Legislature’s Education Committee Hearing on MCAS Bills
September 9, 2003
Quotations and Testimony from Parents, Teachers, Students, Administrators, Researchers, Testing Experts, and Elected Officials
“That even one child, much less thousands, fails to get an essential high school diploma even though he/she did everything else right in high school, is doing irreparable harm. One test – given no matter how many times – should not overrule 13 years of schooling and the judgment of all those who know him or her best… But the harm, in fact, is equally falling on all the kids who pass. It’s hardly a surprise that relentlessly giving the same test over and over – and relentlessly organizing schooling around testing – should produce a lift in scores. But it does not indicate whether we have more well-educated graduates.”
Deborah Meier
Headmaster, Mission Hill School, Boston
“With the advent of the MCAS exam as a condition of high school graduation, Massachusetts has clearly turned back the clock on special education. This standardized paper-and-pencil test tends to emphasize a student’s limitations rather than building on his or her abilities…MCAS has failed abysmally to address the circumstances of students with disabilities. This test is destroying the aspirations of some of the Commonwealth’s hardest working students. Why are we placing insurmountable obstacles in the paths of our most vulnerable public school students? ‘One size does not fit all,’ and standardization is the antithesis of special education. If MCAS remains the barrier it has become for these children, then 25 years of progress will be reversed, and a high school diploma will become the ‘impossible dream.’”
Ruth Kaplan
Member, Brookline School Committee
Co-Chair, Alliance for High Standards NOT High Stakes
phone: 617-566-4173, email: kaplanruth@aol.com
“The state must replace its unfair, one-size-fits-all test with an alternative assessment system such as the one proposed by the Coalition for Authentic Reform in Education and the Massachusetts Teachers Association, and introduced by Sen. Creem. Such a system would include assessments that support teaching and learning, and would use multiple forms of evidence for making decisions about student and school progress.”
Monty Neill
Executive Director of the National Center for Fair and Open Testing (FairTest) phone: 617-864-4810, email: monty@fairtest.org
“The Governor, the Board of Education and you in the Legislature, continue to
hold children of the Commonwealth to the highest graduation standards in the
nation. This is unconscionable when you are retreating from providing the
resources necessary for local districts to create the circumstances that are
needed so that all children have a chance to meet that standard.”Timothy T. Collins
President of the Springfield Education Association
phone: 413-782-8300, email: sea@javanet.com
“We need high-stakes resources and a commitment to sustain those resources and to bring about the kind of changes necessary so that all children can learn… What is in place to make sure that students will be able to pass this test next year and in the years to come? We are seeing budget cuts, increasing class sizes, huge cutbacks in funding for MCAS tutorials, elimination of libraries and other resources. How can you hold students accountable to a test in that environment? How can you hold them accountable for subject matter they have not even been taught?”
Jean McGuire
Executive Director of METCO
Chair of MassCARE (Mass. Coalition for Authentic Reform in Education)
phone: 617427-1545, email: jmcguire@metcoinc.org
“My son has multiple learning disabilities and attends Landmark School. He struggles mightily, especially with math. I am not sure he will ever be able to do the math portion of MCAS. Yet he is a very gifted artist. I am concerned that one test will deny him the opportunity to receive a diploma and thus continue to art school to pursue his gift. If he was a privately paid student he could receive the Landmark diploma which is accepted by all universities and colleges. Landmark is currently fighting the DOE on their ruling that publicly funded students cannot receive the Landmark diploma if they do not pass MCAS, even though they have met Landmark’s well-established academic standards. Why are we punishing children for the minds they are born with instead of encouraging and supporting their gifts and strengths?”
Sarah L. Patton
Mother, special education student
email: salrick@comcast.net
“On Sept. 3rd, the Department of Education announced the “extremely impressive” results of the 10th grade MCAS tests this spring. These results: only 25% of students in the class of 2003 (17,400 students) failed the test; only 48% of Blacks failed the tests (1,700 students); and only 56% of Latinos failed the tests (2,900 students). We now learn that the figures for Blacks and Latinos are greatly understated…If these results are “extremely impressive” it is difficult to imagine what figures would be less than impressive. While the Dept of Education is clear on what constitutes student failure, it seems somewhat less clear on what would constitute failure of the MCAS program, or of the DOE.”
Thomas R. Crowder, Newton
Public school parent and grandparent
Email: thomasrcrowder@yahoo.com
“The regulation (MCAS graduation requirement) is invalid for several reasons. It does not comport with the clear intent of the statute which was enacted a few days after and in consequence of the Supreme Judicial Court’s decision in the McDuffy case which constitutionally mandated an adequate education for every child in the Commonwealth. The Board’s regulation completely ignores this mandate and ignores the carefully crafted conforming legislative mandate requiring multiple assessments of at least six subjects. The Board’s action amounts to defiance of you, the Legislature, by substituting, as unelected officials, its own views and ideas of what’s best for our children. This is democracy at its worst, and if you allow it to continue, you abandon your functions and duties as legislators… We elected you, not an appointed board, to represent us and we urge you to do so.”
Sumner Z. Kaplan
Former State Representative and retired Trial Court Judge
phone: 617-566-1381, email: SZK@aol.com
"As an advocate I hear countless stories from parents on how schools refuse to provide special education services, refuse to evaluate kids for special ed services, fail to implement IEPs and refuse to provide access to the general curriculum. One school gave an 8-year-old boy dot-to-dots instead of age appropriate math because it was easier for the staff. The Department of Education does not hold schools accountable for failing to provide needed services and a decent education for kids in special ed, yet they're quick to deny diplomas when our kids fail the MCAS. Why is DOE punishing our kids for the schools’ refusal to obey state and federal law?"
Cathy Taylor
Advocate, Cape Organization for Rights of the Disabled (CORD)
Parent of a 15-year-old son in special education
email: ctaylor@cape.com
“The fact that state officials expressed happiness that “only” one quarter of the 10th graders now fail MCAS on the first try reveals a major flaw in their thinking: the premise that a single, one-size-fits-all test can discriminate passing from failing students would never be accepted in other walks of life. Would you go to a physician who offers only one test to determine your health? Would you accept a plumber with only one tool in his or her tool chest? Then why accept a single outcome test to determine whether a student can graduate from high school?”
David E. Krebs, DPT, PhD
Professor and Director, MGH Biomotion Laboratory
MGH Institute of Health Professions, Charlestown Navy Yard
phone: 617-726-8016, email: krebs@helix.mgh.harvard.edu
