MCAS In the news in mid- and late- December 2001:

- Schools administer lots of MCAS retests;
- Low MCAS scores trigger a review at a Montessori school popular with parents; DOE says three more schools are at risk of state takeover;
- School committees still joining opposition to MCAS; while Hampshire maintains position it will award local diplomas;
- The Massachusetts Civil Liberties Union and Alfie Kohn have filed suit against the MA DOE for violation of free speech rights
- In Chicopee, students seek recognition for high MCAS scores, and in a Worcester school, some students celebrate, while 50% still need to pass....
- Test prep programs continue, and Princeton Review gets a contract extension for $190,000 for online test prep.
- And in brief: Student expulsions rise 6% in the state (see: http://www.doe.mass.edu/ata/exclusions/9900/), while UMass aims to cut the number of students admitted to the first-year class (see: http://www.gazettenet.com/12212001/five_col/9826.htm).


Springfield Union News, 12/31:  Students want perks for high MCAS scores
http://www.masslive.com/springfield/unionnews/index.ssf?/news/pstories/ch1231md.html
.. ... Members of the Student Advisory Council recently proposed rewarding students who earn high scores on the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System exam.
     "People who score advanced or proficient should be excused from a final exam," said Jeremy L. Cote, a senior at Chicopee Comprehensive High School.
    He also proposed those students be recognized at graduation with a special tassel or sash. ....
.... Students said they believe everything should be done to help those who did not pass. But they also said those who did well on the difficult exam should be acknowledged. ....


Springfield Union News, 12/26: MCAS classes survive budget cuts
http://www.masslive.com/chicopee/unionnews/index.ssf?/news/pstories/ch1226fu.html
      CHICOPEE — State budget cuts will not harm after-school and summer classes to help children prepare to pass the high-stakes state graduation exam.
School officials received what they called "good news" last week. There will be more money, not less, to run preparation classes for the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System exam.
     [Chicopee] received $442,000 from the state to run a variety of after-school and summer classes last year. That amount will increase to $544,000 this year, said Richard J. Cunningham, assistant superintendent for students.
       Most of the increase is earmarked to help this year's juniors who failed the MCAS exams last spring. ....
.... After-school and summer programs have worked for younger children, but Cunningham said officials have found it is difficult to attract high school students to stay after school or attend summer courses.


AP wire: Cape Cod Times, 12/23:  Three schools at risk of state takeover
http://www.capecodonline.com/cctimes/threeschools23.htm
       Middle schools in Chelsea, Haverhill and New Bedford must show academic improvement by the end of the school year if they want to avoid state intervention, according to Education Commissioner David Driscoll.
     The Williams Middle School in Chelsea, Consentino Middle School in Haverhill, and the Normandin Junior High School in New Bedford would risk state takeover if found to be "underperforming" by June....


Worcester Telegram, 12/20:  MCAS momento
http://www.telegram.com/news/city/mcas.html
.... Yesterday, the juniors who have passed the MCAS were each presented with a “lamp of knowledge” medal, praised for their academic commitment and thanked for helping the school fulfill its mission. Students who finished with scores in the advanced category received special recognition.
Meera Sreedhara, who scored well on both sections of the test, said recognizing students for the work they put into their academic studies was important and appreciated.....
         The breakfast was part of the school's Renaissance Program, which encourages good academic performance, outstanding citizenship and regular school attendance through recognition and awards.....
.... Nelly Hernandez and her twin sister, Nancy, both took the MCAS as sophomores. Nelly passed both sections. Nancy passed math, and according to her sister and teachers, passed the English section as well.
     The trouble is that the state has lost the long composition component of Nancy's English test. Until it is found, Nancy has a test to make up.
    “She is a little upset about it, especially with so many of her friends passing,” Nelly said of her sister's predicament....
.... Vu Nguyen also had his long composition misplaced by the state and did not know until it was found at the last moment whether he would be part of yesterday's celebration....
.... Still, nearly 50 percent of South High class of 2003 have yet to pass both sections of the test. Those students were retested last week, and will have three more opportunities to take the test before they graduate....


