by Marty Green ·
Friday, October 25, 2024
As if picking a president weren’t hard enough, voters in Massachusetts on Election Day will also decide how thousands of high school students should earn their diplomas. Passage of Ballot Question 2 would end the current requirement that a student must pass the 10th-grade Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System (MCAS) to graduate from high school. If Question 2 is defeated, the requirement will stay in place.
The MCAS grew out of the Education Reform Act of 1993. The tests were first given in 1998. Five years later, in 2003, the state made passing the 10th-grade MCAS a graduation requirement. Students who fail the test in 10th grade can take it again in 11th grade on two dates. If they still have not passed, they can try twice more in 12th grade.
Federal law requires testing students in grades 3-8 and 10. So even if Question 2 passes, students will still take the MCAS tests in the same grades they do now. And those test results will still be used to measure how well students and school districts are doing. The only change will be that passing the 10th-grade test will no longer be required for graduation.
School Superintendent Linda Dwight sees MCAS as more valuable for analyzing how well a school system is doing than for measuring the performance of individual students. She called MCAS “a good data point” to tell if the school is reaching students at all levels of ability and in different subgroups. The test can also be a helpful diagnostic tool for teachers to find out which individual students need extra help in some area. “But I’m not for its being a graduation requirement,” she said.
In particular, Dwight said, she sees MCAS as a barrier for immigrant students who come here after receiving much of their education in another country. They may be advanced in subject areas such as biology or algebra, but as English language learners they are at a great disadvantage in taking the MCAS, which is given only in English. “They are kept from having their high school diploma,” Dwight said, which creates a major barrier to future employment. “And then that becomes society’s problem.”
Bromfield High School Principal Kim Murphy says she also firmly opposes using MCAS as a graduation requirement. “It unfairly disadvantages the same students who are already at a disadvantage,” she said. Her preference, she said, would be “to meet students where they’re at” and focus on high-quality classes to bring students up to the standard. “We do not teach to the test here,” she said emphatically.
The MCAS is currently the only statewide requirement for high school graduation. Supporters of the requirement say it is vital to have that statewide standard to maintain Massachusetts’ high quality of public education.
Except for the MCAS, each local school district currently sets its own graduation requirements. Many—but by no means all—districts adhere to MassCore, the set of classes recommended by the state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. For high school, MassCore requires four units each of English and math, three units each of lab science and history, two units of a world language, one unit of art, and five additional courses.
Those who support keeping the MCAS as a graduation requirement say only about 1% of students—about 700 students a year—fail to graduate because they have not passed the MCAS. But that figure is based on results from the years before COVID-19 disrupted schools. About 16,000 10th-graders failed one or more sections of the MCAS last spring. Even if half those students pass on their second or third attempt during 11th grade—as happened with 10th-graders who failed in 2023—that will leave 8,000 Massachusetts students who still need to pass the test sometime during their senior year to receive a diploma in June 2026.
There are also processes by which students and their families can apply for a waiver, to receive a diploma without passing the MCAS. But Dwight pointed out that each school is allowed only a very limited number of waivers—only 1% of the graduates. So, for a school like Bromfield with a graduating class of 100 or less, only a single waiver might be approved.
Many state groups and leaders have taken positions for or against Question 2. Among those calling for a “Yes” vote to drop the requirement are the Massachusetts Teachers Association, the Massachusetts PTA, the Massachusetts Association of School Committees, the Massachusetts School Counselors Association, and Sen. Elizabeth Warren. Those that want to keep the MCAS requirement include the Massachusetts Association of School Superintendents, the National Parents Union, state Secretary of Education Patrick Tutwiler, Governor Maura Healey, a long list of business groups, and many chambers of commerce. Locally, the Harvard Educators Association has not taken its own position on this issue.