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Report from Cambridge School Committee
Meeting.
Dear MassParents/Cambridge CARE,
We had a great turnout at the School Committee meeting last night! About 40
people came to support either the anti-MCAS or anti-Unz initiatives. About 20
parents, teachers, and students presented compelling and diverse testimony
describing the damage the MCAS is doing to education and the danger it poses to
the 47 percent of last year's tenth graders who have not passed. We called upon
the school board to assert that Cambridge will continue to award diplomas based
on local graduation requirements and regardless of MCAS scores.
School Committee member Alan Price has submitted such a resolution, and
both Alice Turkel and Nancy Walser publicly supported it last night. (Alice was
quite forceful and eloquent in her remarks about the need for Cambridge to
follow this course.) One or two other members also seem open to considering it.
The Mayor has already asked for a legal opinion on the resolution, which is
expected to be sent to the school board members in the next few days.
The diploma-granting issue will be a formal agenda item at the School
Committee meeting on Tuesday February 26. So please mark this date on your
calendars and be prepared to come! (This is a great chance for those of you who
were not able to make it last night. The more different voices they hear, the
better.)
Many thanks to Josiane Hudicourt-Barnes, Alex Grabiner, Sara Freedman,
Nancy Alech, Andrew King, Larry Ward, Monty Neill, Nella LaRosa-Waters, Judy
Housman, Julie Craven, Larry Aaronson, Jonathan King, Gerry Bergman, Marla
Erlien, Emma Lang, Jackie King, Cheryl Kennedy, and others who spoke in our
support. (Sorry we did not get all the names.)
A number of parents, teachers, and students also spoke in opposition to the
Unz ballot initiative, which would essentially end bilingual education in
Massachusetts and open teachers and school committees to lawsuits for which they
would be personally liable (if a native language was spoken in a classroom).
Programs like those at the Amigos would be illegal under the new law. In an
encouraging display of unity, many people who were at the meeting to testify on
one issue also expressed their support for the other issue.
The School Dept reported at length on the MCAS scores. Once again, the
reports and tables did not always clearly state the alarming nature of the
situation in Cambridge. One key fact is that 47 percent of 11th graders, some
225 juniors, are currently at risk of being prevented from graduating because of
MCAS. (This includes both those students who failed one or both of the math or
English sections of the MCAS, and those students who did not take the test. Most
in the latter category are immigrant students who were temporarily exempt
because they have been in the country for less than three years, but will be
required to take it eventually in order to graduate. Those students will have to
face this difficult test with the added language barrier.) Another disturbing
but not surprising trend (given the discriminatory nature of the test and who
gets punished for the inequities in the society) was the stark achievement gap
between racial and economic groups, a gap which widens as the students get
older.
Our position is that the MCAS test does not carry out the intent of the Ed
Reform Act, which calls for multiple assessments of competency for the
frameworks curricula. The School Committee should continue to oversee the
granting of diplomas to those who meet CRLS criteria and standards, which are
quite high. The final issue may be arbitrated by the courts or by the
legislature, but should not be left to the discretion of the pro-MCAS,
pro-privatization, nine- member State Board of Education. More detailed
arguments were laid out in the letter to the school committee sent out to this
list on Tuesday. For more information, or to get involved, please
contact: tplenk@igc.org or
jackieking@mediaone.net
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