Daily Hampshire Gazette, 12/14:  Lawsuit filed over MCAS critic
http://www.gazettenet.com/12142001/news/9598.htm
    The American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit against the state Department of Education Thursday, claiming its move to withhold a $28,000 grant if a well-known MCAS critic spoke at a
conference was unconstitutional.
      Alfie Kohn of Belmont, author of "The Case Against Standardized Testing: Raising the Scores, Ruining the Schools," was scheduled to be the keynote speaker at the education conference at the Inn at Northampton in May.
      The two-day conference, billed as "Public School in Western Massachusetts: Sharing Best Practices and Promoting Dialogue," brought together some 100 educators and administrators from charter schools and traditional public schools to discuss ways of improving education and fostering cooperation.
      According to the suit filed by the state chapter of the ACLU, Susan Miller Barker, the education department's former associate commissioner of education for charter schools, threatened organizers with the loss of the grant even though the money was not being used to pay the speaker's fee. Organizers included school principals, superintendents, charter school staff and educators from area colleges. ...
..... "The decision was made because this was a conference for charter schools and public schools to discuss ideas," [DOE director of media Heidi] Perlman said. "We thought Alfie Kohn was way off the topic." ....
..... The lawsuit seeks a declaration from the court that the situation that led to Kohn being dropped from the conference program was a violation of the First Amendment, which guarantees not only freedom of speech, but also the right to receive information, according to the ACLU. It also seeks an
injunction against the DOE prohibiting it from denying funding in the future because of disagreement with the views of speakers. ...


Springfield Union News, 12/14:  State sued over MCAS speaker ban
http://www.masslive.com/news/unionnews/index.ssf?/news/pstories/ae1214ae.html
    .....Plaintiffs include Kohn, Springfield principal Leslie B. Edinson and two educators who wanted to hear Kohn speak.
      Edinson, principal of Brightwood Elementary School in Springfield, was invited to speak on a panel at the conference after Kohn was dropped. He said yes, but later he became aware of the state's move against Kohn.
      "I put two and two together and realized my panel was put in place of the keynote address," Edinson said. So he announced at the conference he wouldn't participate, and he left.
     "If educators can't voice unpopular opinions or have an open dialogue, what purpose are we serving?" he said.....


Boston  Globe, 12/14:  ACLU sues over MCAS speaker
http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/348/metro/ACLU_sues_over_MCAS_speaker+.shtml
    The state Department of Education prevented a prominent MCAS opponent from speaking at a federally funded education conference because it wanted to muffle his message, according to a lawsuit filed yesterday in Middlesex Superior Court by the Massachusetts branch of the American Civil Liberties Union.
     The lawsuit contends that the head of DOE's charter school office threatened to cut off federal money for the conference, which was funneled through the department, if author and MCAS critic Alfie Kohn was allowed to speak. A committee of school principals, superintendents, charter school
staff, and college educators that put together the event had invited Kohn to appear.
       ''In America, the government is not allowed to suppress speech because of disagreement with the views being expressed,'' said attorney Michael Albert, working with the ACLU. ''It's especially troubling that public education officials seem not to understand the Constitution they are supposed to teach kids about.''.....


