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MCAS in the News Week of 1/9/03
In the news this week:
- North of Boston superintendents voice concerns
that in a time of severe budget cuts, including cuts in funds to reimburse
districts' payment to charter schools, education reform
becomes little more than smoke and mirrors;
- In Easthampton, education leaders express
concerns that high stakes testing is linked to dropouts, echoing recent research
that finds few achievement benefits and higher dropout
rates in states with high stakes testing;
- On the north shore, a
principal resigns following findings of MCAS improprieties;
- Students refile their MCAS lawsuit in
Massachusetts superior court in
Boston;
- Pioneer Institute's Lovett Peters
advocates the takeover of at least one elementary schools
in New Bedford;
- In the Governor's office, Board of Ed chair,
Education Management Audit Council (EMAC) chair, and former
Pioneer Institute executive director
James Peyser will remain at his $115,000 job as
advisor to MA Gov. Romney, assisting Romney's chief
education advisory, Pioneer Institute
board member Peter Nessen.
- And in Boston, inconsistent
ranking practices confuse parents about school quality.
Boston Globe North Weekly, 1/9/03: Schools dazed by
budget cuts; financial woes may bring teacher lay-offs, closings
http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/009/north/Schools_dazed_by_budget_cutsP.shtml
Teacher layoffs, school closings, and the elimination of
kindergarten classes may occur across the region this year as communities face
significant cuts in state aid.
''Right now, I'm looking at every option,'' said Paul
Dakin, superintendent of Revere's eight public schools. ''I'm looking at cutting
staff, from kindergarten to 12th grade, proportionately. I'm looking at programs
at the high school, to see if we can tinker with the schedule so that we can
provide services with fewer people. I'm even looking at kindergarten. We're not
required by state law to provide kindergarten classes, so maybe they should be
cut.
''Then again, we might be able to cut costs by changing
our graduation requirements and the curriculum,'' Dakin said.....
.... Given their dependency on state dollars, Dakin and other school
administrators are fretting about the state's bleak financial condition, and
what it means for the future of local education....
.... ''I just got the local aid distribution for this quarter, and I'm about to
go through the roof,'' said Garry Murphy, superintendent of the Triton Regional
School District, which draws students from Rowley, Salisbury, and Newbury. ''The
charter school reimbursements [state funds that offset local school districts'
payments for students attending charter schools] are not there - state lawmakers
canceled them - leaving us with a bill that is almost $400,000.....
.... And in Salem, Superintendent Herb Levine is struggling to draft a budget
for fiscal 2004 based on level funding, meaning next year's spending level
cannot exceed this year's, even though the costs of running the district are
expected to increase by $2 million.
''I've alerted the School Committee to our situation, and
told them we're going to have to trim significantly,'' said Levine, who for the
past two years has run the 5,500-student school district on a $40 million
budget. ''Class sizes will increase, resources are going to dwindle to almost
nothing, and yet we're still going to have the MCAS graduation requirement.
We're getting to the point where education reform is nothing but smoke and
mirrors. We're no longer doing something for the kids; we're doing something to
them.'' ....
.... [Revere's Dakin] added: ''What people need to recognize, what our governor
and state lawmakers need to recognize, is that teaching is a profession where
you get what you pay for..... Today, because of the state's fiscal crisis, we're
being asked to perform without provisions. The lack of funding is a setup for
failure. With the funding levels we're getting, it's not hard to predict where
we'll be five years from now: We'll be in worse shape than we were in when
education reform began.''
This story ran on page N1 of the Boston
Globe on 1/9/2003.
(Budget cuts are widely reported this week; see, for example, the Daily
Middlesex News, 1/9: [Westborough]
may lose 21 teachers in budget crunch;
http://www.metrowestdailynews.com/news/local_regional/wstb_teachers01092003.htm
and [Southborough]
class sizes could be bigger next year;
http://www.metrowestdailynews.com/news/local_regional/sthb_classes01092003.htm
Daily Hampshire Gazette, 1/10: Principal
expresses MCAS concerns
http://www.gazettenet.com/01102003/schools/3430.htm
EASTHAMPTON - Charles Kaufman, Easthampton High School
principal, brought his concerns about the impact of the MCAS tests on students
to the School Committee Thursday.
