Experts charge attrition boosts MCAS scores

Friday, September 20, 2002
By ELIZABETH ZUCKERMAN

 

Since the introduction of the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment Systems tests, fewer students are moving through high school on time.

This raises questions about reported gains on the high-stakes examinations, according to a Boston-area education researcher.

An analysis of student enrollments shows, in particular, a rising number of students not advancing from the ninth grade, according to Anne Wheelock, who is affiliated with Boston College.

"The MCAS graduation requirement appears to be squeezing students, whether through grade retention, expulsion, dropping out, or more benign reasons . . . acting as a deterrent to normal progressions through the education pipeline," she said yesterday.

Statewide, 12.4 percent of the class of 2004 students were lost between the ninth and 10th grades, up from 6.5 percent for the class of 1999. For black students in the class of 2004, the rate was 23.6 percent, and for Hispanic students, 28.6 percent.

The class of 2003 is the first which must pass the MCAS tests in order to graduate, and the class of 2000 was the first to take them.

A rising number of students not advancing from the ninth grade inflates MCAS performance, Wheelock said, because only the stronger students make it to the 10th-grade test.

"Our focus has been so much on the scores that we're not paying attention to the students who were legitimate members of the class of 2003 or 2004 and are no longer with us," she said.

Heidi B. Perlman of the state Department of Education disputed the notion that student attrition is propping up scores.

"That's ridiculous," she said. "We're focused on the students who are in the class and are taking the test. Of those students, 81 percent (of the class of 2003) have met the requirement."

Jackie Dee King, chairwoman of the Massachusetts Coalition for Authentic Reform in Education, which opposes the MCAS, said that the focus allows the state to obscure its failures.

"The implication by the state when they report these rates of students passing is that the entire increase in the percentage of students passing is attributable to the fact that they're learning more," she said. "Clearly, that's not true if they're dropping out or they're being held back, or they're going to private or parochial schools."

Perlman said that much of the apparent loss can be chalked up to students being retained. Rather than indicating a problem, this shows the MCAS promotes accountability, she said.

"Schools are finally putting an end to what we see as social promotion, which is simply allowing kids to move from grade to grade for simply showing up in school," said Perlman.

Wheelock and King said that retaining students just sets them up to become dropouts, particularly in urban districts where many students have been held back once before entering high school and are over age for their grade.

In 10 of 21 area school districts, the attrition rate between grades 9 and 10 for the class of 2004 was higher than for any other class in the previous four years.

The number of students not advancing from the ninth grade is especially striking in Springfield, where enrollment in the class of 2003 fell by 33 percent from the ninth to 10th grade. This means 744 students dropped out, transferred out of public school, moved out of state, or did not advance a grade. The 33.6-percent enrollment loss was up from 23.6 percent for the class of 2003 and 22.9 percent for the class of 2002.

The Springfield School Department's recent unofficial enrollment counts for the four major high schools seem to support the notion of a ninth-grade backlog.

The number of students in ninth-grade at the four schools this fall was 63 percent higher than in the 10th grade   —   2,679 versus 1,643.

Springfield Superintendent Joseph P. Burke said the backlog has nothing to do with MCAS.

"It has to do with the fact that we have a burgeoning population that is entering our high schools, and that is going to continue for some time," he said. "And we also have too many students being retained. I'd like to see the retention rate go down."

Burke said he plans to implement a new "pupil progression policy" in order to assess attendance policies and address why children are being held back, not just once, but often multiple times.

"We have to address that and come up with a system-wide effort to move these kids forward," he said.

In Holyoke, where the rate of loss between the ninth and 10th grades for the class of 2004 is only slightly higher than the class of 2000, Superintendent Eduardo B. Carballo said it is too early to draw a connection between MCAS and attrition.

Still, he said, with the state curricular frameworks in place, teachers and principals are being more careful about making sure that students are not promoted without the needed skills. Elizabeth Zuckerman may be reached at ezuckerman@union-news.com

 

© 2002 UNION-NEWS. Used with permission.

 

 

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