Contact your legislators today and set up a meeting! Urge them to: 

End the use of MCAS as a graduation requirement! Replace MCAS with fair and authentic assessments!

It’s up to us to tell our legislators we are not fooled by the state’s claims that MCAS is a brilliant success when so many students are left behind. We must urge them to hold a hearing and pass legislation this spring which clarifies and reaffirms the original intent of the 1993 Education Reform Act, calling  for multiple forms of assessment of student and school progress, not one single high-stakes paper-and-pencil exam.

Here is a legislative tool kit for you and your chapter to use as you contact your state representatives and senators. These materials were compiled by member organizations of the Alliance for High Standards, Not High Stakes in preparation for a thoughtful and informative legislative forum at the State House on February 11, 2003, attended by more than 120 people including 80 legislators and aides.

Now is the time for MassCARE members and friends—parents, teachers, students, and other concerned citizens—in chapters across the state to follow up and make sure our legislators understand what’s at stake for the future of our children and schools. Remind them that many school committees feel so strongly about this issue that they have passed or are considering resolutions stating their intention to grant diplomas, regardless of MCAS.

We include a list of members of the Joint Committee on Education. If your representative is a committee member, it is critical that they hear from you and your neighbors. We also include the text of the resolution passed by the Mass. Association of School Committees. Legislators take notice when they hear that a school committee in their district has passed a resolution saying they should retain their historic right to grant diplomas.