State denounces Cambridge's vote regarding MCAS

Other communities consider options

By Anand Vaishnav, Globe Staff, 4/28/2002

(links added by Mass Parents)

State education officials last week denounced the Cambridge School
Committee's vote to award diplomas to high school seniors who have not
passed the MCAS exam, dismissing it as an ''illegal'' and ''empty'' gesture.

By a 4-3 decision, the School Committee became the second in the state to
propose handing out diplomas to graduating seniors who have not cleared the
hurdle of the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System test. The exam is
a graduation requirement beginning with the Class of 2003.

With about 14 months left before the first students are denied diplomas because of
MCAS deficiencies, the immediate question is whether the School Committee's
actions will influence communities beyond the borders of the famously liberal city.

The chairwoman of the Newton School Committee said she expects MCAS
opponents to ask her city to follow suit; a subcommittee of the Northampton
School Committee last week held a previously planned discussion of a similar
measure. And in Brookline, the School Committee chairwoman said her panel is
moving in the same direction.

''This will make people think,'' said Glenn S. Koocher, executive director of the
Massachusetts Association of School Committees and former school committee
member in Cambridge.

''What it makes them think, and how the public responds, is something about which
we're all very curious.''

The association's lawyers are researching whether school committees can legally
award diplomas without MCAS, Koocher said.

But State Board of Education Chairman James A. Peyser said state law is clear
that students must pass the English and the math portion of the MCAS test - as
well as satisfy their district's own requirements - to earn a state-approved diploma.

Cambridge Mayor Michael A. Sullivan, who unsuccessfully offered an amendment
to void the measure if it's found to be illegal, called it a ''travesty.'' And state
Department of Education spokeswoman Heidi B. Perlman said the matter could be
referred to the attorney general's office if Cambridge follows through with the
resolution next year.

''Whether or not we would do that would be up to the discretion of the
commissioner [of education],'' Perlman said.

''The law is the law, and if you don't enforce the law, there are consequences.''

Cambridge has been a hotbed of anti-MCAS protests since the test was
introduced in 1998.

The school committee member who introduced the resolution, Alan Price, said his
city is taking a stand against the graduation requirement, saying it runs afoul of the
1993 Education Reform Act.

That act, which gave birth to MCAS, called for multiple ways of measuring the
abilities of the state's 979,000 public school students.

Price, like other opponents of the exam, said the graduation requirement is
educationally unsound. But he noted that if courts strike down the School
Committee's decision, the city would have little choice but to obey.

''There are legal issues here, educational issues here, and political issues here,''
Price said.

''For once, I'd like to see educational soundness be the trump card.''

Although MCAS opponents say other school committees are planning discussions
of the same issue, the resolution has not caught on beyond the communities that
have vocally opposed MCAS. But that could change as 2003 draws nearer, some
said.

''If we were faced with an inordinate number of children that wouldn't graduate,
then it might be something that people might consider,'' Framingham School
Committee Chairman Phil Dinsky said.

''But even then, I have no real feel for whether it would pass.''

This story ran on page H2 of the Boston Globe on 4/28/2002.
© Copyright 2002 Globe Newspaper Company.

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