Members attending were: Jackie Miller, Tim Plenk, Jonathan King, Dan French, Tim Wise, Josiane
Barnes, Jackie King, Sara Freedman (notetaker), Judy Andler, and Larry Aaronson.

Meeting began with members reporting on organizing activities taking place in Cambridge public
schools.

Cambridgeport: 45-50 people attended a meeting called by principal. A number of teachers spoke
eloquently about problems they experienced with the test, including its negative effects on
their teaching and their students. Parents praised their attempts to prevent the test from
taking over their curriculum but recognize the ways that despite, these attempts, it has done
so. Petitions were circulated although it remains unclear how the petition campaign and the
school’s organizing can be connected to other efforts. At this point, it appears to be a
foregone conclusion that there will be some test boycotters.

King Open - 25 people attended a meeting called by concerned parents and sponsored by the
School Site Council. Jonathan Harris has submitted the same requests to the School Site Council
that parents from the city wide campaign had submitted to the Cambridge School Committee.
These requests are also being circulated to the entire school community through the school
newsletter. Some of those attending are in opposition to the protest campaign, feeling that
the tests are designed to help minority kids and that the organizers do not speak for everyone.
Teachers, working with the Black Student Achievement Committee, a school based group, are
considering calling a meeting targeting Black parents to discuss and address the MCAS and
parents’ concerns.

Graham-Parks
A fairly large and strong antiMCAS meeting was called last spring by antiMCAS parents. Since
that time, there has been a fair amount of sentiment for boycotting the test, especially within
the junior high. The group came together again in September and now has a mailing list of
about 50 families. Many parents among the core group have since turned to city or state wide
organizing. Other parents have begun to oppose the boycott in response to the antiMCAS
organizing in the school and want reassurances that those who do take the test will feel
comfortable. The principal, who has criticized the test, has organized two meetings for
parents, one for parents of 7th and 8th graders and one for parents of 10-12 year old children.
A controversy developed around the distribution of buttons; some middle school students were
distributing them, which raised alarms at home with parents who were not active antiMCAS people
when they saw their children wearing the buttons. This controversy seems to have quieted down.

Agassiz
A spirited public meeting was held on January 10, attended by about 20 people with the support
of the principal and with Monty Neill and Dan French as invited speakers along with two lawyers
from the ACLU. Monty spoke on the test itself and Dan reviewed the history of ed reform and
the ways in which its origin intent has been drastically changed by the present board. Lawyers
discussed legal issues surrounding boycotting, including the rights of parents to place a
letter in their children’s permanent record explaining that the reason their child received an
“0” on the MCAS was due to boycotting the test. Central office testing representative discussed
the city’s test results and their significance. General mood was that MCAS is not a good
thing, with the clear distinction that those protesting the tests are not against testing per
se. A packet of information was distributed drawn from Mass Parents’ accumulated sources.
Plans are being made to target fourth and eighth grade parents specifically. A listserv for
interested parents is up and running. (Tim Plenk, who can be reached via this website and
listserv, has volunteered to help other schools develop similar listservs. He feels this is
easy and quick to do.)

Further plans are to link a main event in February honoring Black History Month with
the MCAS campaign emphasizing its connection to the civil rights movement and the attacks on
that movement that the MCAS and similar high stakes testing represent. Judy Richardson, a
producer of Eyes on the Prize series on civil rights, will be the featured speaker and will be
discussing the civil rights movement on Feb 9th in the evening at the Agassiz

Longfellow
A number of IPS teachers are reported to be upset at the ways in which MCAS has impacted their
curriculum. At present, no organizing taking place at this school. 

Amigos
A breakfast was held last year at the Kennedy School for all parents, including those with
children in the Amigos program, a two way bilingual immersion program. Many Amigos parents
were among the parents who attended. One of the topics parents discussed was the MCAS with
many being critical of the test. In December, the Amigos PAC sponsored a meeting to discuss
the issue. A teacher spoke eloquently about the lasting trauma children whose native language
is other than English can face when such tests, with their history of discrimination, become a
way of defining a child’s intelligence and capabilities. 

