A decision by the Massachusetts Board of Elementary and Secondary Education to raise the MCAS standards for high school graduation came despite a letter of opposition signed by 98 legislators, including most of the delegation representing communities in Hampshire and Franklin counties, and Holyoke.
For Sen. Jo Comerford, D-Northampton, who helped draft the letter and also testified at the board’s meeting in Malden on Monday, the board’s vote in favor of increasing the MCAS barriers to graduation was disheartening and frustrating.
“While the board invited public comment, the most substantial concerns were not addressed at all,” Comerford said in a phone interview Tuesday.
For instance, Comerford said the board didn’t take into account the disparities that continue to exist among special needs, low-income, immigrant and other student populations in their test scores, and also didn’t explain why they have to raise the bar at a time when state support for education is already going up.
She also noted that more than 52,000 students have reached their senior years and failed to get a diploma because they weren’t able to pass the MCAS test, and that Massachusetts is an outlier among states, one of just 11 that continue to have such high-stakes testing.
During the meeting, Comerford spoke about the Legislature’s investments in education that are already aimed at improving public education across the state.
“All of these investments meet the moment where there have been incalculable stress and strain on students, families and educators, more acutely felt in marginalized and vulnerable communities,” Comerford said. “Raising the passing bar now, we suggest, which is but one measure of high standards, will do more harm to the very students who have already been disproportionately harmed by the COVID pandemic.”
The letter objecting to the raising the MCAS barrier notes that the state achievement gap between English language learners, African-American and Hispanic students, and economically disadvantaged and disabled students, have remained larger than the national gaps for those same groups.
“High-stakes tests, such as MCAS, focus learning on a narrow range of skills, to the detriment of skills needed in the wider world such as problem solving, innovation, communication, social skills, emotional resilience, appreciation of diversity, and teamwork skills,” the letter states.
Comerford said she filed a bill last session that would have ended the high-stakes nature of the testing, and has another proposal to rethink how excellence is evaluated in schools.
“The Legislature can and will try to make inroads that way,” Comerford said.
Rep. Lindsay Sabadosa, D-Northampton, who signed onto the letter, wrote in an email that apart from applying pressure, which seems to be moot now that the board’s decision made, the Legislature could pass legislation to change the state’s testing requirements.
“The Department of Elementary and Secondary Education would still have authority to set regulations based on that legislation, but legislative action is really the only possible avenue for intervention that I can see at this time,” Sabadosa wrote.
Comerford said another opportunity to change MCAS could come by speaking to the candidates running for governor and lieutenant governor to succeed Gov. Charlie Baker and Lt. Gov. Karyn Polito, and informing them of what she views as the corrosive impacts of MCAS.
Scott Merzbach can be reached at smerzbach@gazettenet.com.