- Resistance to the MCAS graduation requirement persists in local communities along with questions about the test's value:
 *** In Wilmington, the school committee has voted to hold off using MCAS as a graduation requirement;
*** Northampton-area parents, teachers, and citizens speak out against MCAS at a public forum sponsored by the Northampton School Committee;
***Discussing MCAS results,  Northampton educators say MCAS test does a poor job of testing what students should know at a given grade level;
*** Sarah Wunsch, ACLU staff attorney, applauds local school committees' "gumption" for defending their students and awarding diplomas despite MCAS scores;
*** Brookline students begin a petition drive to end MCAS as a graduation requirement;
*** A Brookline school committee member explains "Why we should grant our own diplomas."
Also:
- Led by MassInsight, Inc., five business groups file throw their weight behind MCAS, requesting they be named a "friend of the court" in defense of MCAS as a graduation requirement;
-  Boston METCO students continue seek access to better opportunity to learn - and better odds of passing MCAS - in suburban schools.
- A Marlborough educator predicts that it won't be long before "full immersion" for immigrant students means lower MCAS scores


Lowell Sun, 11/15/02: Wilmington board votes to hold off MCAS graduation requirement
http://www.lowellsun.com/Stories/0,1413,105%257E4761%257E993392,00.html
        WILMINGTON The School Committee voted unanimously to hold off on using the 10th-grade                MCAS test as a high school graduation requirement even though passing the test [is] mandated by the state.....
..... The resolution stated that school committees "should have the right to grant high school diplomas to all students who meet the school district's requirements for graduation and who have demonstrated competency in a common core of skills measured by a variety of assessment instruments."
        [School Committee member Marilyn] Lamson said the state association's vote should not be interpreted as civil disobedience, but as an interpretation of the law.  She said it would be premature to add passing the MCAS to the town's graduation policy before the question has gone through the courts.


Daily Hampshire Gazette, 11/12: Parent views on MCAS sought
http://www.gazettenet.com/11122002/schools/1793.htm
        NORTHAMPTON - The School Committee in December will consider making the city the fourth community in the state to grant diplomas to high school seniors regardless of their MCAS scores....
.... "I'm looking forward to hearing from the public," said committee member Pamela Hunter. "If we do vote for this resolution, it could conceivably have some very serious consequences. It's important that
the people who elected us have a say."....
.... [School committee member David] Kotz said he has heard from many parents upset about the requirement, including the parents of special education students. The school committee's curriculum subcommittee decided to hold the forum so parents could sound off.....


Daily Hampshire Gazette, 11/14/02: Support grows for no-MCAS diplomas
http://www.gazettenet.com/11142002/schools/1870.htm
        NORTHAMPTON - Anger, fear and frustration with the mandatory MCAS exams were all emotions expressed by some of the 100 people from the city and arouind the state Wednesday at a public forum arranged by the Northampton School Committee.....
.... School Committee member David Kotz presented the findings of a subcommittee on the exam, saying that in their view, to conform to state regulations would mean denying diplomas to 24 seniors this year, with some 12,000 being denied statewide.
The subcommittee's report also acknowledged drawbacks to adopting the resolution, including legal action or the withholding of funds by the state. But, Kotz said, "as elected officials, school committee members are responsible for determining graduation criteria that are educationally sound, non-discriminatory and fair.
        "Until there is a final valid order - in other words, a court ruling -that confirms that the Board of Education is acting fully within the law (in requiring MCAS for graduation), we will recommend that our school system follow its previous procedures," Kotz said.
        Among the dozens who spoke out at the meeting were residents of Springfield, Williamsburg, Cambridge, Brookline, Amherst, Pelham and Northampton, ranging in age from teens to senior citizens.
        All spoke in favor of the resolution[calling for the granting of diplomas to students who failed to pass the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System test], and against of what they said the impact of holding back students who fail the MCAS exam....
.... "You're stuck in life without a high school diploma," said Northampton High School math teacher John Sass. ....
.....  Many older attendees said that even they would not be able to pass the test high school students are now expected to master. "If such a test existed when I was in high school, I'd still be there," said Northampton resident Rita Blyman.
        Northampton fourth-grade teacher Margie Riddle said she agreed: "There is a huge discrepancy between the expectations placed on kids at nine years old and their actual abilities. Everyone knows that the fourth grade test is actually written at the sixth-grade level or higher.
        "Something very wrong is being done in our name," Riddle said.....
.... Northampton High School sophomore Miri Maltz had some harsh words for proponents of the test. "It's like a subtle slavery," she said. "It's like we need people to do our dirty work, so we design these tests that make it so that some people can't get an education and then have to work low-paying jobs.
        "It defeats the whole purpose of education," she said.