This spurred a 30-minute debate among committee members, leading chairman Bruce
A. Gordon to decide to devote their next meeting Jan. 30 to MCAS-related
issues.....
.... Addressing the committee, Kaufman said the "high stakes" placed on MCAS
test results could cause more students to dropout of high school and discourage
others from pursuing college...
.... Approximately nine high school students failed the June 2002 test, with
four appealing to the state, said Kaufman. To appeal, students must score at
least 216.
To help these students with the test, Kaufman said the
high school offers after-school, remediation and summer programs. It will also
offer Kaplan and Princeton Review courses at an expensive price tag, Kaufman
said.
"So, then it's the same socio-economic problems where not
every student can afford it," said committee member Bruce Wilby.
Fellow member Tammy Kuchyt suggested the committee
approach other area school boards to write a joint letter with their concerns to
the DOE. "I think students should be given a diploma with or without passing the
MCAS," said Kuchyt.
Gordon agreed, saying the state should back up its MCAS
mandate with the funding schools need to help students pass the test.....
.... Committee member Thomas Brown added that students should not have to suffer
because the state lacks the financial resources to back up the MCAS testing. "We
have turned out students with non-MCAS diplomas who have go on to become
lawyers, Realtors and business owners," he said....
.... Kaufman also suggested committee members visit the Web sites,
www.fairtest.org and
www.massparents.org,
which oppose MCAS testing as a graduation requirement.....
Boston Globe, 1/9: Study questions benefits of high
stakes testing
http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/009/nation/Study_questions_benefit_of_high_stakes_testing+.shtml
The one-year anniversary of the signing of the No Child
Left Behind Act comes less than two weeks after a controversial study of states
with high-stakes tests raised questions about the premise of the sweeping
education reform law.
The study by researchers at Arizona State University
examined student performance in 28 states that use high-stakes tests and found
that students in those states generally did not outpace their peers in other,
independent exams, such as the SAT and the National Assessment of Educational
Progress, despite posting gains on state exams.
The researchers concluded that high-stakes testing
policies, like those mandated under the No Child Left Behind Act, do little to
boost academic achievement and might even hurt it.....
.... ''We found that high-stakes tests did nothing to improve academic
achievement,'' said Audrey Amrein, the study's coauthor and a researcher at
Arizona State's College of Education. ''States just looked much like the nation,
when most people expect to see an increase. ... What most people propose about
these tests is an increase in academic achievement.''
Amrein and others say that the study's results suggest
that students are learning the material covered by state tests, but not much
else. Researchers also found that graduation exams had unintended consequences,
such as higher dropout rates. And states with graduation tests tended to lose
ground against the national average on the SAT and ACT tests, the researchers
found.....
.... Earlier this week, state Education Commissioner David P. Driscoll said
state officials will review the Arizona State study. But Driscoll noted that
Massachusetts is different from many states in the report, because the MCAS is
widely viewed as more rigorous than many other tests.
Still, local critics said the study raises real concerns
for all states under the No Child Left Behind Act.
''It's important because it pulls together some new
evidence and a lot of old evidence that the push toward high-stakes testing does
not improve schools, often lowers school quality, and hurts children by both
driving them out of school without a diploma and by dumbing down the education
they get,'' said Monty Neill, executive director of FairTest, a Cambridge-based
group that opposes the use of high-stakes exams.
This story ran on page A14 of the Boston Globe on
1/9/2003.
AP/New Bedford Standard Times: 1/8/03: MCAS lawsuit
claims graduation requirement illegal
http://www.s-t.com/daily/01-03/01-08-03/a03sr030.htm
See also, AP/Daily Hampshire Gazette, 1/8/03:
Lawsuit challenges MCAS
http://www.gazettenet.com/01082003/schools/3377.htm
AP/Middlesex Daily News, 1/8/03: MCAS lawsuit
claims graduation requirement is illegal
http://www.metrowestdailynews.com/news/local_regional/ap_mcas01082003.htm
BOSTON -- The MCAS graduation requirement violates state
law because it focuses too narrowly on English and math and is illegal because
it was never approved by the Legislature, according to a lawsuit filed
yesterday.
The suit, filed in Suffolk Superior Court on behalf of
six students, claims that the Education Reform Act of 1993 mandated that
students show competence in seven subject areas to graduate and that "a variety
of assessment systems" be used to measure that competence.