Differences emerged that reflect existing tensions among Amigos parents on a range of
issues. A few parents are clearly against the test. Some parents either feel it needs to be
improved or that Amigos must do well on the MCAS so that the school will be seen as successful.
Negative reaction by some to flyer for what they felt was its one sidedness because it included
a statement from the Gaston Institute of Latino Affairs criticizing the tests. They felt that
including that quote sent a message that the meeting would not allow for an open forum with all
positions aired. 

A number of Amigos teachers have said privately that they oppose the test but feel they
must teach to it. This is complicated by the fact that children in the Amigos program are now
learning less Spanish in the fourth grade as a direct result of pressure to do well on the
MCAS.

Tobin

Tobin has had two meetings. Nine parents attended the first meeting held in December in which
the principal presented data on the school’s test scores and compared MCAS results with those
of other standardized tests. This was followed by a lively discussion on the impact of the
tests on the teachers and students and the ways in which the tests were adversely impacting the
recent consolidation of the school into one program from three separate programs. A number of
parents signed petitions and took petitions to circulate. 

The second meeting was held in January and was officially sponsored by the PTO which
did a very extensive outreach campaign. 20 parents attended, as did Alice Wolfe, local state
representative to the legislature and the assistant principal. Parents Sara Freedman and Grace
Golding-Paschal presented information on the origins of the test and the changes which have
taken place on the state level since ed reform was first initiated. Parents were particularly
struck by the ways in which the board of education reflects for-profit, charter school
interests. They discussed whether the tests are designed to prove that public schools and
certain groups, especially Black and Latino students, are failing rather than a means of
accurately assessing students’ strengths and weaknesses in critically important, focused areas.
Some Black parents spoke of their own experience in high schools when they felt they had
received a very limited and poor education because of racial discrimination.
The possible impact of a boycott was the focus of much of the discussion with concerns
that the boycott would split on race and class lines. Arguments were presented were that while
no one was under the illusion that the tests were designed to improve the education or life
chances of Black students or Latino students, among others, any discussion that such students
could not pass the tests may encourage teachers, despite their best efforts and real beliefs
about the children’s intelligence, to unconsciously create that self-fulfilling prophecy. Some
felt that Black students in particular do not have the “luxury” of boycotting the tests because
of the general white public’s perception of their abilities, which may be quite different from
the way white students’ boycotting will be perceived. 

The group examined fourth grade science test questions, scoring rubrics, examples of
students’ work and the scores this work received, all drawn from the department’s website.
Some parents felt that the questions were either too hard, too specific or in some cases
confusing or inane. Other parents were impressed with the responses that had received high
scores and questioned why all students should not be encouraged and expected to reach the
advanced categories in all subjects. Some responded that, considering the kinds of questions
asked, the extreme range of areas students are expected to master and the textbook like,
pre-packaged responses that receive high scores, teaching and studying to achieve such scores
encourages breadth rather than depth, an inappropriate approach to teaching and learning
science, or perhaps any other subject, for that age group if not for others as well.
Parents are planning to continue to hold such meetings and continue these dialogues,
which people felt were helpful and allowed real issues to be discussed in depth and important
information to be circulated. 

CRLS
The high school presently is very focused on its restructuring campaign. There is no parent
organizing going on, although students have been quite active in petition campaigns. A number
of students boycotted the test last year. We discussed ways to find parents who would
spearhead the organizing at the school.

Boycott letter discussion

Boycott letter committee met and developed a draft that would call for signers to join boycott,
with the goal of taking out an ad in the Cambridge Chronicle presenting the test of the letter
and listing the names of the signers. After discussion, decided to ask committee to modify the
letter and substitute join our antiMCAS campaign rather than ask people to specifically sign on
to boycotting. Feel this would garner more signatures and allow more time to collect
signatures and then later on come out with anti boycott letter. Feel letter needs to be
shorter and more pointed with a “come join the movement” tone to it. 

Reports from other communities