Daily Hampshire Gazette, 12/14:  Hampshire district defiant on MCAS
http://www.gazettenet.com/12152001/schools/9623.htm
     The Hampshire Regional School
Committee has reaffirmed its stance on the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessement System tests, saying the state still hasn't indicated that awarding a diploma regardless of a student's tests scores is illegal.
      The Regional School Committee discussed at its Dec. 10 meeting a letter sent last month by state Department of Education Commissioner David P. Driscoll, in which he stated the committee's definition of "diploma" was invalid....
.... Superintendent William Erickson said this week the Regional School Committee has no plans to respond to the letter or take further action.
     "We're not going to argue," Erickson said. "We feel both positions have been taken and they will remain in effect."
      The Regional School Committee has complied with the state DOE's requirement that all graduating students must pass the MCAS, begining with the class of 2003. But it maintains that students who complete Hampshire Regional's course work with competency will earn a diploma from the high school.
     "We feel that a diploma says a student is ready to go on to the next stage of life, whether or not they've passed the MCAS," Regional School Committee member Margaret Walden said. "If there's a law against that, we're asking him to show it to us. So far, he hasn't." ....


Daily Hampshire Gazette, 12/14:  Dropout rate raises cheers, fears
http://www.gazettenet.com/12132001/schools/9563.htm
     Area high schools reported some of the lowest dropout rates in the state, according to a November report issued by the state Department of Education. But with state aid cuts looming, educators say that could change.
     According to the Nov. 20 report, a total of 9,199 students in grades nine through 12 in the state dropped out of public high schools during the 1999-2000 school year, which means that on average, 3.5 percent of students dropped out of high school that school year.....
.... Although educators say the numbers are encouraging, many of them are skeptical that they will continue to be so low. They say that a combination of factors, including using the MCAS as a graduation requirement and funding cuts, could lead to increased dropout rates in the future.
    "I'm not so optimistic about this year," [South Hadley High principal Daniel] Smith said. "There's potential for a significant increase [in the dropout rate]."
       Smith cited the after-school program that was cut this year to provide more funding for MCAS preparation, he said.
      "Some of the students who failed the MCAS have just given up on graduating," he said. ....


Boston Herald, 12/13:  Students getting computer MCAS help
http://www.bostonherald.com/news/local_regional/lnib412132001.htm
     Tutors will instruct as many as 700 inner-city students using an interactive computer set-up in order to prepare kids for MCAS exams next spring, education officials said yesterday.
      Nearly 500 students in Fall River, Lynn, Brockton, New Bedford and Springfield have already been registered for the program, which will be run by Smarthinking.com using the state's Virtual Education Space, the Department of Education's computer network.


Quincy Patriot Ledge, 12/12:  Marshfield school board joins MCAS opposition; wants suspension of grad requirement
http://www.ledger.southofboston.com/display/inn_news/news08.txt
      Passing the grade 10 Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System test should not be a graduation requirement, the school committee and superintendent said last night.
     During its meeting in the Furnace Brook Middle School library, the school committee unanimously voted to support a resolution by the Massachusetts Association of School Committees. The resolution, passed Oct. 31, asks the state Department of Education to suspend the MCAS test as a graduation requirement until it is improved.
     School Superintendent Thomas Kelley said that although he agrees that students need to be tested, the MCAS testing process is still too convoluted for the grade 10 test to be used as a graduation requirement.


Springfield Union News, 12/11:  If at first... MCAS gives second chance
http://www.masslive.com/springfield/unionnews/index.ssf?/news/pstories/ag1211re.html
..... Upwards of 22,000 juniors who failed the sophomore-level MCAS exams the first time around — or didn't take them at all — put pencil to paper yesterday on this first round of retests....
... "Better than I expected," said [Putnam culinary shop student Andrea] Johnson, who mapped out her ideas the way her tutor has suggested.      Two of her classmates, Jackie Enriquez and Christopher L. Bryden, also said the session went well for them.
     Samantha E. Britt, a Northampton High School junior, thinks she put in a better performance on yesterday's test than on the one she took this past spring. She credited familiarity with the exam and a summer school MCAS class.
      "It was easier because I already knew what was on it," Britt said....
.... But education officials maintain that they are every bit as difficult, stressing that students still need to earn the same passing score of 220 on the exams, which are graded between 200 and 280.
     In fact, because the exams lack advanced items, students will likely have to answer more questions correctly on this version than on the spring exams to pass, according to the education department. And the highest score students can earn on these retests would be 238, a "needs improvement." ....
.... Schools created remediation programs to help students pass the state requirement, while the state provided an on-line tutoring service with the Princeton Review at www.mcas2003.com.
     The department last week extended that contract with Princeton Review to continue the on-line tutoring until May for juniors and allow this year's sophomores, beginning in March, to use the service if they choose. The original contract cost $200,000, and this second one was signed for $190,000.....
.... At schools yesterday, administrators focused on keeping operations flowing. Pedro Rivera, the MCAS coordinator at Putnam, said previous administrations of the test paved the way for a relatively easy morning, even though 329 Putnam students need to take the exams this week....