Instead, the state focused only on math and English, then
created a single tool, the MCAS, to measure proficiency, lawyers for the
students said. As a result, the suit alleges, high failure rates in history and
science are being ignored, and schools aren't being held accountable for their
failure to teach those subjects.
"Twenty-six billion dollars (spent on education reform)
and we've got a standardized test in math and English to show for it," said Tom
Frongillo, an attorney for the students.
The suit, which names the state Board of Education and
the state Department of Education among the defendants, also alleges state
education officials had no right to redefine the graduation requirements laid on
in the Education Reform Act because only lawmakers can change the law....
..... With June graduation fast approaching, Frongillo said he would ask the
court to temporarily suspend the graduation requirement.....
.... Half of Hispanic and 44 percent of black high school seniors still have not
passed, according the state Education Department. The suit alleges that minority
children in urban areas are being discriminated against because the state hasn't
provided adequate educational funding.
"In some of these districts, the materials are not
available," said Paul Dunphy of the Alliance for High Standards, Not High
Stakes, an anti-MCAS group. "It's important to hold adults accountable before
holding the children accountable for material they haven't had a chance to
learn." ....
Boston Globe, 1/8/03: Fight against MCAS renewed in state
suit
http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/008/metro/Fight_against_MCAS_renewed_in_state_suitP.shtml
..... Blasting what they called state officials' ''warped
philosophy,'' the students' lawyers accused the officials of using the
''hammer'' of a tough high-stakes exam to boost education for Bay State high
school students, rather than focus on real improvements in teaching. In
addition, by requiring high schoolers to pass only the math and English sections
on MCAS, state officials are ignoring the other subjects students must master
under the Education Reform Act of 1993, the lawyers asserted.
The suit, filed yesterday afternoon, asks the court to
strike down the graduation requirement and seeks class-action status for the
unidentified plaintiffs....
.... ..... A judge wasn't assigned yesterday, but the plaintiffs' lawyers filed
a motion requesting that Suffolk Superior Court Judge Margot Botsford hear the
case because she will preside over the continuation of the state's long-running
school-finance lawsuit in June.
''There's a lot of egregious evidence in there that shows
how the original intent of the education reform law was really changed over the
years, and that the Board of Education was no longer concerned about a real,
substantive, quality education,'' said Nadine Cohen, a plaintiffs' lawyer with
the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law of the Boston Bar Association.
''They were focused in on just making sure kids pass the two exams.'' ....
.... A plaintiffs' lawyer, Thomas Frongillo, said the students still might
return to federal court if they lose, if the case takes too long to decide, or
even if they win. That's because Ponsor retained oversight of the counts that
dealt with federal law, specifically that the test discriminated against
minorities and limited-English speakers and deprived students of due process
because they hadn't been taught the material tested on the MCAS exam. Ponsor
urged the parties to return to him if they got bogged down in state court.....
This story ran on page B3 of the Boston
Globe on 1/8/2003.
Boston Herald, 1/8/03: Suit claims MCAS exam
violates education reform law
http://www2.bostonherald.com/news/local_regional/mcas01082003.htm
Lawyers for six high school seniors took their suit
challenging the MCAS exam to Suffolk Superior Court yesterday, charging the
testing program set by the state Board of Education violates the 1993 Education
Reform Law.....
..... The latest filing targets the board, charging it violated
the 1993 law requiring the state use multiple methods to determine the
competency of students in seven subjects, said Tom Frongillo, an attorney for
the students. ``This deals with whether a single high-stakes exam in two
subjects conflicts with the statute and undermines the goals of education
reform,'' said Frongillo....
Boston Globe, 1/10/03: Principal resigns after MCAS
violations
http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/010/metro/Principal_resigns_after_MCAS_violation-.shtml
The principal of North Shore Technical High School has
resigned amid an investigation that found he violated test security in
administering the MCAS retest, officials said yesterday.
Superintendent Amelia O'Malley launched an inquiry in
December after reports that Alan Bernstein allegedly gave teachers a glimpse of
the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System retest before students took
it. In a statement released yesterday, O'Malley would not say exactly what she
found but said yesterday that the ''integrity'' of the test was maintained.....
