Families with students on individualized education programs (IEPs) sometimes go to great lengths to avoid the repercussions of not passing the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System (MCAS) exam, which bars approximately 700 students statewide from graduating every year.
According to the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, in 2022, 97.4% of Belmont students graduated from high school in four years, compared with 90.1% of students statewide.
However, Rachel Watson, the co-chair of the Belmont Special Education Parent Advisory Council (SEPAC), said that the students who are unable to receive their diplomas due to MCAS testing are largely students on IEPs.
“Some families, if they have the means or relatives, actually move their students out of state for their last year of high school,” Watson said.
In ballot Question 2, a new proposed law states that “districts certify that students have mastered the skills, competencies, and knowledge of the state standards as a replacement for the MCAS graduation requirement.”
A yes vote makes the change; a no vote leaves the MCAS graduation requirement in place.
If voters decide to end the requirement, 10th-grade students will still be required to take the exam, even though their scores will not factor into graduation. Instead, districts would measure student success using alternative measures, which have yet to be established.
Supporting Students
According to Belmont Superintendent Jill Gieser, the MCAS exam is one of many tools used to evaluate Belmont students.
While the exam provides a snapshot of the student body’s performance from year to year, it is primarily used to adjust future instruction.
“We use other sources to get real-time support for individual students,” she said, listing student attendance and performance in classes as examples.
She added that the Portrait of a Graduate initiative – which seeks to identify the qualities K-12 students should demonstrate throughout and after their time in Belmont schools – will be used to articulate “those real skills and competencies that students need.”
Regardless of whether the ballot question passes, Belmont will continue to use multiple measures to assess student success, said Geiser.
Facing Challenges
Students who do not pass the 10th-grade MCAS can earn a state competency determination by retesting or creating a portfolio of work samples to measure their academic performance.
According to a report by Evan Horowitz, the executive director of the Center for State Policy Analysis at Tufts University, 96% of Bay State students “manage to pass or otherwise prove their competency eventually.”
In his report, Horowitz listed factors that impact MCAS performance, including if students are still learning English, have significant disabilities, struggle to prioritize school because of personal issues, or need additional support from their districts to obtain alternative state certifications.
John Sullivan, a long-time Belmont educator and the president of the Belmont Education Association (BEA), the union representing Belmont teachers, said that for those who do not pass the 10th-grade MCAS exam, additional resources are often invested in preparing them to re-test.
Student learning ultimately suffers, he said, because students are removed from regular instruction to practice test questions.
Sullivan added that MCAS wouldn’t go away if the ballot question passes.
“[The proposed law] simply eliminates the harm and extra work it creates for students to retake a test to demonstrate they’ve met a standard that’s set by a company, as opposed to the standards set by educators,” he said.
Proponents of a yes on Question 2 include the Massachusetts Teachers Association (MTA), which argues removing MCAS as a graduation requirement would alleviate the stress and work placed on teachers and students to prepare for the high-stakes test.
Protect Our Kids’ Future, a coalition of parents, teachers, and students, meanwhile, opposes the legislation. The group argues MCAS is the only statewide graduation standard, and eliminating it would allow students who have not demonstrated competencies in math, English, and science to graduate.
According to its website, “Eliminating the state’s single, objective standard for a high school diploma means every school district in Massachusetts would devise its own requirements for graduation.”
If the exam remains as a graduation requirement, it will largely be students with disabilities not receiving their diplomas, according to Watson.
“At the same time,” she said, “that is a population of students [for whom] it’s really important for there to be a measure to keep school districts accountable for truly educating them and not just passing them from grade to grade.”
More information on the ballot question can be found at https://www.sec.state.ma.us/divisions/elections/research-and-statistics/info-for-voters-2024.htm.
Questions on the Nov. 5 Ballot
- Should the state auditor be allowed to audit the legislature?
- Should the state eliminate the MCAS as a graduation requirement?
- Should rideshare drivers (such as Uber and Lyft) have the option to form unions?
- Should there be limited legalization and regulation of natural psychedelic substances?
- Should there be an increase in the minimum wage paid to tipped employees?
- A nonbinding question: Shall the Representative for this District be instructed to vote for legislation to create a single-payer system of universal healthcare that provides all Massachusetts residents with comprehensive healthcare coverage, including the freedom to choose doctors and other healthcare professionals, facilities, and services and eliminates the role of insurance companies in health care by creating an insurance trust fund that is publicly administered?