Springfield Union-News, 11/14/02:  Forum: MCAS draws opposition
http://www.masslive.com/hampfrank/unionnews/index.ssf?/base/news-2/1037262631169063.xml
.... Speakers charged that the state's standardized test is educationally unsound, discriminates against the poor, minorities and students with special needs, and the high-stakes, all-or-nothing exam sends a bad message to the classroom.
        "That stupid test makes it hard to learn," said Northampton High School freshman Nick Girolamo of Westfield. "If you don't pass it, everything you do in school doesn't count for anything."
        Northampton High School English teacher Ernie Brill urged the committee to defy the state Department of Education, even if it ends up in court or means the loss of state education aid.....
..... If Northampton takes a stand against MCAS, it could become the fourth school system in the state to do so. Falmouth, Cambridge and Hampshire Regional Schools are the others.
        Also the Massachusetts Association of School Committees this summer passed a resolution upholding a local community's right to set its own graduation requirements....
.....  MIT professor Jonathan King, a member of anti-MCAS group called the Coalition for Authentic Reform in Education said he drove out from Cambridge to rally Northampton. ....
.....   He said the "human cost" of the mandate will be staggering.
        "It's not just 12,000 seniors this year; it's 12,000 to 15,000 seniors per year," he said.


Daily Hampshire Gazette, 11/15/02: Upbeat Northampton MCAS report
http://www.gazettenet.com/11152002/schools/1911.htm
        NORTHAMPTON -  Northampton High School Principal Beth Singer is confident that with tutoring all seniors will pass the MCAS exams and receive their diplomas next spring....
....  Isabelina Rodriguez-Babcock, Northampton's director of pupil services,  told committee members about the performance of special education  students on the exam. Several of the high school students who have not  yet passed the test are in special education classes.
        "It truly is a high-stakes test for them," she said. "We have much to  lose if we can't show progress. But don't depend on MCAS to determine how students are doing. We use a lot of other measures." .....
.... Johanna McKenna, principal of Bridge Street School; Thomas Petray,  principal of R.K. Finn Ryan Road School; and Carol Gregory, principal of  JFK Middle School presented MCAS results from the lower grades.
        The results were compared to those on the Iowa test, another  standardized test administered by the schools. The comparison  provided some telling statistics.
        For instance, fourth graders who were classified as "warning," the  lowest level on the MCAS, in math performed at an average  third-grade, fourth-month level on the Iowa test, only six months
 behind their grade level. Meanwhile, fourth-graders who were  "proficient" on MCAS performed at a sixth-grade level on the Iowa test. 
        The principals used those statistics to argue that the MCAS test does a poor job of testing what students should know at a given grade level....


Metrowest Daily News, 11/14/02: Lawyer blasts test for diploma
http://www.metrowestdailynews.com/news/local_regional/mcas11142002.htm
          While school officials across the state continue to weigh whether to hand out diplomas to
high school seniors who don't pass the MCAS tests by this spring, an ACLU lawyer said
yesterday she hopes someone does it.
        Sarah Wunsch, staff attorney for the state's American Civil Liberties Union, [said].... "I think there are enough school systems now who have said they might (give diplomas to seniors who don't pass MCAS), that it's hard to imagine the state will retaliate against a large number of (districts)."
        There is widespread criticism of the all-or-nothing nature of the tests, which will keep
seniors from graduating if they don't pass starting this year.....
.... Wunsch praises the local school boards for having gumption.....
.... "There are some questions about whether (the state DOE) has exceeded its authority and acted unlawfully. To see those kids denied a diploma because of this one test, I think it's outrageous," she said.
        "The local school committees are behaving more responsibly than the state board of education," said Wunsch. "I don't think the failure to pass the MCAS says a student isn't well-educated."....
....

