The proposition behind MCAS testing is a simple: you must know certain things in order to merit a high school degree. Hence, an up-or-down test on the things you absolutely must know, and if you don’t pass, you haven’t warranted the degree. Simple, right?
Conservative-leaning individuals (“conservatives”, from here on out, though I prefer the nuance) are often supporters of the MCAS or similar determinative testing. I’ll throw out a bread-and-butter conservative argument, because where their argument ends, mine begins. Conservatives love to boil things down a single fact or principle: “Public schools are about education, right? I mean, Itâs why theyâre there, right?” Hard to disagree. Conservatives can go on a lot of rants from there, but hereâs how they apply the point to the MCAS: “If schools are there to educate, then a student who hasn’t been educated shouldn’t receive a degree.” Right?
The conservative argument is valuable because it is precise. Schools are about *this*; let’s talk about *this one thing specifically* and cut away the distractions. It’s not a flawed process. Rather, on this argument, we have flawed assumptions. Public school is not about only education.
What, then? I want to be very precise, because only a precise answer will satisfy a conservative.
Public schools are about turning children into adult members of society.
In making this argument, I consider the meaning of that which is at stake: graduation.
When a young person walks down the aisle of their graduation hall, wearing their cap and gown; when they shake the hand of the principal, and is congratulated by their parents and teachers; in that moment, no one in that room is thinking, âIt makes my heart swell with pride to look at young John and know that he has passed that final threshold of adulthood: the MCAS.â Not even a conservative parent is thinking that.
When people watch our high school graduates walk down the aisle, they are bursting with pride because their sons, daughters, nephews, nieces and friends have grown into such handsome, mature young adults. They are so strong, and so responsible. They have taken such great strides from the frail, bratty children they were so very little time ago.
Graduating from high school means becoming a full member of the adult community of this country. It means stepping over the line and taking full responsibility for your own actions. It means accepting a commitment of ethical behavior towards others. It means that others look on you as a full adult, and you stand among other adults as equals.
Responsibility? Ethics? These are qualities Iâd dearly like every single high school graduate to have. It would be nice if we could test for them, but we canât. It ainât a perfect world.
Prose comprehension skills? Quantitative logic? Canât hurt. But, there are plenty of wonderful people (and, plenty of people much more successful than me) who have neither.
I canât think of anything off the cuff that you could write on a piece of paper that would serve as a universal cut-off for whether someone graduated high school. But if I could, I donât think it would include anything thatâs currently on the MCAS.
I donât have any children. But one day I probably will, and if anyone tries to keep my child-turned-adult from walking down that aisle in their cap and gown because they couldnât master some standardized test, theyâd better batten down the hatchesâ¦because they will be catching one heck of a firestorm from this concerned parent.
i’ll skip the mcas debate and get to your label….
<
p>
let me get this straight: anyone who is pro-MCAS is “conservative?”
<
p>
you mean the Connecticut NAACP – which recently filed a lawsuit in FAVOR of standardized tests there (the AG, trying to score political points with the teachers union, has tried to avoid No Child Left Behind) – is conservative?
<
p>
kennedy, kerry, patrick, gabs, reilly, bill clinton, hillary clinton, tom birmingham (who brokered the MCAS deal in 1993), the citizens commission for civil rights – all of whom reject your reasoning – are conservative?
<
p>
wow, i never thought of them that way.
<
p>
their view is that the status quo forces tolerate gigantic achievement gaps – the MCAS exposes that black and hispanic 8th graders in massachusetts have the same math and literacy levels as 4th grade white and asian kids.
<
p>
their view is that doubling and tripling per pupil spending has not solved this. cambridge for example has one of the largest gaps in the entire NATION b/w outcomes for white and black kids. yet cambridge spends more than every lily white suburb – more than wayland, weston, et al.
<
p>
their view is that leaving the achievement gap intact – that your position – is actually conservative.
<
p>
hey, maybe you can get a discount on your NRA membership.
There is a gap between the achievement of black and white students, but I am skeptical that it is one of the largest in the nation. I presume you’d be using NAEP to judge the gap, because that is the one test with the longest history in our country which has been systematically administered across many states. Or maybe Stanford-9? I think Cambridge quit using that a year or two ago.
<
p>
As to the use of ‘conservative’ to describe high-stakes test supporters, that’s definitely problematic.
Good question. I don’t have a cite handy.
