Recent News about MCAS
Click on the links below for recent news on MCAS.
Education
Alliance and Parents CARE Call for Broader Public Input and Accountability for
Education Policy Proposals
National
Organizations Call for Reform of NCLB Act
MCAS tests again
Brookline CARE Forum describe how implementing NCLB will undermine public
education and split communities
More Board of Ed Conflict of Interest; Peyser Cashing
in on Charter Schools
CARE'S Press Release on the
SPED amendment
MCAS in the News, week of April 28 - May 4, 2003
Stories include:
- The escalating discussion about the right of school districts to award
diplomas
- DOE has declared another 404 seniors "competent" to received a diploma via
waiver applications from their districts; only 64 are from Boston, only 14 from
Springfield;
- The Board of Education will seek public comment on a proposal to raise the
MCAS cut score considered passing from 220 to 240 and add science and history
tests to the math and English Language Arts tests currently required;
- The Governor makes it clear that state takeovers of underperforming districts
is not faraway - maybe starting with Holyoke;
- The Lt. Gov. announces 14% of vocational school seniors still fail MCAS -- and
this doesn't count the students who haven't survived to 12th grade;
MCAS in the News week of April 6-12, 2003
Stories include:
- As MCAS testing begins again, students filing the MCAS lawsuit take claims
of unequal opportunities to learn back to federal court in Springfield;
- Brookline students continue the Grade 10 MCAS boycott begun by classes before
them; and a member of the Class of 2003 explains why she and her classmates
persisted in boycotting MCAS at Amherst-Pelham Regional High School;
- The Boston City Council continues to press for a delay in the MCAS graduation
requirement;
- MCAS appeals are denied in Groton and Taunton;
- As the impact of budget cuts on core learning opportunities becomes apparent,
students in the Berkshires ask why keep MCAS?
MCAS in the News week of April 1 - 6, 2003
Stories Include:
- Suffolk Superior Court Judge Margot Botsford says students' pay a heavy price,
but turns down students' motion to reject the use of MCAS to determine
graduation for the class of 2003;
- With an appeal pending, 14 additional students from around the state join the
federal lawsuit citing unequal opportunities to learn in a challenge to MCAS;
- A state report that suggests a state takeover may lie ahead for Holyoke
schools.
Boston Globe Story from March 22, 2003
on CARE's Amicus Brief filing.
*Report from the Boston hearing
on MCAS held on March 18
Researcher says MCAS pass rate at 70, not 90
percent (March
12, 2003)
Cambridge Chronicle Article on the report on MCAS Pass Rates
MCAS in the News (March 8, 2003)
Stories Include:
- DOE releases its MCAS pass rate report to great applause for the 90% pass
rate reported for seniors statewide and in 204 out of 270 communities; in
other communities, reports point to the continued racial gap linked to MCAS
scores;
- With class of 2003 pass rates reported, school counselors and administrators
from several South Shore districts, including Whitman-Hanson, Marshfield, and
Randolph, report some discouraged seniors are dropping out in the face of
failing MCAS scores;
- In other districts - including Boston, Fitchburg, and Beverly - officials
say pass rates should be restated at higher levels because some students are
in adult ed or GED programs or because 12th gr. enrollments are lower now than
in October.
- In still other communities, school committees - including those in Lawrence,
Amesbury, Newburyport, and So. Hadley - move toward awarding diplomas to all
students;
Looking for earlier news?
There is much more news in the
ARCHIVE.
