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CAMBRIDGE VOTES FOR MCAS-FREE
DIPLOMAS
In a responsible effort to uphold the law and protect students, the Cambridge
School Committee
voted 4 to 3 Tuesday night to continue awarding diplomas to high school seniors
who meet local
graduation requirements, regardless of their MCAS scores.
After serious deliberations on the possible consequences of their action, the
school board
voted for a strong resolution, submitted by School Committee member Alan Price,
to protect the
students in the class of 2003 and beyond, who face possible denial of a diploma
solely on the basis
of a single, paper-and-pencil, standardized test designed by a distant company
in Texas.
School board members Alan Price, Richard Harding, Alice Turkel, and Nancy Walser
voted in favor of
the resolution; board members Fred Fantini, Joe Grassi, and Michael Sullivan
voted against it.
"We are confident that we are upholding the 1993 Education Reform Act," Alan
Price said. "Agencies
sometimes overstep their bounds and set forth regulations that do not conform to
the law. When
that happens, it is our responsibility to follow the law as best as we can."
Price told the committee Tuesday that it was essential that its members act this
spring, rather
than next year, because the MCAS exam is hurting students now. "Many are
becoming discouraged and
talking about dropping out," he noted. "They need to know that someone is coming
to their defense.
With this vote, we are trying to communicate to the state that this is a serious
and urgent
situation. We hope to open a dialogue with the Department of Education. We hope
that eventually
they will do the right thing and the regulation will change."
School board member Alice Turkel stressed that Cambridge was not voting for a
two-tier diploma
system such as the "certificates of completion" proposed by the state, which
would be given to
students who completed local courses but did not pass the MCAS. Under the
statešs plan, they would
not be considered high school graduates. "The two-tiered system would be class-
and race-based," she said. "It would be demeaning to our students."
More than 70 Cambridge parents, teachers, and students gathered at Cambridge
Rindge and Latin
High School to support Pricešs resolution. Eighteen speakers presented informed,
eloquent
testimony about the damage the MCAS -- and, in particular, the graduation
requirement -- is
doing to students and schools. Paul Toner, president of the Cambridge Teachers
Association,
presented a petition signed by more than 100 teachers in support of the
resolution.
Cambridge is the second school committee in the state to pass such a resolution
(and the first
larger, urban community to do so). The 18-member Hampshire Regional school board
unanimously passed
a similar measure last October, and has stood firmly by its decision in the face
of a
threatening letter from Education Commissioner Driscoll. A number of other
school boards are
actively considering diploma-granting resolutions, including Brookline,
Somerville, Northampton,
Amherst, Falmouth, Danvers, and others who are not yet ready to speak publicly.
At the end of the four-hour heated meeting Tuesday, Price said, "We have to show
that our
School Committee has the courage and the will to stand up for what we believe is
right At one time,
many people said that segregation was legal too."
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