Boston City Council Hearing on the MCAS Graduation Requirement

Testimony of Steve Fernandez
 Teacher, Boston Latin High School


Before I can begin my testimony let me tell let you about a problem that I have.  You see, I was trying to type up my speech on my laptop, but my laptop is not functioning properly.  So I take my laptop to a repairman named Dr. Payzant.  I tell Dr. Payzant, my repairman, about the problems with my laptop.  He checks it out and tells me that the problem is my writing, and that he will give me three chances to improve, or he will take away my laptop.  My laptop still doesn¹t work, I can¹t write using my laptop, and my repairman, Dr. Payzant, takes away my computer.

Suppose this was your laptop, and suppose you hired a repairman like Dr. Payzant to fix your laptop.  And suppose that repairman, rather than fixing your laptop, tried to take it from you.  What would you tell that repairman? .  .  .  .  You¹d tell him to go to hell.  .   .   .   Well, Dr. Payzant is that repairman.  We hired him to fix are schools, and now what is he telling us?

You see, what we need here tonight is a paradigm shift.  Who¹s schools are these?
They are not Superintendent Payzant¹s schools, they are not Martha Pierce ­ the Mayor¹s education liaison¹s schools, they are not Mayor Menino¹s schools, they are not Chief Operating Officer Michael Contompasis¹ schools.  Who¹s schools are these?  .   .   .  They are our schools. Do you remember what Frederick Douglass said?  He said "The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress." Will we cede control of our schools to someone who is not acting in the best interests of our children, or will we take ownership of our schools again. Superintendent Payzant, Martha Pierce, Mayor Menino, Michael Contompasis are our employees. If they are not doing the job we hired them to do, what should we do?  .   .   .

I have a question for Dr. Payzant.  Dr. Payzant, do you remember this document? ((Hold up "Focus on Children))

This is the Boston Public School Policy Program for 1996 through 2001.  Do you remember what it say in "Focus on Children" about student assessment?  You should, you are one of the authors of this document.  Let me read it for you.  It says that standardized tests will be used in the "interim" (Page 19).  In addition it states:

"Over time the Boston Public Schools assessment system will incorporate multiple measures of academic assessment with an increased emphasis on using performance assessments" (Page 19)

What performance assessments?  "Focus on Children" states:

"Performance assessments include, for example, position papers, letters, and research papers: debates, biographical projects, student-conducted research surveys; science lab reports, traditional science projects, and oral presentations.  In mathematics, examples include writing word problems and solutions starting from numerical representations." (Page 20)

Dr. Payzant, what happened to multiple measures of assessment?  Dr. Payzant, wasn¹t this policy still in effect in 2001, when the students of the Class of 2003 took their first MCAS test? Or was "Focus on Children" with its references to multiple forms of assessment, and "enabling all students to achieve high levels of performance" just another piece of  .   .   .   work?

Dr. Payzant, I have another question for you.  If you claim to hold high standards for all students, why has the BPS lowered its goals for the percentages of students expected to pass the MCAS by 2003?  Why did these goals drop from 99% to down to 70%?

I have a question for you?
((Point to a student))

Do you know what the BPS goal is for the percentages of students like you to pass the MCAS? .   .   .   Well if you are a Hispanic or Black senior, the BPS goal is that 70 to 80% of you pass Math section of the MCAS and 80 to 90% of you to pass the English section, but if you are White or Asian, the BPS goal is that 95 to 100% of you pass both the Math and English sections of the MCAS.  The BPS sets high goals for White and Asian students than for Black and Hispanic students.  What do you call that? .   .   .

Finally, I want to address the intentionally misleading data put out by the BPS.  The BPS claims that 78% of students have passed the MCAS and that they have made progress in closing the achievement gap.  But, the numbers they present ignore students who have dropped out of school.  Well, I¹ve looked at the numbers of students who began in the Class of 2003 as ninth graders, and I found that the pass rates were as follows:
51% of Black students
58% of White students
84% of Asian students
42% of Hispanic students

That is, about half the students who entered the Class of 2003 in the ninth grade will not get a high school diploma. Even in the worst days of high dropout rates in the 1980¹s,more students graduated with high school diplomas.   The Mayor¹s education liaison, Martha Pierce, states that students from the Class of 2003 may have moved out of the district or may be getting home schooling.  Come on!  What percentage of students, particularly Black and Hispanic students in Boston, are getting home schooled?  Martha, stop the lies.  78% of the original Class of 2003 has not passed the MCAS.  About half of the students who began in the Class of 2003 in the ninth grade are not going to graduate this June.  Stop your lies! ! !

I have a question for you Martha, and for your boss, the Mayor.  The Democratic National convention is coming to Boston in the year 2004.  With half of the senior classes on the streets, out of school and without a job because they haven¹t passed the MCAS, what do you think it will be like during the Democratic National Convention?  Tell your boss, Mayor Menino, that he has some homework to do.