AP wire/Boston.com, 11/12:  Business groups want MCAS suit tossed
http://www.boston.com/dailynews/316/region/Business_groups_want_MCAS_suitP.shtml
.... The brief seeking to dismiss the lawsuit was filed Tuesday by the Massachusetts Business Alliance for Education, Mass Insight Education and Research Institute, Associated Industries of Massachusetts, the Massachusetts Business Roundtable and Business for Better Schools.
        The groups say that getting rid of the MCAS graduation requirement would be unfair to the students who passed the test. They say that passing the MCAS will bolster a student's chance for a good job.....
..... The students' lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Springfield, claims the test discriminates against black and Hispanic students, students with limited English skills and disabilities, and vocational students.....
.... State and Holyoke officials are already trying to get the lawsuit dismissed.
        A hearing is scheduled for Dec. 2.


Brookline TAB, 11/13/02:  Students take MCAS petition to the streets
http://www.townonline.com/brookline/news/local_regional/bt_newbrmcas11132002.htm
        Last Saturday morning, while many Brookline High School students were still lost in their dreams, 17-year-old senior Sean Garren was prowling Coolidge Corner, clipboard in hand, asking anyone and everyone to sign a petition decrying the MCAS graduation requirement facing him and his classmates next spring.
        Garren and six other members of Students Advocating Fair Education, a three-year-old BHS student group that advocates boycotting the high-stakes test, gathered more than 400 signatures in seven hours on Nov. 9, and plan to return at 8 a.m. during the coming Saturdays. The petition, created by the Massachusetts Coalition for Authentic Reform in Education, asks "elected officials" to allow local communities to retain "their traditional authority to grant diplomas, regardless of MCAS scores."...
.... Lisa Guisbond, the other co-chair of Brookline CARE, said the group has recharged the petition campaign in reaction to other school committees' acceptance of a resolution decrying the MCAS graduation requirement at the Massachusetts Association of Schools Committee's annual conference two weeks ago.
        "Now that they've voted, the thinking is there's these school committees who have all expressed this opinion and they know that they've we're not alone," Guisbond said. "Hopefully they'll be more emboldened to take the next step" and agree to grant diplomas regardless of action taken by the Department of Education and state lawmakers, she said....
....




Boston Herald, 11/13: Business groups rally to defend MCAS in court
http://www2.bostonherald.com/news/local_regional/mcas11132002.htm
......  The brief seeking to dismiss the lawsuit was filed by the Massachusetts Business Alliance for Education, Mass Insight Education and Research Institute, Associated Industries of Massachusetts,  the Massachusetts Business Roundtable and Business for Better Schools.
        The groups plan to argue against the plaintiffs' charges that the exam and the education reform system around it violate students' civil rights. Business leaders want to tell the court the system can ensure civil rights, said William Guenther, president of Mass Insight....
.... [Roger Rice, a plaintiffs' attorney with Somerville-based Multicultural Education Training and Advocacy] questioned Mass Insight's motives since the group receives state funding for several contracts with the Department of Education. This year, the department is paying the group $300,000 to aid struggling students, work with urban school districts and send an annual mailing on the state's  education standards, said DOE spokeswoman Heidi Perlman.....
.... ``Their filing doesn't mention that Mass Insight has a huge financial stake in this,'' said Rice.....
..... The students' lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Springfield, claims the test discriminates against black and Hispanic students, students with limited English skills and disabilities, and vocational students.
        Four of the students are from Holyoke, and one each from Northampton, Springfield, Brockton and Billerica.....


