SCHOOL BOARDS AFFIRM
THEIR RIGHT TO RETAIN LOCAL CONTROL OF GRADUATION
by Jackie Dee King and Larry Ward
MassCARE Coordinators
In a sharp repudiation of the MCAS graduation requirement, delegates to the
Massachusetts Association of School Committees voted overwhelmingly at their
October 30 meeting to affirm their right to grant high school diplomas
regardless of MCAS. The resolution, proposed by the Brookline School Committee,
passed 97-27 after several amendments.
"The big stick of the graduation requirement which holds our school districts
accountable at the expense of individual students is not the most effective or
responsible way to ensure that accountability," said Nancy Erdmann, the
Brookline delegate to the convention. "It creates an underclass of students and
flies in the face of aŠ commitment to equal public education."
Many delegates told of the damage being done to their students and schools by
the MCAS graduation requirement. They spoke of the 12,000 students statewide who
may not get a diploma if the regulation remains in place. They noted the
inadequacy of the state's proposed "solutions" to the problem, such as a long
and difficult appeals process for individual students or the "certificates of
completion" which some students could win but would mean very little in the real
world of colleges and jobs. The delegate from the Swampscott School Committee
presented petitions with 500 signatures supporting the right of school boards to
grant diplomas based on local criteria, not MCAS.
Members of MassCARE, a statewide grassroots organization of parents, teachers,
and students, see the MASC vote as an important stride forward in a multi-step
process to ensure that qualified seniors are able to graduate from high school
next June. MassCARE chapters will be working closely with their local school
boards in the coming months to ensure that local control resolutions are passed,
that their impact is widely discussed and publicized in the communities, and
that the issue is taken to the state Legislature.
"There is definitely strength in numbers, and this overwhelming vote should
embolden these districts and others to move from a symbolic stand to concrete
action," said Lisa Guisbond of Brookline CARE. "If and when the districts move
to follow the lead of Hampshire Regional, Cambridge, Falmouth, and others and to
pledge to grant diplomas next June without regard to MCAS, it will be
politically untenable for the state Department of Education to take punitive
action against them."
Northampton is expected to be one of the first communities to consider taking
the next step and fulfilling the promise of the Brookline resolution. David Kotz,
a member of the Northampton School Committee, said the community will discuss
the issue at an upcoming Nov 13 forum sponsored by the school committee; the
issue will be taken up by the school committee itself on Dec. 12.
Fifty seven school boards from across the state signed on to the Brookline
resolution in the months leading up to the MASC convention. In recent weeks,
urban districts such as Springfield, New Bedford, Leominster, Saugus, and
Quincy, joined the local control initiative.
Comments by selected delegates at the MASC convention:
Bob Gass, a member of the Randolph School Committee and former chair of MASC,
said the current MCAS system is "ill-defined and needs to be stopped until it's
fixed." He blasted the long and difficult appeals process, saying "It makes a
Harvard application look like a piece of cake! It is a political response, not a
kid-based response."
Suzanne Peyton of the Sharon School Committee, asked, "Do they want us to run
the schools? If they want us to run them, give us the tools we need, and let us
make the decision about who deserves to graduate."
Nancy Levine of the Newton School Committee said the state's proposal to rely so
heavily on community colleges to solve all problems for students denied diplomas
because of MCAS is not realistic, given the funding cutbacks and growing class
sizes at community colleges today.
Resolution approved at the 2002 Delegate Assembly of the
Massachusetts Association of School
Committees:
Whereas the
Massachusetts Education Reform law calls for the use of a comprehensive
assessment system, not a single test, for determining academic competency; and
Whereas the
Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System (MCAS) test does not adequately
support the different styles of learning, communication or student performance;
and
Whereas making a
single standardized test a requirement for graduation or grade promotion is not
educationally justified; and
Whereas
the Massachusetts Association of School Committees has expressed its continued
opposition to the use of the MCAS test as a graduation requirement; and
Whereas the
Department of Education has put forth a policy that would deny high school
diplomas to students who fail the MCAS test regardless of their other academic
achievements and competencies;
Therefore be it resolved that MASC reaffirms its commitment to education
reform and calls for a moratorium on the use of MCAS as a graduation requirement
pending the resolution of issues identified in the Delegate Assembly resolutions
of 2000 and 2001;
Be it further
resolved that MASC asserts that local school committees should have the right to
grant high school diplomas to all students who meet their school districts'
requirements for graduation and who have demonstrated competency
in a common core of skills measured by a variety of assessment
instruments.
School Districts listed are the Official Co-Sponsors of the
MCAS Resolution, submitted to the Mass. Association of School Committees, May,
2002
-
Brookline School Committee - Submitting
School Committee
-
Amherst-Pelham Regional School Committee
-
Arlington School Committee
-
Ashland School Committee
-
Montachusett Regional Vocational Technical
School Committee
-
Northampton School Committee
-
Old Colony Regional Vocational Technical
School Committee
-
Pathfinder Regional Vocational Technical
School Committee
-
Sharon School Committee
-
Somerville School Committee
-
Swampscott School Committee
-
Wayland School Committee
Listed below are the School Districts that were the
official supporters as of October 12, 2002, (approved after the May submission
date)
-
Amesbury School Committee
-
Assabet Valley Regional Vocational School
Committee
-
Bedford School Committee
-
Berlin School Committee
-
Boylston School Committee
-
Berlin-Boylston Regional School Committee
-
Cape Cod Regional Vocational Technical
School Committee
-
Carlisle School Committee
-
Clinton School Committee
-
Easton School Committee
-
Erving School Committee
-
Franklin County Regional
Vocational/Technical School Committee
-
Frontier Valley Regional and Union #38
School Committee
-
Greater Lowell Vocational School Committee
-
Holbrook School Committee
-
Hudson School Committee
-
Leominister School Committee
-
Lincoln Sudbury School Committee
-
Melrose School Committee
-
Nantucket School Committee
-
Needham School Committee
-
New Bedford School Committee
-
Newton School Committee
-
Norfolk County Agricultural School Board
of Trustees
-
Norwood School Committee
-
Saugus School Committee
-
Southeastern Regional Vocational School
Committee
-
Shawsheen Valley School Committee
-
South Middlesex Regional Vocational School
Committee
-
Springfield School Committee
-
Tri-County Regional Vocational School
Committee
-
Truro School Committee
-
Wakefield School Committee
-
Ware School Committee
-
Wareham School Committee
-
Winchendon School Committee
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