Springfield Union News, 12/11:  Poor MCAS scores spark review
http://www.masslive.com/springfield/unionnews/index.ssf?/news/pstories/se1211za.html
      Poor student achievement has triggered a review at Zanetti Elementary School, one of several ailing city schools targeted for a closer look.
     Superintendent Joseph P. Burke and an administrative team spent part of the morning yesterday at the school in the South End in an effort to determine what is holding back achievement on Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System tests.
.... Zanetti fourth-graders scored, on average, just below failing in mathematics and just above failing in the language arts in tests given last spring. Third-graders also had among the lowest proficiency rates in the city on the reading test, with just 7 percent at the proper level.
     Burke said his review will determine whether the Montessori program, in its fourth year under a federal magnet grant, is working or should be shelved....
.... Zanetti Principal Analida Munera said the Montessori program is too new to the school to begin drawing conclusions.
      Last year's fourth-graders who took the MCAS tests had yet to learn under the Montessori method, though they received the overall benefit of the grant funding. Now in fifth grade, they have just begun the official program.
     "I share the concerns about the MCAS results, but I think we need to focus on the positive aspects of this program and what we have accomplished," Munera said.
     If not successful at MCAS, Zanetti has proven a popular school since the Montessori program began.   There is now a waiting list of 204 at the school, which for years had trouble attracting children.
      Parent Bernard S. Cohen said he would be disappointed to see the Montessori program taken away. His daughter is a first-grader and has done well with the developmental, hands-on learning method.
     "It's an opportunity for an innovative educational approach that hasn't had a chance to be tried over a long-range period of time," he said.


Boston  Globe, 12/10: MCAS retest is equally rigorous, education chief says
http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/344/metro/MCAS_retest_is_equally_rigorous_education_chief_says-.shtml
      State Education Commissioner David P. Driscoll bristles at the notion that the first-ever MCAS retest, which thousands of students will dive into today, is easier than the regular exam.
      ''It's like playing a par-4 hole in golf rather than a par-5,'' Driscoll said. ''It may be a little shorter, but you still have to make par.''
      The toughest questions from the original Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System exam won't be on the retest. But students will have to get a higher percentage of the questions right to pass.
        The theory is that students who failed the test on their first try probably won't be able to master the most advanced material. Instead, the state will try to determine whether they've grasped enough of the rest of the curriculum to earn a diploma.....
..... But the news wasn't entirely encouraging, especially for minority students. While black and Hispanic students' MCAS scores improved dramatically over the 2001 exam, the gains weren't enough to narrow the so-called achievement gap. Only about 14 percent of high school juniors in      Massachusetts are black or Hispanic, but nearly 30 percent of those who have not passed both English and math are from one of those groups.
     About a third of the high school juniors who haven't passed are students with disabilities, even though they make up only 10 percent of the class of 2003.....
This story ran on page B3 of the Boston Globe on 12/10/2001


