MCAS a disaster, not a success

By ANN COURTNEY, parent of a graduating Northampton High School senior, a Northampton School Committee representative and an associate professor of reading and language arts at the University of Hartford.

I write first as a mother of a high-stakes baby. Yes, my daughter passed MCAS on her first try at Northampton High School, but some of her friends didn't. Secondly, I write as the elected representative from Ward 2 to the Northampton School Committee. And finally I write as a professional educator. The Gazette claims in its March 5 editorial that the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System is a success story. A success story for whom?

Is it a success story for white students of means who live in the tony suburbs? It certainly is not a success story for the poor inner-city student.

Taxpayers rejoice as 90 percent of the state's high school senior population has passed MCAS, but what about the 10 percent of student who haven't passed? MCAS has proven an unattainable hurdle to 1 in 4 black students, 1 in 3 Hispanic students, 1 in 3 English language learners and 1 in 3 special education students. Poor, working class, minority, immigrant and learning disabled students are being asked just to get jobs because they are not going to be awarded high school diplomas. Some districts will implement a two-tiered system of diplomas, stigmatizing those students who cannot pass this standardized assessment.

Colleges regard MCAS as meaningless. Colleges in states other than Massachusetts refuse to play the role of MCAS police. One admission officer recently told me, "We have students from all 50 states and various countries. We are interested in SATs, class rank, grades and essays, not any state assessment."

Nonetheless, the federal government is even considering withholding financial aid from any student who does not pass the MCAS. Denial of financial assistance is yet another obstacle for low-income students seeking greater opportunities. It does not affect students of privilege, whose parents can afford higher education.

Researchers Audrey Amrein and David Berliner concluded unequivocally that the "implementation of high school graduation exams results in a decrease in academic achievement (as measured by independent tests such as the Advanced Placement exams and SATs)." The same research has shown that high-stakes testing also tends to narrow the rich curriculum available to children. Tom Williamson, a former president of one of the big test publishers, said recently, "We test what's easy to measure, not necessarily what's important." The 1993 Education Reform Act required multiple measures of assessment to demonstrate competency. Nowhere did state law authorize a single measure assessment.

Do MCAS scores tell us that more students are getting a better education today than they did 10 years ago, as the Gazette claims? Or do these scores suggest that students worked many hours in test prep classes and got better at taking standardized assessments?

Are our schools becoming so focused on the test that they turn our schools into test-prep sessions? It would be interesting to learn how many hours of test prep the students in the commonwealth spent drilling on insignificant information in order to pass MCAS. MCAS camps have been held in the summer, and before and after school, and on Saturdays.

The MCAS resolution passed by the Northampton School Committee does not "devalue" students' diplomas. The diploma awarded to every Northampton graduate signifies that the student met Northampton's requirements for graduation. The resolution also allows for a certificate to every student who has met the education department's so called "competency determination" based on MCAS.

Although students who did well on MCAS deserve credit, there is no reason to connect good MCAS performance with a diploma since I believe MCAS is not an educationally sound graduation requirement. Furthermore Northampton never had an "everyone graduates" mentality.

The State of Massachusetts and the Department of Education have enacted yet
another mandate for local school districts for which it has not provided adequate funding to enable us to achieve our goal of competency for every student.

In summary, although I am opposed to high-stakes MCAS testing that is used to punish individual students and deny them diplomas, I would support state testing that is used for school, student, and program improvement. MCAS serves well as a diagnostic instrument pointing out gaps in curricula and identifying underachieving students.

Massachusetts has had a long history of success in its locally controlled public education system. While we have experienced a few bumps in the road, educators throughout the state realize that we need to set high standards for all our students and we must continue to improve the education that is made available to them. Since local citizens pay for the majority of resources that are provided, I believe that it is only logical that they remain in control of the important decisions that affect the education of the children in our community.