Cambridge MassParents for Education not MCAS/ Cambridge CARE 
"Working for Equity and Excellence in Public Education" 
342 Broadway 
Cambridge, MA 02139 
617 441 0863/617 864 4810 
www.caremass.org

February 5, 2002 

Mayor Michael Sullivan 
City Hall 
Cambridge, MA 02139 
FAX: 617 349-4287 

Dear Mayor Sullivan 

We are writing to follow up on the proposal presented in the letter to you on Jan. 22 and in this week's Cambridge Chronicle, that the Cambridge School Committee should retain its diploma granting authority, regardless of MCAS scores. We understand that both in your role as Chair of the School Committee, and as Mayor, you would examine such a proposal with care. We believe that such a position provides an opportunity for the School Committee to act in the interests of our students and to provide a service in clarifying public education policy, as follows. 

The proposal reflects sound educational policy and precedent. However, if the State Board of Education challenged such a decision, the outcome may hinge on narrower legal and legislative considerations. Below is sketched out our basis for believing such a challenge to the DOE position would hold up in court. 

Overturning the policy of an elected school committee would require legal action on the part of the Attorney General, in which the State formally challenges the decision. This rare and politically dangerous process is unlikely to take place in an election year, but might be brought forward after the election, depending on who wins the governor's race. 

The 1993 Ed Reform act does call for students to achieve certain competencies as a condition for high school graduation. The frameworks and common core curriculum identify those competencies. The DOE has filed regulations that identify the 10th grade MCAS test as the form of assessment that will determine whether a student has achieved competencies 

There is a considerable body of analysis that raises serious doubt as to whether the 10th grade MCAS test is a legitimate assessment of "competency" in the areas covered by the frameworks, as defined in the Ed Reform bill. 

The legislation calls for multiple forms of assessments of the competencies and requires that all "assessment instruments shall be designed to avoid gender, cultural, ethnic or racial stereotypes and shall recognize sensitivity to different learning styles and impediments to learning." The assessment system shall also take into account "on a nondiscriminatory basis the cultural an language diversity of students Š and the particular circumstances of students with special needs." 

As pointed out by Falmouth School Committee member Thomas Kirkman in the Cape Cod Times: "The Board of Education seems to have undercut the requirements of the law by establishing the MCAS as a requirement for high school graduation regardless of a student's other educational accomplishments. The Board's single-minded focus on the MCAS appears to be based on an interpretation of another section of the law conditioning high school graduation on "[s] satisfaction of [a] competency determination." While the law does not specifically define "competency determination" the Board has interpreted that to mean the MCAS. The Board's position is illogical. If the legislature had intended the phrase "competency determination"
to mean MCAS it would have said so, rather than establishing it in a different section of the law. When the law is read in its entirety it is clear that the terms are not interchangeable. Multiple assessments in addition to the MCAS are required in evaluating schools and school districts and it makes sense that the same apply in determining who should graduate from high school." 


In a court challenge parent and teacher organizations, as well as other local communities, would join in the critique of the MCAS as failing to provide the multiple assessment of the competencies called for in the legislation. In addition with changes in state government its unclear if challenge to local school committee authority would be carried forward aggressively. 

Among the points undermining the use of the MCAS as the determinant of competency: 
a) The MCAS test violates both the letter and spirit of the 1993 legislation, which calls for and spells out, the need for multiple forms of assessment. 

b) Reports by teachers employed in the scoring of the essay portion reveal the errors and inconsistencies in this grading (see "Go Down Moses" MTA Today, Aug-Sept., 2001) 

c) Statistical analysis published by Dr. Craig Bolon show an extraordinary correlation of scores with income levels of school districts call into question whether the test is unbiased and valid as a measure of individual competency. 

d) Prof Eugene Gallagher of U/Mass estimated 1 in 6 students in the "Needs Improvement" category were misclassified as failing on the 1998 test. This data sharply calls into question the integrity and reliability of the tests http://www.es.umb.edu/edg/MCAS/misclassication.pdf

e) .The math frameworks were altered in the midst of the overall process. It is not possible for the test administered last year to be an assessment of competence, since different school districts were at different stages in shifting form the prior math frameworks to the new math frameworks. 

f) Incorrect and ambiguous questions indicate serous flaws in test construction. 

g) The odds of African-American students failing the 10th grade math test are over 5 times the odds of white students failing the MCAS Math test. The odds of Latino students failing the 10th grade math test are 6 to 7 times the odds of white students failing the MCAS math test. The odds of African American students failing the 10th grade ELA test are 4 to 5 times the odds of white students failing the MCAS ELA test. The odds of Latino students failing the 10th grade ELA test are 5 to 7 times the odds of white students failing the MCAS ELA test. (Prof. Eugene Gallacher
http://www.es.umb.edu/edg/MCAS/oddsratios.pdf

These observations raise the possibility of internal biases in the construction of the tests themselves. 



We believe that all of these points support our position that the MCAS test cannot be used a single criterion for denying a diploma to a student who has otherwise completed the requirements for graduation from Cambridge Rindge and Latin High School. The legitimacy of this position does not depend on the opinion of the Commissioner of Education. It would need to be resolved either in the courts, in the legislation, or by the appointment of a new Board of Education. 

Thank you for your attention. 

Jonathan King 
On behalf of the steering committee. 
Jonathan King 
Prof. of Molecular Biology 
MIT 
Cambridge, MA 02139 
617 253 4700 
FAX 617 252 1843