AP wire: Cape Cod Times, 12/10:  MCAS once more, students who failed get a second chance
http://www.capecodonline.com/cctimes/mcasonce10.htm
Also, Daily Hampshire Gazette, 12/10:  Thousands retake MCAS exams
http://www.gazettenet.com/12102001/schools/9447.htm
..... The Department of Education won't know how many of the approximately 22,600 students who failed the test, as well as students who moved from out of state or missed last spring's test, will be sitting for the exams.
      But critics argue that students, who were not given official results from last spring's exam until November, have not had time to prepare. They also charge the state has not given precise direction on what students will be tested on, and has set confusing new time limits.
"The department has not provided teachers with the knowledge they needed to prepare kids for the those tests," said Karen Skinner, the Massachusetts Teachers Association's director of professional development.
      For the first time the test - the first of four chances the students will have to retake the mandatory exam - will be easier than previous ones. The "focused retests" eliminates the toughest questions and includes only questions that students who passed the exam typically got right.
      Bill Kendall, director of mathematics at Braintree public schools, said that despite having been given some sample questions it's difficult to prepare students for a test that has never been given. .....   
      Critics of the MCAS say that students cramming for the test are not benefiting in the long term.
"If the MCAS is actually teaching anything substantive, you don't do that in two months," said Karen Hartke, spokeswoman for the MCAS watchdog group FairTest.
     For the winter retests, the Department of Education prepared a $200,000 online tutoring program. As of Thursday, the Web site had been used by 5,014 students at least once, said department spokesman Jonathan Palumbo.
     Hartke dismissed the Web program as a "test prep program. It's not a learning or teaching program."
State guidelines, advising districts to limit students to two hours per test, are also coming under fire.
     Kendall said he feels some borderline students like to take longer.
"If the students frankly need more time, they should take it," Palumbo said. But Kendall said he believes that policy has not been made clear to school districts.


Springfield Union News, 12/10:  Students to retake state test
http://www.masslive.com/news/unionnews/index.ssf?/features/pstories/ae129pvt.html
This is one in an occasional series on how students at one Springfield school are preparing to pass a high-stakes state test.


AP wire/Boston.com, 12/9:  Thousands to retake MCAS exams starting Monday
http://www.boston.com/dailynews/343/region/Thousands_to_retake_MCAS_exams:.shtml
(See also Cape Cod Times, 12/10)
..... Bill Kendall, director of mathematics at Braintree public schools, said that despite having been given some sample questions it's difficult to prepare students for a test that has never been given.
    ''It's nice (to see sample questions), it's better than nothing, but you're reading tea leaves,'' Kendall said. ''It would be much better to me if they were telling us which subset of the curriculum would be included.'' ...

Boston Herald, 12/10:  Popularity of web MCAS tutor surprises education officials
http://www.bostonherald.com/news/local_regional/mcas12102001.htm
..... [S]chools and students have taken the two-month preparation period seriously, according to principals and the use reports for a World Wide Web-based tutorial provided by the Department of Education and the Princeton Review.
      ``Our tutoring program has been in operation since Oct. 15,'' said Dracut High School Assistant Principal Thomas Kelleher. ``We hired two former English teachers and two math teachers. They knew the kids, so it was a comfortable arrangement.''
      With grant funding, the high school hired the retired teachers to work with approximately 40 juniors who still need to pass the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System exam.
      The students were taken out of their regular classes for about three hours a week to focus on math and English studies, Kelleher said.
     In addition, the students made use of the online tutoring program at www.mcas2003.com, which the Princeton Review is providing through a contract with the DOE.
       Site use records show 72 students from Dracut logged on to the site, with 29 using it between two and five times, 13 students logged on between six and 10 times and 20 students logged on between 11 and 30 times.....
.... Associate Education Commissioner Alan Safran said the department was stunned by the apparent popularity of the online tutorials.
     ``We think it's phenomenal, given the small amount of publicity and the short amount of time the site has been up,'' said Safran.
      ``This was only supposed to be a piece of the system to help the kids. But we're thrilled 5,000 kids saw this and 3,000 became regular users.''
     On Friday, the DOE entered into a second contract with Princeton Review to provide the service up until May's re-test and also a version for sophomores who want to prepare for their exams next spring.
     The contract is worth $190,000....