<
p>
Still, I used MCAS to quickly examine the gap between Asian/white students on one hand, and black/Hispanic students on the other. Some analysts break out each racial comparison, but here’s one quick example:
<
p>
2005 STATEWIDE MCAS Gap Grade 4 English Proficiency: 230%. That is, Asian and white kids in Massachusetts were 2.3 times more likely to score proficient than black and Hispanic kids.
<
p>
But in Cambridge, the gap is bigger. There the Gap was 300%. That is, Asian and white 4th graders in Cambridge were 3 times more likely to score proficient than black and Hispanic 4th graders.
<
p>
Brookline provides an interesting contrast to Cambridge. Check out their aggressive approach to the Gap.
Please find that link.
<
p>
When I was a teacher at the Cambridge public high school, there were many students who moved in and out–rather unstable lifestyles. (When your poor, you move when you have to, not when you want to) But our Mathematics Coordinator, Maurice Page, was very firm in telling me that the data showed that CPS did a good job with the kids who had been in the district for several years.
<
p>
Of course, I think the big point here is that Cambridge spends $13000 per pupil per year, and the state mean per pupil expenditure is around $7,700. I think the second highest district is around $9,000. With so much money available, any instance of poor performance will automatically draw the ire of the taxpayers.
<
p>
I have to say, though, having taught in Houston when Rod Paige (Bush’s first Sec. of Educ.) was superintendent, and having taught in Seattle (whose superintendent Joey Olshevsky left behind a $20 million deficit), I feel angry that those states didn’t fund their kids’ educations anywhere near the Cambridge level. And those Houston and Seattle kids missed opportunities because of it. Opportunities that Cambridge students have, and have benefitted from.
I didn’t say that only conservatives supported the MCAS, I just said that conservative-leaning individuals tended to support it. I didn’t know all of the Democrats/liberals you named supported MCAS, but it doesn’t contradict what I said.
I live in Cambridge, and we all know that our public schools aren’t quite all that they could be. I’m living in my current apartment because the prior residents reached that same conclusion, and moved to Belmont as their oldest was reaching kindergarten age.
But all that doesn’t mean that the MCAS is a solution. It certainly wouldn’t appear to have been a solution for Cambridge.
Well, Will, I am a parent of three kids with experience in the public schools, and, in my perspective, MCAS is one of the best things that has happened to public education. For two reasons.
<
p>
First, for too long, public schools have been passing kids along, particularly low income kids and kids of color, not holding them accountable for their achievement or lack of achievement. High school diplomas became useless because they stood for nothing. Now diplomas at least count for something. I’ve been a public school teacher and a public school parent, and what I say is a fact.
<
p>
Second, with MCAS – and by that, not just the test, but the whole of education reform – schools now operate according to standards, they have goals and objectives, and they are measured by a test. It’s not the be-all and end-all of education, but it is something. I’ve seen public schools transformed by teachers working together, coordinating their curricula, and focusing on student achievement. Unfortunately, the MCAS test is the only thing that makes all this possible. I wish there was something else that would work, but I can’t figure it out.
<
p>
The teachers that I know who were initially against MCAS have come to embrace it, and recognize that it has led to much improvement in schools. The good teachers also know that MCAS is not enough, and that there are many varied ways to meet educational standards. But for the life of me I can’t imagine where public education would be today without MCAS.
Ahh, but which is it? Is MCAS there to measure, or to define standards? You can’t do both with the same test.
<
p>
The fact is, MCAS acts as a curriculum: In just a few years, it has completely reoriented school priorities, including budgets, resources, and class time. Music isn’t on the MCAS, so it gets cut. Social studies? Not on the MCAS, cut it. Math… it’s on the MCAS, so increase class time spent on it, but focus: teach what the MCAS will test. Anything else is not important. Forget a whiz student who wants to explore topology, it’s not on the MCAS, it’s a waste of school resources.
<
p>
The fact is, MCAS is a rotten curriculum, a crappy, defective, awful curriculum for our schools to be following. It wasn’t developed to be a curriculum. The designers of the test didn’t go through a process of determining a great new statewide high school curriculum (something which I think would be a bad idea anyway, local autonomy produces better schools).
<
p>
Because MCAS was sold as a measurement so it was designed to be a measurement. But it fails at that, because it it redefines what it’s measuring. People who went through school before the MCAS took over should know that science calls for the opposite: to measure something usefully, you must try to minimize the direct effects of your instrument of measurement on the thing being measured. MCAS does the opposite, it maximizes them. (Ironically, it makes it much less likely that future high school graduates will understand that principle, because… it’s not on the MCAS!)
