In a unanimous vote last Monday, the Harvard School Committee joined the Massachusetts Association of School Committees in calling for “a moratorium on all high stakes testing for the 2020-2021 school year.” By doing so, committee members challenged the state’s top two education officials, Commissioner of Elementary and Secondary Education Jeffrey C. Riley and Education Secretary Jim Peyser. Both those officials have stated MCAS exams will be held as usual next spring.
The School Committee resolution asks the state Legislature to enact a moratorium on those tests for three years. Committee member Shannon Molloy said the state House of Representatives budget measure provides for a testing moratorium, and Harvard’s representative, Dan Sena, supports the measure. However, the state Senate’s budget bill does not include the moratorium, and Molloy said she had not heard from state Sen. Jamie Eldridge’s office about his position on the measure.
School Superintendent Linda Dwight pointed out that the decision is not up to the state alone. Canceling the tests for spring 2021 would also require a federal waiver, or school districts risk losing all federal funds.
The MCAS exams were not held last spring. At that time, the federal government granted waivers to all 50 states because of the pandemic. The resolution from the Massachusetts Association of School Committees demands that students in the class of 2022, who missed that exam last year when they were in 10th grade, “be held harmless” and not be required to make up the exam as a graduation requirement.
