To grant or not to grant
School Committee considers issuing diplomas despite MCAS
By MICHELLE XIARHOS
STAFF WRITER
http://www.townonline.com/metro/brookline/education/36173304.htm

Fearful about the legal implications that granting high school diplomas despite MCAS scores might bring, the School Committee Thursday night outlined a cautious two-step offensive in the war on the state-mandated graduation requirement.

" We are at the point of considering our next steps, because there will be more than just one, " said School Committee Chairman Marcia Heist.

The Brookline School Committee has decided to first draft a resolution to the Massachusetts Association of School Committees restating their longstanding opposition to the MCAS, while also reaffirming a community’s right to grant diplomas based on local requirements. Unlike the Cambridge School Committee — which voted 4-3 on April 23 to grant high school diplomas to students even if they do not pass the MCAS — Brookline is taking a more methodical approach.

" We’ve already condemned the graduation requirement, but we need to go a step further, " said Heist. " We need right now to be clear that what we’ve done before isn’t working. "

The resolution must be signed by four other Massachusetts school committees — one of which must be from another part of the state — by July to be automatically considered for passage at the regular meeting of the organization, which will take place in late October. Though disagreements arose as to the exact wording of the resolution, the Committee plans to have a draft ready for their May 9 meeting.

Heist said this week that should four other communities not sign on to the resolution, it can still be brought forth if the MASC resolutions committee determines it has enough merit.

" I suspect we will not have difficulty getting other communities to sign on, " Heist said.

" I’m very happy that you’re deliberating on the resolution, " said Brookline Educators Association President Philip Katz at last week’s School Committee meeting. But, he cautioned, the sooner the better.

The School Committee’s second step, said Heist, would be to then to publicly announce their intention to grant diplomas regardless of MCAS scores.

" We may decide to take the next step, " said Heist. " And we’ll all go to jail together, " she said jokingly.

In the meantime, School Committee Vice-Chairman Kevin Lang, through the Board of Selectmen, said the School Committee asked Town Counsel David Turner last month to come up with the strongest possible legal argument for granting local diplomas, a step some people think is not necessarily worth taking.

" I think you’re overcomplicating the situation a bit, " said Eliot Street resident Ruth Kaplan, co-chair of Brookline CARE, an anti-MCAS group. " We’re not going to get absolute clarity on the law at this point. "

Kaplan, who was present during the Cambridge decision, publicly proposed that the School Committee pass a local control resolution on March 7.

" We’ve exhausted all the other remedies this democracy affords us, " Kaplan said at last week’s meeting. Kaplan called the Cambridge decision " thrilling " and said, " It was democracy in action. "

" We’re not as thrilling as Cambridge. We’re just not, " remarked School Committee member Susan Senator at one point during the meeting.

School Committee members said they have been considering local control long before it was publicly proposed.

Superintendent of Schools Dr. Richard Silverman, who did not comment on the issue at last week’s School Committee meeting, could not be reached for comment at press time. In a telephone interview the day after the meeting, Kaplan said that though school officials are moving in the right direction, she wished they’d done more.

" I have to be honest. I was also disappointed that they’re not doing the kind of thing they’re doing in Cambridge, " she said.  Cambridge was the second Massachusetts community to pass a local control resolution. The first, Hampshire Regional, decided to grant diplomas despite students’ MCAS scores last October. The Department of Education has stated that these diplomas will be worthless.

" Some people think the DOE is breaking the law, " said School Committee member Dori Stern. Kaplan agreed and said that " There is such a strong argument that the DOE is acting beyond the scope of their authority. " Kaplan told School Committee members that there are children at Brookline High that have already been harmed by the high-stakes exam. Some kids have failed twice, she said. According to the most recent figures from the DOE, 13 percent of Brookline High School students still have not passed the high-stakes exam. " The School Committees in Massachusetts can be the MCAS heroes, " Kaplan said. " We’d love to be the hero, " said School Committee member Fred Wang during the meeting. " But we’re talking about playing chicken with a group who’s clearly willing to play chicken. I need to consider what the consequences of playing chicken are. "

School Committee members are not only worried about what a diploma based only on local graduation requirements might mean for students, they are also considering the possibility of the loss of state funding. " We are considering legal implications even if the answer is ‘we have no idea,’ " said Heist.

Others concerned about MCAS too asked the School Committee to make a move towards asserting local control over the granting of diplomas.

" It behooves you as a committee for one of the better schools in Massachusetts to do something about this, " said Stanley Wayne, a Precinct 11 Town Meeting member.

" I hope that you will take action as soon as possible, as loudly as possible, as symbolically as possible, " said Clint Richmond, whose daughter Erica was one of eight Brookline High School sophomores who boycotted the MCAS last month.

Senator said that she wanted the School Committee to try to not " chicken out " and to remember the most important aspect of the situation. " We don’t want children to be denied graduation unfairly, " she said. Heist indicated that a School Committee decision on whether or not to grant diplomas based on local requirements was in the near future.

" We are not going to take forever to do this, " she said.