<
p>
So MCAS sucks at measuring, and it sucks at being a curriculum.
Despite that, it is our curriculum now, and our policy is based on pretending that it’s the great measurement tool it was meant to be.
<
p>
MCAS is distorting our education system beyond comprehension. And, BTW, I have yet to meet a single teacher who supports it being a graduation requirement.
<
p>
(P.S. I completed a K-6 teaching certification program in college, and student-taught in Brookline and Newton)
Cos,
<
p>
I take back my kind words about you from yesterday! 🙂
<
p>
Seriously, I take issue with your characterization of teacher opinion on tests.
<
p>
While there is not polling I know of that measures only teacher opinion on MCAS graduation requirement, the general public supports it by 59% to 34% (pdf). Presumably the 59% includes some teachers. Certainly I know some who do.
<
p>
There is Public Agenda poll data of teachers only. This shows few teachers in the nation agree with your anti-test position (18%, actually).
<
p>
Most teachers view standardized tests as a “necessary evil.” That is, sure, any test has inherent limitations; and any high-stakes tests will create some heartbreaking moments.
<
p>
However, some urban teachers prefer the tests to status quo ante because they realize that pre-MCAS, tons of illiterate kids have graduated from high school (social promotion). While these kids got to wave at graduation, they got slammed in the real world. Hence “necessary evil.”
<
p>
Even in the beautiful ‘burbs of Brookline and Newton, where you student-taught, black kids (often Metco) have long been (since pre-MCAS) disproportionately in the low-tracked classes, not the AP rigorous ones. (Surely you saw that in action).
<
p>
High profile standardized (imperfect) tests shine an (imperfect) spotlight on that injustice. That galvanizes some districts to take action: as I pointed out earlier, Brookline is to be commended for tackling the challenges head-on.
<
p>
Some other districts, however, prefer to brush this under the carpet and attack the MCAS messenger.
The general public often includes different groups with different experiences, expertises, and opinions, who think very different. “Presuming” that 59% includes “some” teachers means nothing. Presumably, for example, the 52% of the country who voted for Bush includes some black people. In point of fact, it includes barely 1 in 10 black people.
<
p>
As for the poll of teachers, it is most emphatically not a poll about the point I was making. What does it mean to “support” standardized tests? Did you actually read my post? I was talking about the inherent conflict between using a test to measure and using a test to prescribe an entire curriculum, and how, because of that inherent conflict, MCAS sucks at both goals. That doesn’t mean I “oppose standardized tests” or haven’t met a single teacher who “supports” them. It means that MCAS being a graduation requirement is a disaster. Do you have a poll of teachers on that question? I bet you’d find a very solid majority for my position that MCAS shouldn’t be required for graduation.
YDD, you seem to indicate that public schools in MA are performing better today than before the MCAS. I haven’t come across that perception. I’d be interested to hear your thoughts on that.
more students going to college, more students graduating from high school (?), MA students performing better compared to the national average, etc. You mention some examples of improvement; but they don’t seem to be “bottom line” improvements. I don’t know whether we’ve been improving in most bottom line criteria; my sense is, no.
Will – My perception is based on my three kids in Cambridge schools – one now in college, one in high school, one in middle school. My older daughter lived through the changes that MCAS brought about.
<
p>
Pre-MCAS, each classroom was a world unto itself, and my daughter often learned the same information year after year – like Egyptian history – because there was no organization to school curricula. A 5th grade teacher would meet a group of students from different 4th grade classrooms in September with a whole different set of experiences in all subject areas.
<
p>
Post-MCAS, each classroom is a part of an integrated system. The 5th grade teacher meets a group of students from different 4th grade classrooms in September and has a pretty good idea of what they did in 4th grade, and the 5th grade teacher is working the the 6th grade teachers to figure out what her 5th grade students need to do to be ready for 6th grade. This is particularly useful in a community like Cambridge where there is so many low income kids move during the school year.
<
p>
And as for MCAS totally changing everything in schools, and taking away everything else, that simply isn’t true. My kids still got musical instrument instruction, art, and Spanish, and, in Cambridge K-8 system, they even spent time working with kids in the lower grades. What’s different is that the curriculum is organized into a structure, and kids are frequently assessed to see how they, and the schools, are performing. The MCAS test is a small part of this.
<
p>
I am speaking not as a conservative, but as a big government liberal. I think that our state government should play a bigger role in financing public education, and I think it is doing exactly the right thing in setting standards and assessing progress. I don’t think that the anti-MCAS folks are liberal or progressive at all, more libertarian, like the 1960’s do-your-own-thing mentality.
