Talking Points In Opposition to the MCAS High School Graduation Requirement

We support high standards and accountability, but we oppose the use of a single test to make high-stakes decisions about students or schools. We support legislation that would replace the current MCAS tests with a comprehensive assessment system which requires assessments at the state, district and school levels, but, most immediately, we urge support for legislation that would end the use of the MCAS tests to determine which students may graduate from high school.

We have come to this conclusion for one simple reason: 

It is wrong to limit the life opportunities of so many young people based on the results of a single test.  It is bad for these students, it is bad for our society and it is bad for education.

1.  Bad for Students - it is wrong and it is unfair:

A.  No single test can accurately measure what a student knows and can do.

¨      School Committee members, the assessment community, the testing industry and most educators believe that high-stakes decisions should be made based on multiple measures, not a single test.

¨      The original Education Reform Act of 1993 called for multiple assessments. The Board of Education has misinterpreted the law by voting to rely on a single test.

¨      “One Size Does NOT Fit All.”  Many students, who have met the standards, cannot show they have met the standard through the use of a standardized test, such as the MCAS.  The appeals process and repeated taking of the test is not an answer for these students.  The MCAS alone is an inappropriate and inequitable way to measure competency for many students.

B.  Students have not had an adequate opportunity to learn the material on which they are being tested.   

¨      The standards themselves have only been in effect for a few years.  Even in the best-case scenario where the school district immediately implemented the curriculum based upon the frameworks, students would have had, at most, six years of study under the new standards.  The vast majority of students who are required to pass the MCAS to receive a diploma in 2003 have been taught following a curriculum that meets the new standards for less than half of their time in school. 

¨      The results of the MCAS tests have consistently shown that parental income is the most important determination of how students will do on the test.  Despite the investment of education reform monies, many schools serving low-income students still do not have the resources they need to ensure that all of their students have the same advantages as those in more affluent school districts.  The McDuffy decision held that the state is constitutionally required to provide adequate resources to our public schools to ensure that all students have the opportunity to learn; the plaintiffs (now Hancock) are back in court to enforce the 1993 decision.  It is unfair to punish students for the failure of our education finance system.

¨      Private, parochial and home-schooled students in Massachusetts are not required to take the MCAS in order to graduate from high school.  They will be able to attend our public colleges while those public school students who have not passed MCAS will be prohibited from attending a public college or university.

2.  Bad for Society - Too High a Cost
 

¨      More than ten thousand seniors have yet to pass the MCAS and are at risk of not graduating. Their opportunities are in jeopardy, including their ability to get a decent paying job, serve in the military or go on to higher education at a public institution. The cost to society will be high with costs for public assistance and other programs to help those who cannot support themselves, as well as a resulting loss in tax revenues.

¨      Drop out rates have already increased in many of our districts and more and more students will be lost if we continue high stakes testing.

¨      In these tough fiscal times, the cost to the state and local school districts to develop and administer this test is very high: over $12 million will be spent by the state this year on test administration alone, not counting the $50 million in MCAS remediation funds.  Local costs are staggering and are not reimbursed. 

¨      School districts may now be required to continue to provide education services to those who have not yet passed the MCAS, including many special education students.   The cost of these additional students to our local schools could be tens of millions of dollars a year, beginning in the fall of 2003.

3.  Bad for Education:
 

Too much emphasis on a test is having a negative impact on the quality of education

¨      Many teachers report that they have had to eliminate or limit innovative, in-depth, inquiry-based teaching methods in favor of content “coverage” in order to prepare students for the MCAS.

¨      The tests, and preparing students for them, take up valuable class time that otherwise could be spent on quality education.

¨      MCAS is NOT education, it is simply a measure--and not a very good one--of whether or not some students have met the state standard. Some teachers find MCAS useful for diagnosing curriculum and instruction strategies, but the vast majority believe using this test as the ultimate measurement of a student’s 12 years in school is inappropriate, inequitable and, given the current failure rate, immoral.

The MCAS graduation requirement should be repealed immediately, before the futures of these young people are irrevocably destroyed.