Ladies and Gentleman of the Joint Committee on Education:

My name is Rick Scharf and I am a 7th grade science teacher at the Ottoson Middle School in Arlington. I am here to state my opposition to any and all uses of the MCAS exam to measure student achievement (including its use as a graduation requirement), to measure the quality of education of a school or the competency of teachers. I support any bills before the legislature, which call for the immediate halt of such usage. 

The 1993 Massachusetts Education Reform Act called for “a variety of assessment instruments,” and states that, “such instruments shall include consideration of work samples, projects and portfolios, and shall facilitate authentic and direct gauges of student performance.” Instead, education reform has been undermined by
the insistence on the use of a single, inaccurate measuring tool. Parents have been cheated, and the effect on students’ self worth and motivation to learn has been irreversibly an immeasurably damaged. Teacher’s ability to teach, and their desire to enter or remain in the profession has been compromised. We as a Commonwealth have
shamed ourselves by allowing this to happen. 

Supporters of standardized tests claim that the MCAS has been necessary to determine which schools are succeeding and which students are in need of additional support. From someone in the field of education, this idea is absurd. 

It is clear that schools which have scored highest on the MCAS and other standardized tests nationwide have been schools with smaller class sizes, more books and supplies, better access to technology, more teachers with advanced degrees and fewer teachers teaching out of their primary subject areas. In this regard MCAS has proven to be a better measurement of average family income of the district rather than the quality of education
provided.

While additional funding is not the magical elixir, which solves the problems of all schools, a fair, objective comparison of students in inner city and suburban schools cannot begin until resources are equalized. 

The incentive plan tying school funding to increased test scores not only serves to withhold aid to the schools that need it most, but forces even successful schools to alter curriculum, abandon creative methods of classroom instruction in favor of quiz style drilling, and focuses student time away from subjects which don’t directly improve test scores such as physical education, art, music and foreign languages. 

Proponents of the MCAS have claimed that this test measures whether students are prepared for the world that awaits them upon graduation. I disagree. I’ve had a quote from Albert Einstein on my board at school, which my students have enjoyed. “Not everything that counts, is counted and not everything that is counted, counts.” 

A partial list of the things are not counted by MCAS include effort, creativity, critical thinking, motivation, ambition, perseverance, humor, attitude, reliability, politeness, enthusiasm, civic mindedness, artistic ability, musical talent, athletic skill, self-awareness, self-discipline, respect for themselves and others, empathy and
leadership. These are things that both teachers and parents try to develop within their children. These are things that employers and colleges look for. And these are things that help students to become active, responsible citizens as well as happy, well-adjusted, successful adults.

I will have spent 8640 hours with each of my 115 students this year. I have assessed my students using homework assignments, chemistry and biology labs, team projects, individualized research papers, models and classroom presentations as well as quizzes and tests. I’ve used this wide variety of assessments to determine their strengths, and target areas where they need improvement. This is the purpose of assessment. Tests don’t motivate students, caring teachers and parents motivate students. If you want to know what they’ve learned this year, look at a portfolio of their work. If you want to categorize, label, standardize and demean them, give them the MCAS exam. 

Thank you.