Boston Herald

March 7, 2003

To the Editor:
It is horrifying to me as a parent of two teenage public school
students, that the Department of Education is juggling MCAS results and
claiming "progress". Only the most cynical could celebrate this
Pyrrhic victory. Commissioner Driscoll holds up results that look good
only because he has thrown away the numbers that reflect the ugly
truth: the students who, after failing the test in 1999, have dropped
out over the last four years have been carved out of the numbers that
make up the class of 2003, making the ratio of passing students look
wildly better. If the DOE counted all Boston students who started high
school with the original class in the count, the pass rate for the city
today would be only 48%.

Where did kids who drop out go? Back to their neighborhoods, with no
diploma, scant skills, and only a the barest toe-hold on a future. The
problem - kids falling through the cracks - does not go away as easily
as Mr. Driscoll would have us believe.

Who are the kids who have failed? Disproportionately, they are poor,
they are minority, they live in cities, they have special needs. Our
public education underserves and marginalizes these children with or
without MCAS. But to deny them diplomas on the basis of MCAS, the DOE
deals them a crowning blow. I do not think this is cause for
celebration. And I certainly don't think that the Commissioner should
be sweeping these kids under the rug.

The MCAS is a simplistic cheap-out that does not work to improve
schools. The DOE is using this test to cut children out and leave them
behind.

Ann Haycox
Cambridge, MA