Cambridge School Committee:
Resolution Regarding the Granting of Diplomas

Submitted by Alan Price
Passed on April 23, 2002

Whereas the 1993 Education Reform Act of the General Laws of Massachusetts states that the system for determining academic competencies "Šshall employ a variety of assessment instruments. As much as is practicable, especially in the case of students whose performance is difficult to assess using conventional methods, such instruments shall include consideration of work samples, projects, and portfolios, and shall facilitate authentic and direct gauges of student performance" and

Whereas the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System test (MCAS test) does not support different styles of learning, communicating, or demonstrating student performance, and

Whereas the State Department of Education has put forth a policy that would deny high school diplomas to students who fail the MCAS test, regardless of their other academic achievements and competencies as demonstrated by other assessment instruments, and

Whereas there is no proven, educational rationale for basing high school graduation or any grade promotion on performance in a single, standardized test, regardless of how many times the test is administered, and

Whereas the denial of high school diplomas is a discriminatory consequence that will fall disproportionately upon those families who are too poor to send their children to private or parochial schools, and

Whereas the anticipated consequences of the MCAS test will harm students by increasing high school dropout rates, and

Whereas the MCAS test is not adequately sensitive to the circumstances of special education students, students entering the public schools from households that speak a first language other than standard English, and students whose immediate aims focus on employment rather than higher education, and

Whereas the standards of achievement set by the MCAS test alone are on their face arbitrary as demonstrated by the fact that easier tests are administered to those who fail, and

Whereas the Cambridge School Committee has the legal responsibility to award diplomas to students who have fulfilled local requirements for graduation in order to recognize their academic achievement and permit their further education and employment,

Be it resolved that the Cambridge School Committee will continue to uphold the legal and educational standards established by the 1993 Education Reform Act, and

Be it further resolved that the Cambridge School Committee continues to support testing when it is used as one of a variety of assessment instruments, and

Be it further resolved that the Cambridge School Committee authorizes the Superintendent to grant high school diplomas to all students who meet the requirements for graduation regardless of her or his MCAS test scores, and

Be it further resolved that the Cambridge School Committee directs the Superintendent to develop a method of integrating the competency assessments from the MCAS test, and not the score of the MCAS test, into the portfolio of direct and authentic assessment, and that this method be presented to the Cambridge School Committee for discussion by February 2004, and

Be it further resolved that this resolution shall be communicated to the Cambridge City Council, the members of our State House delegation, the Massachusetts Association of School Committees, and the Massachusetts Teachers Association.