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- Respected Landmark School that sends many
students with disabilities on to post-secondary education
will give diplomas to students who have not passed MCAS;
- Jennifer Mueller of Whitman
is recognized as one of 20 of the year's main newsmakers
by the Globe Sunday South Weekly.
- At the same time, more private colleges say
they're willing to accept local diplomas;
- And neglected stories from last week: There's a change in the composition of
plaintiffs in the MCAS lawsuit and an
investigation into MCAS cheating, a negative
consequence that researchers have documented in other states with high-stakes
testing.
Beverly Citizen, 12/26: Landmark battles state over MCAS
http://www.townonline.com/beverly/news/local_regional/bev_newbclandmarkmaf12262002.htm
One Landmark School senior has been accepted to two of
the nation's top culinary arts colleges, yet he is one of seven or eight seniors
who cannot pass the MCAS, said Landmark Headmaster Robert Broudo.
The state Department of Education says those students
can't graduate. Broudo says otherwise.
"We will be granting a Landmark School diploma. I see it
as a civil right," he said.
Landmark is one of several private schools teaching
publicly funded special education students that is protesting the use of MCAS
as a graduation requirement.
About half of the 435 students of the private school for
language learning disabilities are funded by their hometown districts and,
therefore, have to take the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System.
"MCAS fails to see the potential in kids ... one test
will never be able to determine a child's potential," Broudo said. Therefore,
the Landmark School will be awarding diplomas to all seniors who meet all other
graduation requirements, regardless of whether they've passed the MCAS....
...... [Brudo] interprets the law as saying students who don't pass the MCAS
cannot receive a traditional diploma, and he doesn't consider Landmark's diploma
to be traditional....
.... Typically, Landmark offers students the option of a Landmark diploma or a
diploma from the public high school they would have attended.....
.... Broudo said high-stakes tests put up barriers for students with
disabilities and cause them to drop out of school.
He recalled the son of the Allman Brothers' drummer who
attended Landmark. The son went on to study acting at New York University.
Broudo said he never would have passed the MCAS.
About 90 percent of Landmark students go straight to
college, becoming lawyers, real estate brokers and even one MTV producer.....
........ Broudo sits on the Massachusetts Association of Approved Private
Schools task force, which has been communicating with the state about why one
test cannot fit all students. Other schools have filed lawsuits contesting the
fairness of using the test as a graduation requirement.....
Boston Sunday Globe South Weekly, 12/29: 20 Newsmakers in
2002
http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/363/south/20_newsmakers_in_2002+.shtml
Jennifer Mueller / Whitman
Students statewide should be sending Jennifer Mueller
thank you notes for saving them from MCAS failure and helping to make 449 of
them eligible to graduate. It was announced this month that the Whitman-Hanson
Regional High senior discovered that a question in the patterns, relations, and
algebra section of last spring's MCAS exam had two possible answers. The
18-year-old made the discovery during a tutorial session for students who, like
herself, failed the test. Mueller's score was 218. She needed 220 to pass.
Because of her discovery, 557 juniors and seniors boosted their raw scores by
one point to 220. Of that number, 449 had already passed the English portion of
MCAS, so they meet the MCAS graduation requirement. The class of 2003 is the
first class required to pass the MCAS exam to graduate. Mueller says she wants
to go to college to become an American Sign Language interpreter.
Boston Globe, 12/23: Mass. irked by colleges' willingness
to accept non-MCAS diplomas
http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/357/metro/Mass_irked_by_colleges_willingness_to_accept_non_MCAS_diplomasP.shtml
Several New England colleges and universities that
require high school diplomas for admission say they may accept students who fail
MCAS but receive ''local diplomas'' that state education officials have declared
illegal.....
.... A handful of school committees, including Cambridge, that disagree with
the MCAS requirement have said they may award diplomas to students who meet
other local criteria but have not passed the test.
