Legal issues are usually decided by courts, not by newspapers.  So it came as a surprise to read in the May 22 Chronicle that the School Committee had decided "to illegally grant diplomas to high school seniors who fail the MCAS test" (article by Robert Greene, "The People vs. MCAS).   In fact it is the State Department of Education, not the Cambridge School Committee, that is violating the spirit and perhaps the letter of the 1993 Education Reform Act.

That Act states that the system for determining academic competencies " shall employ a variety of assessment instruments . as much as is practicable, especially in the case of students whose performance is difficult to assess using conventional methods, such instruments shall include consideration of work samples, projects and portfolios, and shall facilitate authentic and direct gauges of student performance."

This language from the Act was cited by the School Committee in justifying their brave and timely resolution to stand up for Cambridge students who pass all requirements for graduation but "fail" the MCAS test. I put "fail" in quotation marks because the standard for passing MCAS is arbitrary, and in fact has shifted several times since its inception, as the State Department of Education attempts to dictate curriculum while avoiding the political backlash that would result from "failing" huge numbers of middle-class students.  The result of this politically motivated maneuvering is that the main burden of "failure" will fall on African-American, Hispanic, special-needs, vocational, and
English-as-second-language students.

 The educational damage done by the MCAS test is enormous.  The very name of the test is a lie, since is it is not a "comprehensive assessment system" as mandated by law, but a narrow curriculum-driven test developed by private companies and imposed on Massachusetts schools with no input from teachers.  The heavy time demands of the test are very disruptive, but even worse is the pressure on teachers and administrators to abandon successful and innovative courses and curricula in order to concentrate on narrow "test prep".

But the worst is yet to come, as tens of thousands of next year's high school seniors, including nearly a third of incoming Cambridge Rindge and Latin School seniors, face denial of their diplomas due to failure to pass MCAS, in particular the math portion.

Anyone who still supports the use of MCAS should check out the 10th grade math test, available on the web at www.doe.mass.edu/mcas.  The test covers such topics as: "nth roots of positive real numbers, reciprocal, quadratic, and exponential functions, Fibonacci numbers, transversals of coplanar lines, lateral area and volumeof prisms, pyramids, cylinders, and cones, and iterative and recursive functional relations."

 Look over the test and decide honestly if you could pass it - it's a safe bet that most adults, including many professionals and elected officials, would have a hard time with it.  It's certainly good to know this stuff, but it's hardly essential for success in most walks of life.  So how fair is it to deny a diploma to a student who has passed all his/her classes, may be outstanding in drama, music, or athletics, but misses the math MCAS by one point?

 Boston School Superintendent Thomas Payzant, who has been an MCAS supporter, now feels that 2003 may be "too early to require that students pass the math section in order to graduate." (Boston Herald, April 25, 2002).  Since 40% of Boston's class of 2003 has "failed" both test and retest, he has reason to be concerned.  With even MCAS enthusiasts getting cold feet about the upcoming social devastation resulting from diploma denial, it's clearly time for responsible educators to follow the Cambridge School Committee's lead in rejecting MCAS as a graduation requirement.

 Sincerely,

 Jonathan Harris