Boston Globe, 11/13/02:  Business groups back MCAS; Urge US judge to throw out students' suit
http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/317/metro/Business_groups_backing_MCAS-.shtml
..... The coalition of business groups has filed ''friend of court'' briefs insisting that invalidating the MCAS graduation requirement is the wrong way to tackle disproportionately high failure rates among minority, disabled, and urban youth.....
..... ''The problem we have with this case is the remedy they seek....'' said Henry C. Dinger, a partner with the Boston law firm Goodwin Procter who filed the 17-page brief last week supporting the state's efforts to keep MCAS. ''What the MCAS is allowing us to do is identify schools that are doing a good job and schools that are not doing a good job so we can do something about it.''
        The groups in the filing - the Massachusetts Business Alliance for Education, Mass Insight Education, and Associated Industries of Massachusetts - represent hundreds of businesses and have been among the staunchest backers of MCAS since it debuted in 1998. They asked US District Court Judge Michael A. Ponsor to let them offer legal arguments on the state's motion to dismiss the suit - as well as on ''other substantive issues that may come before the Court.'' .....
..... [META Executive Director and Attorney Roger] Rice noted business groups such as Mass Insight Education have a financial incentive in the MCAS controversy because they have won state contracts to promote the test. Mass Insight Education President William Guenther said such a notion is ''off the wall,'' adding that the plaintiffs' claims of discrimination might be moot if they pass the exam on retests before June.....
..... Rather than gut the MCAS requirement, the business groups suggest other legal remedies if schools don't do their jobs - such as an order that districts pay for a year of community college for students who haven't passed MCAS, or transportation to get them to superior tutoring programs in neighboring school systems.....
.... A Department of Education spokeswoman said the state did not ask the business groups to intervene. The three groups behind the briefs were joined by the Massachusetts Business Roundtable and Business for Better Schools.....
        This story ran on page B3 of the Boston Globe on 11/13/2002.


Springfield Union-News, 11/13/02:  Business leaders back MCAS in suit
http://www.masslive.com/news/unionnews/index.ssf?/base/news-2/1037176206302421.xml
..... Officials from five groups, including Mass Insight Education and Research Institute, made their sentiments official yesterday by asking to be "friend-of-the-court" participant in a federal lawsuit challenging the graduation requirement of passing the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System tests....
.... The court action is in response to a lawsuit filed in September by a group of unnamed students who have not passed the MCAS. ...
.... But fighting MCAS tests is essentially taking on the state's business forces. It was business leaders who originally pushed for the reform law to strengthen the work force. ....
.... At a press conference yesterday at the Greater Springfield Chamber of Commerce, Guenther and John H. Davis, chairman of American Saw & Manufacturing Co. of East Longmeadow supported the 1993 legislation and the impact it has had on public education....


Springfield Union-News, 11/11: Holyoke joins suit to challenge test
http://masslive.com/holyoke/unionnews/index.ssf?/base/news-4/1037003455135430.xml
        HOLYOKE - The city has joined the state in asking that a lawsuit challenging the use of the MCAS as a graduation requirement be dismissed.
        Lawyers from the state, the city and for the plaintiffs who brought the class-action lawsuit are expected to present arguments in the case on Dec. 2 in U.S. District Court in Springfield. ...
.... Now, lawyers from the state Attorney General's office, who are representing state Department of Education officials, and Frances S. Cohen, a lawyer hired by the Holyoke School Committee, are saying the suit should be dismissed....
.... While the plaintiffs say the use of MCAS as a graduation requirement has caused "untold damage" to students, the state defendants said MCAS is helping eradicate a "culture of low expectations" for "disadvantaged students." .....


Boston Globe City Weekly, 11/10: Metco forever
http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/314/city/Metco_forever+.shtml
.... In 1966, black families in Boston helped launch the Metropolitan Council for Educational Opportunity as an experimental remedy: It offered 220 students stuck in segregated and faltering city schools access to some of the best educational systems in the state. In exchange, seven suburban districts got a shot of diversity. Today, more than 35 years after parents were advised that it was an ''interim program'' expected to last about three school seasons, state-funded Metco delivers more than 3,000 children of color in Boston, most of them black, and about 150 in Springfield, to public schools in some 35 suburbs across the state.
...... Now, there's another totem parents see that only helps drive up the Metco waiting list: MCAS.
According to the latest results cited by education officials, nearly 90 percent of this year's 200 Metco seniors have passed the math and English portions of the MCAS, which are required to graduate, while 60 percent of the 3,796 Boston Public School seniors have passed.....


