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Question 2 on the Massachusetts Ballot this November would eliminate the requirement that public school students pass the MCAS exam in order to graduate.
If voters approve the proposal, students would still need to take the exam, but the results would be uncoupled from getting a high school diploma.
NEPM’s Carrie Healey asked reporter Jill Kaufman about the pushback against the standardized test as a graduation requirement.
Jill Kaufman, NEPM: Critics of the exam who want to eliminate the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System (MCAS) graduation requirement say the test is punitive to students, that scores show the wealth of a community — not the ability of individuals, and that the test is skewed against people of color and against people growing up in poverty.
On the other side, those in favor of keeping the MCAS graduation requirement say the exam is actually a tool for equity. They say if students can't pass these tests in math, science and English, educators and state officials need to know that — to invest in the kids who are struggling.
Carrie Healy, NEPM: It's the teachers union, the Massachusetts Teachers Association, behind the ballot question, spending almost $10 million on the campaign.
The MTA is arguing that the MCAS graduation requirement gives too much power to a standardized test that doesn’t fully measure whether a student has learned what they need to succeed in life.
We should note, it’s about 1% of students who fail the MCAS, even after several attempts. That's about 700 kids a year. But the campaign "yes" campaign — Committee for High Standards Not High Stakes — says that’s 700 kids too many.
The MTA and others say the test creates significant stress for students, and that the exams taken in different years "stack the deck against students of color, English language learners, and those with learning disabilities."
Maybe you've been hearing advertisements or seeing fliers in the mail that say a student's ability to graduate shouldn’t depend solely on a one-size-fits-all standardized test, if their teachers, their grades and coursework all prove they’re ready for future success.
And who's pushing back against the ballot question, to keep the MCAS as a graduation requirement?
The "no" on Question 2 side is largely business leaders and organizations around the state, including the Massachusetts High Technology Council. Also some chambers of commerce.
The committee Protect Our Kids’ Future collected about $2 million in donations.
And Carrie, there are people who are against the ballot question who acknowledge the MCAS is not a great exam. They’re calling for improvement, involving a more diverse group to rewrite the test, but they don’t want to scrap it.
Who have you been speaking with to understand the arguments?
Against Question 2, I spoke recently with Tricia Canavan. She's the CEO of The Tech Foundry in Springfield. It's an IT-focused workforce development organization that helps people get training so they can land technology jobs.
Canavan is a former high school teacher and — under Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker — she was on the state board of education.
She told me the MCAS graduation requirement needs to stay in place, that it helped Massachusetts become among the top-ranked states for education.
"What our education system does for most kids in Massachusetts is incredible and teachers are incredible," Canavan said. "And we [also] have an incredible achievement gap, right? So kids, primarily in our Gateway Cities, do not typically have the same educational outcomes as their peers in other communities," Canavan said.
She also said that her commitment to maintaining the MCAS as a graduation requirement is that she believes "it's a tool to ensure that all of our students have the opportunity to gain the same knowledge, regardless of where they live.”
Jill, you also spoke to someone recently who has kids in public school, whose wife teaches in a public school, and he teaches college. He is in favor of Question 2, uncoupling the exam from graduation requirements.
Matteo Pangallo and his family live in Shutesbury, Massachusetts.
He told me, among other things, the tests are anxiety-provoking for students, but he also told me educators do want tools to assess what students are learning. But he says high school graduation should not be tied to the current exam. Low scores end up being an indictment on teachers. He wants Question 2 to pass.
“I hope it goes forward, and I hope that it starts a a genuine, thoughtful, deliberate conversation about the rest of the MCAS system and whether it is actually doing what it claims to be doing," Pangallo said, "or whether it is responsible, since 1993, for slowly eroding the educational standards in Massachusetts as. As opposed to improving them.”
What about Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey and other state officials?
Gov. Healey and Education Secretary Patrick Tutwiler, among others, want to keep the MCAS tied to graduation requirements. They are opposed to the ballot initiative.
But, here’s something, a new UMass Amherst poll found most of those surveyed don't know what the governor thinks of the ballot question. And among those who said they do know, a majority were wrong. They thought Healey supports the ballot question; she doesn’t.
MCAS scores were the main basis for the state taking over schools and districts from local control. Schools were determined to be chronically underperforming. That includes Holyoke, which went into state receivership in 2015.
Holyoke Mayor Joshua Garcia has been transparent about this ballot question. He is in favor of doing away with the requirement that students need to pass the MCAS in order to graduate, and as he said, he is voting yes on Question 2.
He recently told me he believes the intention of the MCAS is good. But he says measuring whether students are meeting the same standards across the state, with the same cookie-cutter test, doesn't work.
“I think that the MCAS puts an unfair light on gateway cities like Holyoke,” Garcia said. ”I just feel like that's not reflective at all of what's really happening in the district, that it makes our work harder to overcome stigma."
Garcia said there are so many good stories in Holyoke, about kids graduating from the district, from whatever circumstances that they've lived through.
"They've made major impacts all around the country and the world and even here," he said.
And somewhat related to that, we heard from a listener in Springfield, Rey Gonzalez, who contacted us through our survey Have Your Say. He said, "The MCAS is too biased against minority groups."
And we heard from another listener, John Wright in Westfield, who asked, “Why would the state expect the general public to intelligently answer this question?” He said officials should consider input from “proper sources and come to a proper decision.” And he believes “95% of us have no idea the right answer."
We should note that some NEPM employees are members of the Massachusetts Teachers Association. Our newsroom operates independently.
