December 9, 1999
Watchdog groups question fairness of MCAS to minorities

By TOVAH LAZAROFF
CNC STAFF WRITER 


Is it the students or the test that is getting a failing grade in Massachusetts this winter? As the second set of scores are released this week, parents, politicians, students and educators are taking a hard look
at the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System that will ultimately determine graduation eligibility, starting with the class of 2003.

Politicians are claiming the results of student tests last spring in grades four, eight and 10 show students aren't
learning, and teachers are failing as educators. But a number of educators, organizations and watch dog groups claim it's the test, not the students, that is failing.

The test 

The MCAS was created by a private company at the request of the state Department of Education to evaluate the success of the 1993 Education Reform Act in raising education standards equally for all communities in the state.

It was first given in the spring of 1998 and again in the spring of 1999 in three subjects: language arts, math, and science and technology. History and social science was given in 1999 to eighth graders only, but the that test will eventually be given to all students. World languages will also be added at a later date.

Results are divided into four categories:
"failing," "needs improvement," "proficient," and "advanced." Communities are also given an average score, showing where the system falls as a whole in those categories.

Students in the 10th grade will eventually have to get a passing score to graduate.

In November the state Board of Education set the passing score for the test at 220, just a point above the failing mark. Board Chairman James A. Peyser said the board had hoped to set the passing grade at the "proficient" category, but saw, based on student scores, that it would be setting the bar too high.

"In essence we must strike a balance between lighting a fire under the system to accelerate improvement and throwing a bomb that will leave the system in chaos," Peyser said at the board meeting.

In math this year, 53 percent of 10th graders failed the math test compared with 52 percent last year. In eighth grade, 40 percent failed, compared with 42 percent last year. In science, 45 percent of the eigthth graders failed this year, compared with 41 percent last year.

Fourth graders did better, but even there in math, 19 percent failed the test this year compared with 23 percent last year.

But while politicians are blasting teachers, a number of educators and watchdog groups are criticizing the test.

Minority students do poorly on the test


A study done by the Gaston Institute at the University of Massachusetts in Boston showed minority students did poorly on the test. A large number of Hispanic students, 83 percent, failed the test last year, according Mary Jo Marin, associate director of the institute. Eighty percent of African-American students failed, as did 43 
percent of white students, Marion said.

"Obviously I don't believe 83 percent of the Hispanic kids should not graduate from high school," Marion said.

One of the problems is that the test is not measuring curricula the students have studied, Marion said. " We are hearing from a lot of parents and students that they have never seen the stuff on the MCAS."

Department of Education spokesman Jonathan Palumbo said the problem is in the way minority students are educated. " That is why the MCAS was designed, to give every kid a chance to perform at the same level."

There is nothing new about an achievement gap between minority and non-minority students, said Linda Neri of the non-profit group Mass Insight Education, which works to improve education in the state.

" It's nice that the MCAS is getting the community to talk about it and address it. Some students have been held to lower expectations for way too long; it won't change overnight, but at least people are talking it," Neri said. " Hopefully they will now be motivated to change it."




"Needs Improvement" students do well on national tests 

But minority student achievement isn't the only problem with the test. Two graduate students at Boston College working for Irwin Blumer and George Madaus researched the question of what the marks actually mean.

They looked at student MCAS scores in four communities and compared them with scores those same  students achieved on three other national tests including the Stanford and Iowa tests.

According to Blumer they found that students who scored between the 40th and 90th percentile on the other tests still fell into the " needs improvement" category on the MCAS.

"It led us to conclude that the label 'needs improvement' is totally inaccurate with the exception of the students who scored at the very lowest level, 220 to 221," Blumer said.

"Needs Improvement" students are teens who will attend and do well at a four- or two-year college. To call them needs improvement and to imply they have somehow failed is totally inaccurate," Blumer said.

He believes that the category needs to be renamed, and that setting the categories so high was a political, not an educational decision.

Politicians are creating a false picture of what is happening in the schools, and teachers aren't getting the credit they deserve for the work they are doing, Blumer said.


Is it a good test?


For some educators and watchdog groups, it's the test as well as the standards that are problematic. The test failed to pleased the non-profit national organization FairTest, based in Cambridge, which looks at the use of standardized testing.

" The questions trivialized the content matter," said Karen Hartke, FairTest project director. " The real comprehensiveness of the standards wasn't grasped by the test."
 
There were some improvements. Last year critics said the fourth grade reading was too hard, and this year the questions have been changed. But still, " the range of reading is narrow and still isn't representative of the reading fourth graders are doing." Hartke said.

Reducing the selection to multiple choice asks students for " hunt" and " peck" type of skills rather than pushing for comprehension and interpretative skills, she said.

But others liked the test.

Blumer said he thought that, despite a few problems, the math and language arts portion was fine. He noted, as did others, that schools did not have time to prepare students for the history and social science portion of the exam, because the curriculum had only recently been released.

The fact that the state keeps changing curriculum content makes it hard for students to prepare for the test as well.

Neri's organization also likes the test and supports the standards being set by the state, although it believes the "needs improvement" category could be renamed " basic."

Her company works with a number of businesses and community organizations that have reviewed the test and agree its standard is consistent with the skills needed to survive in the work world. The test is hard and the standards are rising because the skill level demanded by the emerging job markets are rising, Neri said.

It's true the state does well on national tests.

Massachusetts is typically in the top 12 among the 50 states when it comes to national tests depending on the grade and the subject. Massachusetts eighth graders in 1996 outranked everyone but students in 39 of 40 countries - all but Singapore - in science, according to a study by the National Education Goals Panel. Other tests ranked eighth grade science students in Massachusetts as fifth in the nation.

"We aren't saying that Massachusetts schools aren't doing well. They are among the best in the country. But that doesn't change the fact that the economy is changing," Neri said.

And the state has to shift its standards to those new demands, she said.