Judge denies an injunction in MCAS case
Students to appeal to SJC on diplomas
By Michele Kurtz, Globe Staff, 4/5/2003
A judge denied a request yesterday by students to stop state education officials from withholding diplomas this spring, the latest development in a lawsuit challenging the MCAS graduation requirement. Suffolk Superior Court Judge Margot Botsford concluded that granting a preliminary injunction would deal a serious blow to the state's education reform effort and diminish the success of thousands of students who have already passed the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System test, harm that she said outweighed harm to students denied diplomas for failing the test.
A state education official welcomed the decision. ''I personally think this is good news for the kids, because I think that this is an indication that we are doing the right thing in setting a standard,'' said Education Commissioner David P. Driscoll. ''And our focus continues to be those kids who haven't made it over the bar.''
Lawyers for the plaintiffs said they would file an expedited appeal to the Supreme Judicial Court by early next week, and they said they expected the SJC to make a decision on the preliminary injunction in time for graduation.
''It is our full intention to press forward on all of our claims, state and federal, on behalf of our public school student clients,'' said attorney Thomas C. Frongillo, who originally filed suit in federal court.
In her decision not to grant the injunction, Botsford wrote that the plaintiffs were unlikely to win their case at trial.
The ruling on the injunction is critical to some of the roughly 6,000 high school seniors who have not passed the MCAS and are not expected to graduate in June. The two student plaintiffs had asked for an emergency halt to the requirement because it is unlikely their trial will be heard in time for graduation.
Lawyers for the two students, from Springfield and Billerica, had argued that the state Board of Education did not have the legal authority to require that students pass the 10th-grade MCAS test in English and mathematics in order to graduate. They contend that the state's 1993 Education Reform Act required that students show competence in five subject areas, not two, to graduate and that the state use a variety of assessments to gauge whether students met the standard.
But Botsford concluded that through years of appropriating money to help high school students pass the test, the Legislature had implicitly endorsed how the board has implemented the portion of the 1993 act that applies to the graduation requirement.
Despite ruling against the plaintiffs, the judge was sympathetic to their argument that the state had not done enough to prepare students and to hold schools accountable. ''It is the students who are paying the price at present for the system's failure to meet its educational obligations,'' Botsford wrote.
But she said the case doesn't turn on that point, a finding the plaintiffs could challenge on appeal. The plaintiffs had argued that the state violated the Education Reform Act by failing to establish curriculum guidelines fast enough and by testing in only two subjects, narrowing what teachers cover in class.
The judge acknowledged that the plaintiffs ''may suffer very serious harm without'' the injunction, but said they will have more opportunities to pass MCAS and eventually receive a diploma.
This year's seniors are the first graduating class who must pass both portions of the 10th-grade MCAS in order to receive diplomas. After four tries, roughly 10 percent of seniors have yet to pass both sections and would be denied diplomas this spring. It was not known how many of those students have met other local graduation standards, such as course requirements and attendance.
Initially, the two plaintiffs, along with a few other students, filed a lawsuit in federal court in September, but they refiled it in state court in January. A federal judge retains oversight of some claims. Since then, six original plantiffs have either passed the test or have won appeals of the requirement, based on their grades and other factors. This week, lawyers in the case said they plan to add more students to the lawsuit.
Mark Roosevelt, a former state representative and an architect of the 1993 Education Reform Act, praised the judge's ruling.
''She recognized that the Class of 2003 passers would be damaged by setting aside the MCAS graduation requirement,'' he said, ''and that in this economy and this world the attainment of a reasonable level of skills was even more necessary to succeeding in the job market than a high school diploma.''
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