.... The 63 juniors and seniors who took the retest did not see the exam in
advance and did not have to retake the test, which is a graduation requirement
beginning with the class of 2003. It was seniors' fourth chance to take the exam
if they had failed the English or math sections.....
This story ran on page B4 of the Boston
Globe on 1/10/2003.
Boston Globe, 1/7/03: Peyser to remain as education
aide
http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/007/metro/Peyser_to_remain_as_education_aide-.shtml
James A. Peyser, the man behind much of Massachusetts'
K-12 education policy under three governors, is staying on in Governor Mitt
Romney's administration.....
.... He also headed the Pioneer Institute, a libertarian policy institute in
Boston that backs charter schools and other school-choice options favored by
conservatives, positions that critics have said influenced Peyser's tenure on
the state board overseeing Massachusetts' 372 public school systems and charter
schools.
Peyser said state officials' top priority now is the
class of 2003, the first that must pass the English and math sections of the
MCAS test to earn a high school diploma.....
..... About 19 percent of the class, or 12,000 students, has yet to pass.....
.... Nessen asked Peyser to join the Romney administration, and Peyser will
continue to chair the state Board of Education, said Nicole St. Peter, a Romney
spokeswoman....
.... Peyser said he will continue to earn $115,000 annually in his new post
under Nessen, whose position Romney is seeking to elevate to a Cabinet-level
appointment.
Peyser, 46, is a Dorchester resident and the father of
two daughters who attend Milton Academy.
This story ran on page B6 of the
Boston Globe on 1/7/2003.
New Bedford Standard-Times, 1/9: Mount Pleasant
School takeover needed
http://www.s-t.com/daily/01-03/01-09-03/a12op074.htm
Last spring the Massachusetts Board of Education properly
refused to renew the charter of the Lynn Community Charter School because it
wasn't doing as well as it had promised in its original charter agreement.
Parents protested vehemently, fearing that the schools to which their children
would have to return would be even worse. ....
.... Across Massachusetts there were 135 elementary schools that had lower MCAS
scores than Lynn Community Charter. Eight of these were in New Bedford: Mount
Pleasant, Hayden McFadden, Gomes, Lincoln, Devalles, Phillips Avenue, Dunbar and
Rodman. Mount Pleasant was close to the bottom of all 1042 elementary schools in
the state, nudged out only by six Boston inner city schools. It was the fourth
straight year Mount Pleasant's MCAS performance has been close to the bottom.
Do we have the courage to get rid of the double standard
and close down the worst-performing schools? District schools should be held to
the same standards of accountability that were applied to the Lynn Community
Charter School.....
...... The double standard says let's keep throwing money at the problems of
low-performing schools. But the time has come to declare such schools bankrupt,
put each out for proposals and seek operators who can do better for the children
and families they serve.....
..... Government schools are a monopoly. Like most monopolies, they have in too
many cases grown soft and fat. They have not been held accountable for results.
Competition provides better goods and services in the private market. Why not
let it work for the poor children in Mount Pleasant School. And do it NOW. Not
next year, after we have sunk even more resources into the same failed system.
Shame on us if we condemn yet another year's worth of students to involuntary
servitude.
By Lovett C. "Pete" Peters; Mr. Peters of Newton is the
founding chairman of the Pioneer Institute, a Boston think tank.
This story appeared on Page A12 of The
Standard-Times on January 9, 2003.
Boston Globe, 1/6/03: Sorting out school ratings
may be test for parents
http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/006/metro/Sorting_out_school_ratings_may_be_test_for_parents-.shtml
This month Massachusetts is poised to offer families in
dozens of struggling schools the chance to transfer to better ones or to use
school money for private tutoring under the federal No Child Left Behind Act.
But some education leaders worry that the confusing array of school assessments
could turn parents off - or hurt their ability to gauge how their children's
campuses really measure up.
Part of the worry grows out of the implementation of No
Child Left Behind, which measures schools' performance based on how much
progress they make toward having every child proficient in math and English by
2014. Like many other states, Massachusetts already had a system for rating
schools - with labels like critically low or very high - and for identifying
schools that need a state review.
Both the state and federal assessments use MCAS scores to
chart progress.... But conflicts between the lists and the complicated ways
schools are assessed may be undermining that intent....
....
This story ran on page A1 of the Boston Globe on 1/6/2003.
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