<
p>
And don’t worry, the children of the anti-MCAS upper middle class libertarians, like my kids, are all going to pass the MCAS without breaking a sweat. The real purpose of MCAS is getting the schools to focus on the education of poor, low income kids. Take a look at the DOE website for examples of the kind of writing it takes to pass the MCAS, and look at samples of writing that doesn’t pass the MCAS – then tell me that you would be proud to see that young man or woman get a high school diploma while unable to fill out an employment application. The fact that public education has let down so many poor kids, particularly kids of color, by failing to prepare them to make a life for themselves is the real crime here. I don’t see how making public education work is conservative at all.
Standardized tests have become a necessary evil. But, they do what they were created to do – create standards. The biggest issue is funding – just like the infamous “No Child Left Behind Act” that many progressive dems originally supported, the legislation that created the MCAS system has been largely underfunded in recent years by the Romney/Healy Administration. That is where the real problem lies.
Of course it’s reasonable to worry about funding.
<
p>
But can you name the specific amount of funding you would deem adequate?
<
p>
In MA, No Child Left Behind was predated by 1993 Ed Reform, which established MCAS. So while some states have had to develop tests to meet NCLB requirements, MA already had things in place.
<
p>
Anyway, the state has doubled its education spending since 1993.
<
p>
There was a downturn in 2002 and 2003 but overall the trend line is very large increases. Some urban districts in particular have done well. For example, average Boston teacher salary (over $70,000) is now higher than in every nearby suburb – Lexington, Lincoln, Newton, etc. Per-pupil spending there is about $14,000 per year. It’s higher in Cambridge, lower in areas like Saugus.
<
p>
What is the amount of per-pupil funding where you would say “Okay, that’s it, we have enough to get the job done?”
<
p>
I read you comment this morning and wanted to respond. Thereâs a lot here, so bear with me:
<
p>
<
p>
First of all, MCAS really has little to do with the organization of K-8 curricula. The curricula are detailed in the Curriculum Frameworks created by teams of teachers selected by the DOE over the course of many years now. MCAS has historically focused on very specific areas in the elementary grades–Reading, ELA, and Math. Students, unfortunately, are still over-saturated when it comes to the staple history units, like Pilgrims, American Indians, etc. MCAS has not affected that; curriculum mapping has, though, in response to state frameworks. Those districts/schools that have aligned their curricula down to the grade-unit level have made great strides in eliminating duplication, but there is still a long way to go. MCAS, however, is not responsible for the reorganization you observe.
<
p>
<
p>
Whether or not a student receives adequate or rich instruction in the unified arts is a function of the schoolâs budget, not MCAS or the state frameworks. In past years, Iâve taught in schools that had to slash art, music, library, and K-8 language due to inadequate funding. School budgets are always going to preserve the core, which, by extension, just happens to bump up against MCAS.
<
p>
Articulation between grades and among schools is a natural result of organized curriculum. K-4/5 has historically not utilized a well-articulated or team approach but is moving towards selected aspects of the team model that have helped the elementary grades better coordinate their curricula. The middle school model, which is a specific instructional approach, requires horizontal teaming but puts less emphasis on vertical teaming and articulation. Even with the best of intentions, however, it is extremely difficult to find articulation in any meaningful sense beyond Grade 8. At the high school level, NEASC requires, as a curricular standard, that there be articulation between and among schools, but youâll be hard pressed to really find anyâand when you do, itâs by virtue of motivated faculty and has little to do with the Commonwealthâs frameworks or standards. In short, districts that have both fully developed and frequently revised curricular units as well as a commitment to mapping and modeling as a matter of course do a better job with curricular organization than those that donât, irrespective of their adherence to state frameworks and their MCAS results.
Thx lightiris, as well as others who have written very thoughtful and informative posts on this topic. I am trying to learn about how our public schools function and what kind of challenges they face, and I appreciate this. (lightiris, I’ll probably have to read your post several times before I pick everything up 🙂
In response to your post, while as I mentioned I haven’t absorbed everything, I’ve got the general gist that MCAS is not in the picture as much as other factors that affect curriculum. (You made this explicit under a different topic’s posting) I think there may be different sides to this picture (i.e. the effect varies from school to school). But what got me thinking about this issue in the first place was an article I read (sorry, can’t remember where) talking about how schools are having to adjust to the MCAS – it mentioned not just teaching to the MCAS, but in fact taking time during the month of February to abandon the regular curriculum and teach only MCAS prep. Has anyone else heard about that, or perhaps read the article? In any event, it seems safe to conclude that MCAS has a much bigger impact on some schools than others.
does make a loud thud, Will. Lost instruction during the week is problematic as is the pre-test jettison for review in content-specific MCAS areas. For me, in English, there’s not much to review, so it’s less intrusive. The lost instructional time, though, especially when the kids are testing in other subject areas (like Math & Science last week) is a killer.
