MCAS

I support meaningful standards of educational achievement, which every student must demonstrate in order to graduate from high school. I also support measurable standards by which we may judge whether or not our public schools are delivering a quality education. The MCAS test purports to measure those two goals, but the Department of Education has created a system that does neither one particularly well.

A statewide standard test may be useful, but it is not appropriate to prohibit students who have demonstrated academic proficiency from graduating simply because they do not pass the MCAS. I support using a statewide standard test to allow students to demonstrate a higher level of learning, similar to the New York state Regents exam, but which is not a barrier to graduation.

The MCAS was created in the wake of the Education Reform Act, which mandates curriculum standards for all students. I have some concerns about particular details of the curriculum standards, but support their general application.

State law requires that the standards of achievement be measurable: "The system shall employ a variety of assessment instruments... As much as is practicable, especially in the case of students whose performance is difficult to assess using conventional methods, such instruments shall include consideration of work samples, projects and portfolios, and shall facilitate authentic and direct gauges of student performance."

The law requires a "variety of assessment instruments." The law further requires standard tests in the fourth, eighth and tenth grades. The DoE instead mandates that all students pass the MCAS test in order to graduate, regardless of proficiency demonstrated through the other means noted. I support using a "variety of assessment instruments" to measure learning, not simply the MCAS instrument.

I am particularly concerned that schools are teaching to the test and that they are reducing the amount of time spent on real learning. The emphasis on the test is shortchanging many students of an opportunity to learn more.

The MCAS is used to measure not just students but school systems, also. A test designed to measure learning by individuals cannot do a good job of comparing school systems where student bodies are disparate. The students in a low income, linguistically diverse community will likely arrive at kindergarten with lower levels of academic preparation than the students in a wealthy community. Some of the districts with the greater educational challenges will achieve more in their classroom learning, on average, than the students in a wealthier community by the time of their graduation. The MCAS test results may show higher scores for the wealthier district given the head start and continuing support their community's wealth gives them, but it does not necessarily measure the in-class education that MCAS supporters purport the test demonstrates.

I have no doubt that some students, especially in poorer school district, are being taught more rigorously because of the MCAS test. I am glad to see the extra attention to those students. I fear that we will lose entirely other students in those same districts whose scores are very low and who will drop out rather than spend their time in class spinning their wheels.

Additional points:

1. The emphasis on MCAS is especially inappropriate for students in vocational programs. We should insist the voke ed students be properly educated, but it is counter to the purpose of voke ed to have those students pass the same MCAS test when they spend half of their class time in vocational programs that are unrelated to the curriculum standards. If you think the MCAS test is appropriate for mainstream high school students then it is likely to be inappropriate for voke ed students; or if you think it is appropriate for voke ed students then it is likely too easy for students spending all of their class time in a program geared toward the curriculum standards.
2. The MCAS does not do a good job of measuring achievement by special education students or linguistic minorities.
3. The test takes too much time to administer. I support suspending the MCAS as a graduation requirement and support the use of a statewide test to demonstrate higher levels of learning by students.