Massachusetts Coalition for Authentic Reform in Education
 

MassCARE
342 Broadway
Cambridge, MA 02139
617-864-4810
www.caremass.org

For Immediate Release
October 29, 2002

Contact:
Lisa Guisbond, Brookline CARE, 617-730-5445
Jackie Dee King or Larry Ward, MassCARE, 617-470-9028
 

School Committees to vote on diplomas regardless of MCAS

Delegates to the Massachusetts Association of School Committees (MASC) are poised to vote Wednesday on whether local school districts have the right to determine that students can earn a high school diploma regardless of their MCAS scores. The resolution, proposed by the Brookline School Committee, goes before the MASC body tomorrow already carrying the support of 57 school boards.

In response to urgent appeals from parents, teachers, and students in MassCARE chapters across the state, many school boards have signed on to the Brookline proposal since last May. Urban communities such as New Bedford, Leominster, Quincy and Springfield in recent weeks have joined the list that already included districts from every region of the state.

The MASC delegate assembly will be held at the Worcester Centrum on Wednesday, October 30, at 3:00 p.m. The MCAS vote is the first major agenda item.

Jackie Dee King, a coordinator of MassCARE, said she is optimistic the resolution will pass, as have previous resolutions against the MCAS graduation requirement at prior MASC conventions.

"By supporting the Brookline resolution," King said, "school committees will be honoring a 180-year Massachusetts tradition that keeps decisions about students¹ readiness to graduate in the hands of those who know the students best and encourages multiple forms of assessment to make graduation decisions. They will be saying that the results of a single standardized test should not trump the judgment of local school district personnel about this critical milestone in every student¹s life, and that ultimate decision-making power should not be placed in the hands of distant state bureaucrats."

Members of MassCARE, a statewide grassroots organization of parents, teachers and students, expect that tomorrow¹s vote will be part of a multi-step process in which school boards in the coming months will pass resolutions that carry out the promise of the Brookline proposal. Four school committees Hampshire Regional, Cambridge, Falmouth and Easthampton have already passed resolutions stating their intent to grant diplomas based on local requirements, regardless of MCAS.

In the months after the MASC convention, MassCARE chapters across the state will be working with their school committees to promote the passage of these resolutions, to publicize their impact, and to convince the State Legislature to suspend the graduation requirement and refocus Education Reform on the original intent of equity, excellence and accountability in public education, not a punitive one-size-fits-all test.

The school committees supporting the Brookline resolution to date include:

Agawam
Amesbury
Amherst-Pelham Regional
Arlington
Ashland
Assabet Valley Regional Vocational
Bedford
Berlin
Boylston
Berlin-Boylston Regional
Brookline
Cape Cod Regional
Carlisle
Chelmsford
Clinton
Dartmouth
Easton
Erving
Franklin County Regional Vocational/Technical
Frontier Valley Regional and Union #38
Greater Lowell Vocational
Holbrook
Hudson
Leominster
Lincoln-Sudbury
Medfield
Medford
Melrose
Mendon-Upton
Milton
Montachusett Regional Vocational Technical School
Nantucket
Needham
New Bedford,
Newburyport
Newton,
Norfolk County Agricultrual School Board of Trustees,
Northampton
Norwood
Old Colony Regional Vocational
Pathfinder Regional Vocational Technical
Quincy
Saugus
Sharon
Shawsheen Valley,
Somerville
Southeast Regional Vocational,
South Middlesex Regional Vocational,
Springfield
Swampscott
Tri-County Regional Vocational
Truro
Wakefield
Ware
Wayland
Winchendon
Massachusetts Association of Vocational School Administrators.