For several months, FairTest, a Cambridge-based group
that opposes the MCAS requirement, has surveyed colleges and universities - many
of which require students to have a diploma to qualify for possible admission -
to see if they would consider students with the so-called local diplomas. Many
have said they would.
''If Cambridge says it's a diploma, it's a diploma,''
Gary Cilley, acting co-director of admissions at the University of New
Hampshire, said in an interview. Admissions officials at Wheaton College in
Norton, Western Connecticut State University, and Southern Connecticut State
University also told the Globe they would accept local diplomas. FairTest
officials say they have contacted many more universities that will accept local
diplomas.
Earlier this year, several prestigious universities that
do not require diplomas, including Stanford University and Dartmouth College,
told five Brookline students that their boycott of the MCAS would not bar them
from admission.
Last week state Education Commissioner David P. Driscoll
blasted the colleges that require diplomas but would accept local ones, saying
they should make sure that all students have state-approved credentials.....
.... ''We know how to look at standards and competitive test scores,'' said
Sharon Brennan, director of admissions and enrollment management at Southern
Connecticut State, which accepts about 100 to 150 Massachusetts students a year.
Brennan said she would consider students with local diplomas but probably
wouldn't accept students with state-endorsed certificates. ''I see students who
don't do well on standardized tests and have exemplary high school records.''
.........
This story ran on
page A1 of the Boston Globe on 12/23/2002.
Boston Globe, 12/24: Student to drop MCAS
challenge
http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/358/metro/Student_to_drop_MCAS_challenge+.shtml
One of the eight students challenging the MCAS graduation
requirement plans to drop out of the lawsuit after she successfully appealed her
failing scores, clearing the way for her to graduate from Brockton High School,
lawyers said....
.... Tom Frongillo, lead attorney for the students, said the loss of one of the
plaintiffs could actually boost their case because it shows the arbitrariness of
who gets high school diplomas.
''All it does is show that the test, by the state's own
admission, is an invalid indicator of the performance of the student,'' said
Frongillo, a lawyer with the Boston firm of Testa, Hurwitz & Thibeault.
''They're saying, `OK, this one gets to go on. He flunked the test, but he gets
to go on.' ...
The most compelling point is the state now has decided that
the exam should not be criteria to determine whether or not somebody
graduates.'' ....
.... In Texas, students dropped out of the lawsuit against the state's
high-stakes testing system after eventually passing the exam. One of the
students' lawyers in that case, Al Kauffman, said the loss of students did not
weaken the other students' cases.....
.... ''The mere fact that some of the kids could pass it even after the lawsuit
was filed, I don't think really settles the issues,'' said Kauffman, now a
senior policy advocate with the Civil Rights Project at Harvard University.
''The crux of the issue is that it affects so many students and has such a
disparate impact on minority kids.'' ....
.... The Brockton student was among the 200 seniors who successfully appealed
their cases to a state panel. Frongillo declined to say how many students will
be part of the lawsuit when lawyers refile it in Suffolk Superior Court. But he
and other lawyers for the students indicated it would be difficult to contest
the graduation requirement using a student who has passed.
This story ran on page B1 of the Boston
Globe on 12/24/2002.
Boston Globe, 12/18: Principal placed on leave
amidst MCAS probe
http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/352/metro/Principal_placed_on_leave_amid_MCAS_probe-.shtml
A North Shore principal has been placed on paid leave
amid allegations that he compromised the security of the 10th-grade MCAS retests
given last week.
Alan Bernstein, principal of North Shore Technical High
School in Middleton, remains on leave pending the results of a district
investigation into the allegations, Superintendent Amelia O'Malley said
yesterday.
O'Malley would not disclose the nature of the
accusations. So far, she said, her inquiry shows that the school did not violate
state requirements involving security and the high-stakes test.
''Based upon the results of the investigation to date, it
is apparent that the integrity of the MCAS test given last week was not
compromised,'' O'Malley said in a written statement....
This story ran on
page B2 of the Boston Globe on 12/18/2002.
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