Back in 1993 the Massachusetts legislature enacted the Massachusetts Education Reform Act (MERA) was the signature achievement of then-Senate President Tom Birmingham and then-House Speaker Tom Finneran. The act changed and significantly increased the formula for local aid to schools, allowed for the creation of up to 25 charter schools, redefined the roles of administrators, school committees, and parents, and established an inter-district choice program. But most importantly, it made a new standardized test, the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System (MCAS) a requirement for graduation from high school. 

As currently constituted, the MCAS is a set of statewide standardized tests, which includes tests in English, Math, Sciences and Civics, which are taken at various grade levels and which help to indicate whether students are making sufficient progress in these core subjects. Then in the 10th grade, students get tested to make sure that they meet a “competency determination” as part of their graduation requirement. While most 10th graders earn their competency determination on their first try, there are still two years left, and there are different pathways for students to get there. They can retake the MCAS tests as many times as needed; the competency determination can be met through an “educational proficiency plan”; and there is also an appeals process.

The requirement of passing the MCAS is and remains controversial, with the (largely predictable) result that teachers and schools spend much more time “teaching to the test” than was true before.

This initiative petition would rescind that requirement.

Nothing else about the MCAS changes. The initiative does not repeal any other part of the 1993 Education Reform Act, and it does not even completely repeal the competency requirement completely. While it does repeal the requirement that 10th graders must pass the test, it substitutes for that direct requirement a new requirement that students satisfactorily complete “coursework that has been certified by the student’s district as showing mastery of the skills, competencies, and knowledge contained in the state academic standards and curriculum frameworks in the areas measured by the MCAS high school test (as it is currently in effect).

What change this would procure is under debate.

According to the Center for State Policy Analysis, MCAS requirement rarely prevents students from getting a diploma. Only a few hundred students are prevented from graduating, which amounts to less than 1% of the graduating class. Specifically, the Center found:

• The MCAS requirement rarely prevents students from getting a diploma; virtually all students who meet district standards also pass the MCAS or otherwise earn a state competency determination;
• Eliminating the requirement would dramatically lower the stakes of the 10th grade MCAS, potentially freeing teachers to focus less on test prep and more on knowledge and skills that fall outside of test parameters;
• Letting districts set graduation requirements could make it harder to maintain educational standards across the state;
• Districts with poor or falling graduation rates could be tempted to compensate by lowering expectations;
• Students with cognitive disabilities and English language learners sometimes struggle with the MCAS and could benefit most from more flexible measures of graduation readiness.

In any case, the MCAS has not been the panacea for poor performing schools that some advocates of educational reform were hoping that it would be. Part of the reason for that is because educational performance is often determined in large part by the environment at home, and the MCAS can do nothing about that.

In any case, at a minimum, repealing that one specific requirement really could help to alleviate the problem of teachers having to focus inordinate amounts of energy on “teaching to the test.” Otherwise, it will have to be seen what effects these changes will have on student performance over the long run.

For the reasons set forth above, I would endorse a “yes” vote on this question.