I have taught science and math for 14 years, and my experience with the MCAS is entirely negative. I have watched teachers and districts scramble to meet target scores, with little or no regard to the richness of science education. The laundry list of standards on the MCAS results in curriculum that is a mile wide and an inch deep. More alarming is that the curriculum is edging out realy good education about real scientific inquiry in favor of lists of facts. It is becoming harder and harder for good science teachers to include really engaging experiments in their class – that is simply “not on the MCAS” – instead we are seeing a frightening reversion to the drill and kill/worksheet method of education.
<
p>
Quite frankly, what works to keep my own MCAS scores up is simply to cram for the test several weeks beforehand. It works to bring up scores, regardless of what was taught previously! And everyone does it! What does that say about the system we have set up?
<
p>
The data that MCAS provides is data that we knew already – kids from poor or minority families are at a disadvantage. OK, what do we do about it? MCAS provides no answers for that – just more data, and worse, punishments for those who do poorly. What kind of reform is that?
<
p>
What alarms me is that no state or national Democrat has the guts to call a spade a spade – this experiment with standardized testing is producing nothing positive, and worse, is creating a system where those who can afford it will simply opt out of the public system and we will be left with an even greater achievement gap than we have now. (Ted Kennedy ought to be ashamed of himself for pushing forward such an ill-conceived notion. It’s too bad no one has taken him to task for that on)
All the high school degrees held by the adults of previous generations are NOT proof of mastering Formal Geometry and Algebra 2. And this prevented America from doing what, exactly?
<
p>
When our legislature mandated this high-stakes test, it created an extra layer of bureaucracy for the kids who struggle with college-prep math. Since they can’t get a degree, they must drop out and enroll in GED classes to get a GED. If a student has already managed to pass his/her high school courses, spending extra time getting a GED is more lost time before they can become contributing, taxpaying workers in our society. Very often, these kids come from the bottom of the ladder of our society. They need a helping hand, not another bureaucratic headache.
<
p>
For more info, wonky people should look here. I highly recommend the one near the bottom of the page, entitled “Cut Scores: Results May Vary.”
…..”previous generations” is key to what you are arguing. The world is changing and as it does so those in it must become more educated to stay ahead, or even. I have the utmost respect for previous generations but the world has become more high tech since their schooling days and it nowrequires a more educated and technocally advanced work force. A high school diploma isn’t even enough now, the need for a secondary schooling degree is one the rise. I wouldargue that students today have to be held to a higher standard if they are to succeed, its a global community now and not a bit of it is simple. The MCAS provides a guidline of basic knowledge needed for a high school graduate if they are to be competative in this world community. As GoldsteinGoneWild points out Mass is falling behind the world when it comes to education, its time we fixed that. As I state in my comment below I think the MCAS has too much emphasis put on it, i.e. one’s diploma, but I do feel it is a necessary part of the system.
<
p>
~John
“Graduating from high school means becoming a full member of the adult community of this country. It means stepping over the line and taking full responsibility for your own actions.”
<
p>
While I would have to agree with you on the subject of one test being the end all be all of one’s high school career, I would have to argue that wouldn’t one have to accept their shortcomings as one of their own actions? Let me clarify. The U.S. has been falling behind the world in the educational sector, larger dropout rate, decreasing GPAs, and so on (I am recalling this from an article I read on CNN about a month or so ago, I haven’t recovered it yet but I am looking). That being said it is our responsibility, as “full members of the adult community,” to take responsibility for this and try to find a solution, i.e. insuring that those students graduating into adulthood are fully knowledgeable and able to compete in the global economy. If they aren’t then they will fall behind and our poverty rate will do nothing but rise, but that is another discusion for another time.
<
p>
Basically what I am trying to say is that as one entering into adulthood they should be able to recognize the need to have the basic skills the MCAS is testing for. And also I would like to note that you take the test sophmore year and have more chances to pass prior to graduation. So now that I have defended the test I will explain how exactly I agree with you on the issue of it being the end all be all desicion of graduation.
