State plans to add two MCAS tests by 2011

Requirements sought in US history, science

By C. Kalimah Redd, Globe Correspondent, 4/29/2003

After putting thousands of students through rigorous high stakes exams in math and English, the State Board of Education has news for the next generation of high school students: more MCAS tests are coming, in science and US history.

Beginning in 2009, high school students would need to pass an additional MCAS exam in science in order to receive a high school diploma in Massachusetts, under a proposal before the State Board of Education today. They would be required to pass yet another exam, in US history, in order to graduate in 2011.

According to the proposal, an MCAS exam in Science & Technology/Engineering will be field-tested this year and pilot testing will take place next year and in 2005. Students will be graded on the new science test for the first time in 2006.

Students will need to take and pass at least one in a series of exams in physics, biology, chemistry, technology, and engineering. The new MCAS test will be given at the end of the year in various science courses, according to Heidi P. Perlman, a spokeswoman for the Department of Education. Current high school students must pass the 10th-grade English and math MCAS to graduate.

The history portion of the exam is behind schedule in part because of changes to its framework, according to board chairman James Peyser. The board switched the graduation requirement from world history to US history in 2001. Development of the test was also delayed by complaints from educators that the exam covered too broad an area.

''It was a controversial framework to put together; history itself is controversial,'' said Perlman. ''We tried to balance everything and put it into one framework, which was no easy task.''

Peyser said the recommendation for two new MCAS tests is in line with the 1993 Education Reform Act, which requires students to show competence in five subjects - math, English, science and technology, US history, and a foreign language - to graduate.

Peyser said students need to be able to demonstrate a knowledge of US history to be good citizens, one of the primary goals of public education. And competence in science and technology, he said, equips students with needed skills and provides an incentive for companies to locate in Massachusetts.

Monty Neill, executive director of FairTest, a Cambridge-based group opposed to MCAS as a graduation requirement, said the proposed history exam is ''trivia-based'' and does little to promote critical thinking skills.

''They will leave school maybe having passed the test but not having an understanding of the subject,'' Neill said. ''It will corrupt education and it will corrupt the way teachers teach.''

Neill said he is also concerned with the amount of time students and teachers will spend preparing for the exams. Peyser said he expects that preparation time will decrease as the tests become more ingrained in the system.

''I think assessment is an essential part of the education process,'' Peyser said. ''It's not something that can be traded away for something else. Unless we know what kids are learning, we don't know how to improve instruction.''

C. Kalimah Redd can be reached at kredd@globe.com

 

This story ran on page B1 of the Boston Globe on 4/29/2003.