for a more personalized entry to high school and theme-based academies and career vocational technical education programs designed to ignite student interest and connect learning to the real world.

• Expansion of programs to provide students and families with more choice for their education, including a dual language program, dual enrollment, and early college opportunities for high school students.

• Enhanced standards-based curricular resources in English language arts, mathematics, science, and social studies.

• Breakfast in the Classroom to ensure students have a healthy start to the day and are ready to learn.

• There has been a 14-point increase in the district’s graduation rate to 74.6% in 2023, with even more dramatic improvements for students who are English Learners (23-point increase) and students with disabilities (18-point increase).

• The district has seen a 19-point increase in hiring teachers of color, reaching 32% in 2024-25.

• There has been a significant increase in the number of students enrolled in the Dual Language program, with more than 750 students in grades PreK-8 now enrolled in the program (representing 20% of all students).

• A majority of juniors and seniors are completing advanced coursework (advanced placement, dual enrollment, early college, and work-based learning) as part of our high school redesign, reaching 57% last year.

• HPS has doubled access to pre-kindergarten programming to more than 500 seats, while dramatically expanding full-day PreK.

  More than $100 million has been invested in the physical infrastructure investments of our existing schools since 2015.

• In 2023, HPS made “moderate progress” towards its performance targets and was just a few percentage points short of reaching “substantial progress.” E.N. White School met/exceeded their targets and five schools made “substantial progress.” HHS Dean has seen enrollment growth over the past several years, reaching and maintaining full enrollment consistently since the 2021-22 school year after nearly a decade of under enrollment. HPS continues to invest in improving the shop classrooms to modernize the career and technical education.

Early Literacy

• Improving literacy is at the forefront of our efforts, since reading with ease and fluency is a fundamental component of nearly all learning. Our early literacy plan includes high-quality curriculum, effective teaching strategies, and developing deep early literacy content knowledge. STAR Early Literacy (K-1) showed a 29-point gain in proficiency from the beginning to the end of the year. DIBELS (K-2) also showed gains from beginning to end of year, with a 15-point increase in students at or above benchmark.

Learning Experiences

• More students are graduating. The 2023 graduation rate of 74.6% represents a 14.4-point increase in the graduation rate since pre-receivership. Over the same period, graduation rates for ELs increased 23.4 points to 62.1% and for SWDs increased 17.5 points to 51.7%. Meanwhile, the drop-out rate is an average of 5% during the time of receivership, compared to nearly 8% in SY15. 

• Walk-through data indicates a shift in students spending more time writing, reading, and speaking, rather than in passive listening. Additionally, teachers are using high-quality, district-approved curriculum 96% of the time. These efforts are contributing to more students performing at grade level on the STAR end-of-year assessment, with a 7-point increase in Reading and a 9-point increase in Math. 

• High school students continue to have greater opportunities for meaningful, applied learning opportunities. Students at Holyoke High School North align with a theme-based academy; they participate in guest speaker series with industry professionals, engage in internships, and take field trips to college campuses for campus tours and academy-aligned learning experiences. Additionally, 45 students at the Dean Campus participated in co-ops this year, and the demand for freshman seats exceeds supply. Approximately 56% of grade 11 and 12 students are enrolled in advanced coursework and passing. Holyoke continues to open access and actively recruit more students, especially students of color, to participate, so now 87% of students in advanced coursework are Latino/a. Nearly 70 high school seniors are celebrating their graduation from the Early College program.

Inclusion

• HPS continues to champion biliteracy and biculturalism for multilingual students. For example, in the dual language (DL) program, where students learn both English and Spanish, students who are English Learners (ELs) in DL are out-performing their Sheltered English Immersion (SEI) peers. The dual language program continues to grow. More than 750 PreK-8 students, representing over 20% of students, are enrolled in the dual language program, which also expanded to high school in SY23-24. Students who are ELs in DL achieved 11-points greater growth. The number of students who earned the Seal of Biliteracy more than tripled this year, from eight students to 26 students in 2024.

• Students who are English Learners (ELs) are making progress. More than twice as many students (63 in total) exited the English Language Development (ELD program). ELs continue to make progress towards their English proficiency, with more students moving up levels and more students making growth on Access. On the STAR test, the performance gap decreased for ELs and non-ELs who were below grade level achieving accelerated growth. Since the start of receivership, there has been a 23-point increase in graduation rate for ELs.

Whole Child

• A team of teachers, student support staff, and school/district leaders revised the district's multi-tiered system of support (MTSS) plan so that all students can learn and be supported to meet grade-level expectations. 

• HPS is continuing to strengthen the delivery of the social-emotional learning (SEL) curriculum (Trails) in grades K-9 so that students have dedicated time for social-emotional learning, supported by their teachers and counselors.

• The construction of a middle school building for 550-students is well underway. The district broke ground in March, placed the highest steel beam in late June, and is on-track to open fall 2025. It is the culminating effort to move Holyoke from a PreK-8 model to separate elementary and middle schools, with age-appropriate, tailored learning experiences for all students. 

Educator Development

• High-quality professional development for school leaders has provided a strong foundation for increased alignment. Leaders and educators believe that schools are on the path to implementing strong instructional leadership practices, with a focus this year on lesson preparation, planning and data meetings, and academic monitoring in response to feedback. 

• We continue to recruit and retain teachers of color, with an 18-point increase in the percentage of teachers of color, from 13% in 2015 to 31% in 2023. Research shows that, when taught by teachers of color, students of color experience stronger academic performance, improved graduation rates, and are more likely to attend college. 

• More than 500 teachers, former teachers, and leaders shared input into what HPS can do to be a best-fit school district for educators and staff—one in which they can grow professionally, feel supported, and make meaningful impacts on students’ lives. The SY24-25 pilot program aligns teachers’ compensation and hours from PreK-12, provides differentiated professional learning based on experience and skill, and offers additional efforts to improve the school environment for all.

More information about the district's Strategic Plan and related initiatives can be found here.