A Clear Pattern
of Failure
The 1993
Education Reform Act had as its primary goals closing the educational gap
between high- and low-income communities, raising educational achievement, and
ensuring that high-school graduates could demonstrate essential skills in
reading, writing, and mathematics. The
Massachusetts Board of Education has demonstrated a clear pattern of failure
in pursuing those goals. MassParents,
a citizens’ group concerned about the negative impact of the MCAS tests on
the quality of education in our children’s’ schools, gives the Board
failing marks for the following reasons:
Develop
“Comprehensive Assessment System” to evaluate schools, students — The
Education Reform Act called for “comprehensive assessment,” not a massive
testing program.
Develop
a test of reasonable length (at least shorter than the Mass. Bar Exam) —
The MCAS tests take 4th, 8th, and 10th graders 20-25
hours to complete. That is at
least five times as long as the SATs and longer than the Mass. Bar Exam.
No educational purpose justifies such an intrusive and exhausting test,
particularly for 4th graders.
Develop
age-appropriate tests —
MCAS tests consistently demand both skills and knowledge well above grade
level. The 4th grade reading test
was shown to have seven of its eight passages above 4th-grade level.
The scores are intentionally scaled to fail students who score as
“average” on more reputable national tests.
“Employ
a variety of assessment instruments” — According to the Education Reform Act, “The system shall employ a
variety of assessment instruments,” including “work samples, projects and
portfolios, and shall facilitate authentic and direct gauges of student
performance.” The MCAS test is
the only assessment instrument being used or actively considered by the Board
of Education.
Promote
equity — As
the study by the U-Mass Gaston Institute shows, MCAS-driven policies threaten
to deny high school diplomas to African-American and Latino students at twice
the rate of whites.
Devolve
power to local schools — The
MCAS tests, which mandate curriculum alignment and teaching to the tests, are
taking decisions out of the hands of local schools and districts, destroying
local control, initiative, and creativity.
Improve
curriculum — While
schools that had no meaningful curriculum may consider an MCAS-driven
curriculum better than nothing, many schools are being forced to drop creative
curriculum and popular elective classes to teach to the test.
Show
sensitivity to language diversity and special needs — The MCAS
tests put students with limited English proficiency and those with special
needs at a disadvantage and fail to allow them to demonstrate their
competencies in appropriate ways.
Raise
educational standards — The
MCAS promotes rote learning that is a mile wide and an inch deep.
Many parents and teachers feel the education their children are getting
has gotten worse; some are even placing their children in private schools.
Set
reasonable high school graduation requirements — According to testing and education experts, no one test should be used
to determine graduation. This
test, which most Massachusetts adults could not pass, threatens to deny
diplomas to worthy students.