Metrowest Daily News, 11/10: Translating immersion into reality
http://www.metrowestdailynews.com/news/local_regional/marl_immersion11102002.htm
.... [Gloria] Cardoso is not the only teacher who is upset after Tuesday's election in which more than 8,000 Marlborough residents voted to replace bilingual education with English immersion. In Marlborough, 2,900 residents voted against Question 2.....
.... Cardoso said it's a shame that parents, residents and voters were not educated on the question.
While they may not realize it now, English immersion will result in lower MCAS scores, inadequately educated children and angry parents, she said.
        "I think once they get to see how much it's going to impede their children, they're going to say, 'I shouldn't have voted for that,' " Cardoso said. "All children are going to learn less because teachers are going to have to go slower because there are bilingual kids in the class. I want to hear (parents) in two years when the test scores are down.....


Brookline TAB, 11/6: [Brookline High School] junior fighting MCAS
http://www.townonline.com/brookline/news/local_regional/bt_covbrkaufman11062002.htm
..... Brookline High School junior Josh Kaufman failed the MCAS and is telling everyone - including the courts - about it.
        After writing letters to public officials decrying the state's MCAS graduation requirement and speaking publicly about his plight, Kaufman - a special education student who is labeled as having a "specific learning disability" and receives some extra support, yet takes a typical barrage of classes - has joined a federal class-action lawsuit against the MCAS graduation requirement.....
     ....Immediately upon receiving his MCAS scores on September, Kaufman, a speedy talker who lists Gustave Flaubert and P.J. O'Rourke among authors whose books he has read recently, sent an e-mail to Education Commissioner David Driscoll through the Department of Education's website. After he did not hear back from Driscoll, Kaufman sent his comments in a letter on Oct. 15.
        "I would like to meet with you so that you can see a student who has a supportive family, goes to one of the best schools in the state, and yet, simply because of a disability, has failed the MCAS," Kaufman wrote in his letter to Driscoll.
        Kaufman also addressed the Brookline School Committee about his letter-writing campaign on Oct. 10. He is now preparing to testify at the Department of Education's Nov. 26 hearing on granting certificates of achievement to graduating seniors who do not pass the MCAS. He also sent a letter asking gubernatorial candidate Shannon O'Brien to end the requirement if she is elected.
        Kaufman's so-called "specific learning disability" affects his ability to do calculations, he told the TAB.
        "I often transpose numbers, use the wrong operational symbol, or copy the problem wrong," he explained.   This visual-spatial disability, he said, cannot be remediated, making remediation programs offered by the state ineffective. ....
.....   Kaufman said the best case scenario outcome for his fight is if the powers-that-be "would realize what the MCAS has done to students in terms of morale and education," he said. "The worst case scenario is they'd say tough luck kid, good luck trying to get a job."....
.... Kaufman is not the only student in Brookline fighting the MCAS graduation requirement. He is joined by more than a dozen other students in town who have either by boycotted the exam or writing letters to colleges asking them to accept students who don't take the test.....


Brookline TAB, 11/6:  Editorial: Why We Should Grant Our Own Diplomas
http://www.townonline.com/brookline/news/opinion/bt_edibrsenatorrun11062002.htm
        I can't speak for the entire School Committee on the granting of diplomas, but I can speak for my children, and those like them. If the current state Board of Education policy stands, one of my children would get a diploma and one would not - unless Brookline Schools decides to grant diplomas regardless of MCAS. The Massachusetts Association of School Committees just passed a resolution that said towns "should" have the right to grant diplomas regardless of MCAS. Now Brookline must absolutely decide to do just that in time for graduation this spring.....
......  Mastery may look different from child to child. But if we believe in justice for all we will devise rigorous goals throughout a child's career, and then trust in our school professionals to deem them worthy at the end. Only then will we have a comprehensive and just system of public school education worthy of our children.