MCAS: Opposition Grows

 

Hannah Jukovsky and Zora Rizzi

The long-awaited MCAS results were as dismal as had been anticipated. 
When 1999 scores were released in December, it appeared that more than half 
the students in the state would not be receiving their high school diplomas 
if MCAS were currently a graduation requirement. 

It is not surprising that criticisms about the test as a graduation 
requirement are beginning to get louder and louder around the state. Students 
are getting organized. On November 17 students from 16 different high schools 
who attended the Bill of Rights Forum at Boston Public Library put the MCAS 
at the top of the list of issues they wanted to organize around (see page 4 
for how you can get involved). 

Teachers have come together in CARE (Coalition for Authentic Reform in 
Education), to call for multiple forms of assessment instead of a single 
standardized test to improve the quality of public education. And from 
western Massachusetts to Cambridge, parents are voicing their concerns, and 
are circulating a petition calling for the MCAS to be replaced "with a system 
of multiple assessments tuned to the needs of our children." 

At a December 7 meeting of the Cambridge School Committee, a large number 
of people spoke out against the exam. Cambridge mayor Francis H. Duehay 
called the test an "attack on public education." The School Committee then 
unanimously passed a motion that any students who refused to take the test, 
or teachers who spoke out against it, should not have reprisals taken against 
them or their families. Parent Rozann Kraus expressed the general tone of the 
Cambridge meeting when she said, "I hope that not too far into the next 
millennium when we look back at this hopefully small period of time, that 
we'll view the MCAS in the same way we look at bloodletting now."

What's wrong with MCAS 

The Massachusetts Education Reform Act wanted schools to be accountable 
for education they offered, and wanted them to be able to show improvement in 
the quality of education as a result of increased public funding. The state 
legislature feels that in order to keep giving schools money, it needs to 
have a way to monitor the schools' progress and to make sure they are putting 
funds to good use. The Education Reform Act called for multiple forms of 
assessment to determine the quality of education that was being received.
But instead of that, we have a single form of assessment - the 
Massachusetts Assessment System or MCAS. This test, which has never been 
independently validated, has been brought to us by associates of the Pioneer 
Institute, a think tank hostile to public education. MCAS is supposed to 
measure the performance of students and schools in learning material covered 
by the curriculum frameworks.

The test itself has been criticized on many grounds. Questions are badly 
worded and confusing. Some multiple choice questions could have many answers 
based on many different interpretations, especially in the history section. 
Questions in the English Language Arts section are several grades above the 
test takers' reading level. It is unclear to parents, students, teachers and 
the public who grades the open-ended essay section of the test, and what 
criteria are used in the grading. 

Then there is the preparation for the test. Because the MCAS focuses 
mostly on specific subject knowledge rather than critical thinking skills, 
aligning school curriculums to the frameworks encourages memorization. 
Memorization isn't beneficial for students at either end of the academic 
spectrum. It holds back kids who are doing well and holds down kids who 
aren't. For students struggling academically, memorization is overwhelming, 
scores are discouraging, and learning straight from the textbook is 
uninteresting and unexciting. For students doing well academically, 
memorization is boring, and the textbook is limited. 

The MCAS is taken as a high stakes test in the sophomore year of high 
school. It must be passed to get a high school diploma. If a student fails 
they have the opportunity to retake the test in their junior and senior years.
But a great concern about using the MCAS as a high stakes test is that 
students who are already barely getting by may be so disheartened that they 
drop out after their sophomore year. The Gaston Institute for Latino 
Community Development at UMass/Boston has conducted a study which predicts 
that MCAS results could cause 29 percent of Latino students, 22 percent of 
Black students, 13 percent of Asian students and 10 percent of white students 
to drop out of school. 

The test is having an immediate affect on the curriculum. Many students 
involved in vocational training, bilingual programs, and performing arts 
programs, for example, score lower on the MCAS, and these programs are not 
seen as a way of preparing students for the test. As a result, many of these 
programs are being cut in order to bring up an individual school's scores. At 
Cambridge Rindge and Latin, for instance, the Rindge School of Technical Arts 
is being phased out. Study halls, special opportunities like internships, and 
electives that tailor to individual interests have been cut or whittled down 
in many school systems. 

Its long term effects 

While public schools scramble to make their curriculums "MCAS-ready", 
parochial schools, private prep schools and students who are home schooled 
are not subject to the MCAS. While the public school "learning experience" 
gets more and more stifling and inapplicable to the real world, those schools 
that do not have to fight for state funding do not feel the pressure to teach 
to the test. They can be comparatively more creative, imaginative, innovating 
and inspiring. Parents who can afford to, will send their children to private 
school, either so they can dodge having to pass the test, or so they can take 
advantage of their individual talents and interests in a school that can 
afford to accommodate them. 

MCAS will also hurt teaching in public schools. Good teachers and new 
teachers will be drawn away from jobs in public schools, despite the 
relatively high pay, drawn by the freedom offered at schools not subject to 
the MCAS. Many good teachers have opted for early retirement, rather than not 
being able to run their own classrooms as they see fit. Inferior teaching 
quality and the close link between income and standardized test scores will 
lead to lower test scores, as excellent teachers and families in higher 
income brackets flee public schools. Lower test scores will mean less state 
funding, making the possibility of raising scores even more distant. This 
vicious cycle could destroy public schools. 

To get more information about MCAS check out the web site 
massparents.org. To find out about your rights to protest the MCAS, call 
(617) 482-3170 x. 314. 

Students Organizing Against MCAS

We are a group of students interested in starting a state-wide student 
alliance against the MCAS. We are working in cooperation with the 
International Student Activism Alliance (ISAA). Our plans are to hold a forum 
in the spring, followed by a lobbying day at The State House. If you would 
like to join us, or want more information, contact us at No2MCAS@hotmail.com.