Comments of Peggy A. Wiesenberg
Before the Joint Committee on Education
June 20, 2001

I am the parent of three children, two in the Boston Public schools
(BPS) and one graduate of the BPS who took and passed MCAS (scoring
in level 4) before there were high stakes. I am on the Board of
Directors for Citywide Parents Council and a member of Boston's
Coalition for Authentic Reform of Education. I lobbied for the passage
of the Education Reform Act of 1993.

As a parent who uses the public schools and as a taxpayer and as a
voter, I think that the Commonwealth's use of MCAS is doing more harm
than good to the lives and future prospects of our children.

I believe that high quality, integrated public education is the key
to a democratic society and civic participation by all members of the
population. When the General Court passed the Education Reform Act,
we expected the Act to open opportunities for students in less
affluent school districts - not to create barriers.

We never intended state and local school officials to reduce Ed
Reform to the creation of a "testocracy." We never intended to have
students to take a myriad of standardized tests each spring starting
in grade 3. We never intended to have youngsters sorted by test
score: giving high-scoring students access to advanced classes and
state colleges, and relegating low-scoring students to classrooms,
schools, and summer programs that focus on basic drill and kill; test
prep; and test administration.

State and local officials, particularly those in Boston, have
created a monster. You in the General Court need to statutorily
prohibit school officials from using MCAS scores to make
decisions about promotion from grade to grade; access to specialized
programs and opportunities for advancement; denial of a high school
diploma; denial of admission to 2 and 4 year colleges; access to state
scholarships.

Failure to act now will result in further erosion of public
education, unnecessary litigation, and self-help action by parents and
students who refuse to participate in this educational experiment gone
awry.

Five years ago I enrolled my youngest child in the Trotter School,
a former magnet school in the Boston public system. When his older
sister was at the Trotter, the school developed a rich spring
curriculum. Each classroom studied a different country and used the
international theme to connect learning across the curriculum. In late
May, early June, classroom activities culminated in a school-wide
international fair with exhibits from each classroom demonstrating
student work, native music and art, ethnic food, and more. The year
my son entered, the principal, pressed by new curriculum frameworks
and the looming prospect of MCAS testing, scrapped the spring
curriculum in favor of test prep. As a result, I withdrew my son from
the Trotter.

I transferred my son to the Mission Hill School, a new pilot school
in the Boston public system that offers students the opportunity to
study subjects in depth and assesses students holistically based on
student work, portfolios, and demonstrations of competencies in
different subjects for graduation from grade 8 to high school. As a
citywide school, students come from Boston, Brighton, Dorchester, Hyde
Park, Jamaica Plain, Mattapan, Mission Hill, Roslindale, and Roxbury
Started four years ago, the school currently enrolls 163 students in
Kindergarten through 8th grade, of which 51% are black, 17% are
Hispanic, 6% are Asian and 26% are white. Over half the students
qualify for free and reduced lunch. Our graduates have been accepted
at Boston's prestigious exam schools and some of the more sought-after
Boston high schools, , the new Arts Academy, the Fenway pilot, and
Snowden International.

Most students at Mission Hill School, including my son, did not
take the MCAS tests. In March, at the request of the Parent Council,
the Governing Board of the school passed a policy to respect parents'
written directives regarding their child's participation in MCAS
testing. Parents of 82% of students in grades 3 through 8 (85 of the
104 students) subsequently wrote to the school's principal requesting
that their children not take MCAS tests.

This winter I attended a program offered by the College Board to
inform BPS parents of middle school students of what it takes to
position our kids for college. Admissions officers and financial aide
officers from several state colleges and BU gave presentations. In the
question and answer period, I was shocked to learn that students with
passing grades and average SAT scores probably will not be considered
for admission or financial aide to BU or state colleges if they score
poorly on MCAS. Why? Because of policies set by state officials and
BU, an institution that is closely allied with officials at the Board
of Education.

Using MCAS as bar to state college admissions closes off the only
affordable options for higher education that exist for many poor and
middle-class students in the Commonwealth. Given the racial gap in
MCAS test scores, such a policy will close off access to higher
education for thousands of black and Hispanic students and many
English-language learners in the public school system.

Please listen to parents who use the public schools. We want high
standards but not high stakes. We appeal to you as our elected
officials because Boston's Superintendent of Schools and the appointed
School Committee do not represent us. The BPS promotion policy, the
BPS selection criteria for advanced work, the BPS transition to
no-where programs are surely not what the General Court envisioned
when it called for comprehensive assessment. Stop this MCAS Madness
Now.

Respectfully submitted,

Peggy A. Wiesenberg