<
p>
While you clearly explained the emotional side of the issue I would like to look at the more rational, or for those of you who are familiar with Star Trek (oh yes I did), a vulcan-esk view. Having one test as the deciding factor is just flat out wrong, plain and simple. Having your fate decided in a few hours is unfair to the student, and an unsatisfactory measure of competance. There are too many uncontrolable factors, if one is bad at pressure testing, having a bad day, noise, and temp to name a few. I have personally seen it tons of times, students failing a test but aceing all the others, or a student who struggles on all tests but after a short convo it is clear they get the full grasp material. lets face it, all standardized testing is flawed, I think we can all agree on that, but should the MCAS be thrown out?
<
p>
No. We need the test in the system, just at a different capacity. Exactly how I am not absolutly positive, I am no expert in the field. However it has occured to me that it could be factored into one’s GPA, thereby still being a big factor but not as big of a stressful pressure. Standardized tests, such as the MCAS, are good guidlines for where our educational system stands, but they are not good factors in how one will suceed in life. Take for instance how major league baseball scouts used to look at possible rookies. They looked for body build and a good batting average, then it was discovered that on base percentage was a better predictor of potential. Reasoning, if they got on base they can score, or look at the RBIs one has, are they hitting in runs in pressure situations, and batting percentage doesn’t take into account walks or sacrifice flies. The batting average is the MCAS, a one dimentional way of looking at things, we need to create our own educational version of the on base percentage and RBIs if we are to fully grasp what it is one should have in order to graduate. Using the MCAS as part of the formula is important, along with GPA and classroom analysis (this involves more work on the part of the teacher, such as noticing student involvement, etc.)
<
p>
Some kids know their stuff, they just have a hard time getting it on paper under a lot of pressure. And it is my opinion that college is where one would learn how to participate in such an environment, and holding someone back from such a lesson is more detrimental then allowing them to graduate ‘witout the proper knowledge.’
I am interested in your thoughts on a new formula, though I’m not sure whether one exists or not, given all the flaws inherent in standardized testing which you name. For myself, I am (or, was) an ace on standardized tests. I blew the tests out of the water without even trying, while my classmates would study their tail off to get half my score. However, any confidence I picked up from that experience was misplaced; success in real life has not been that way for me at all. I am referring both to my performance in college and on the job, where I have had to work my rear end off to achieve success in ways which bore no relation to the SAT’s, GRE’s, etc (I grew up in VA and never took the MCAS). So I am the first to look at that general family of standardized tests as a wacky measure of real-life performance – even in this high-tech day and age which you reference in an earlier post.
I don’t have the answer for a new formula, I am simply calling for one to be created. This formula is not for a new standardized test, however it is one that will take into account standardized tests along with other factors. Your case is a classic example of a major flaw in our standardized testing, even though your from VA testing is similar, hence standardized. It would seem that if one does well on the test then they will have trouble in the “real” world, but if they struggle on the test they tend to have an easier time. As with anything there are exceptions. this is why I am in favor of a new formula that doesn’t depend simply on a standardized test, but that in conjunction with GPA, and classroom observations. Allow me to go more in depth. The standardized testing is important in order to set a standard for what students should know, however it can’t be the end all be all, the overall accomplishments of the student need to be looked at. So for grades the overall accomplishment would be their GPA, while for their well roundedness one should look at any extra-curricular activities they are active in. Also one’s performance in the classroom is a good indecator of whether they understand the material enough to speak on it competantly, as they will have to do later on in life. You don’t see people at an office meeting taking a test to solve the company’s problems, you see them working it out verbally. This would take more effort for our teachers, which is why I am in favor of a pay raise for them, they get paid to little for the amount of influence they have on our countries future. I am an advocator for putting more money in our educational system, especially for extra-curricular activities so that the students do have the ability to get that well roundedness necessary for life. So what should the formulua be, I’m still hashing out the numbers when I get the chance. I relize that any new formula probly won’t be perfect, its hard to meassure ones well roundedness, but I hope it will be a better prediction of those ready for entry into the adult community. I would love to hear your thoughts and suggestions, this is something that needs more than one mind mulling over it if it is to be succesfull.
<
p>
As a side note I spoke with Mayor Tim Murray who is running for Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts and he is appaled at the lack of funding for our educational reforms. Since there adoption they have been cut 30 percent and he feels that if it (the MCAS and other reforms) is to be a success we need to boost funding. Something I completly agree with, I am actually looking into the bennifits of spending more on education today. I believe that spending more today on education will reduce our future costs elsewhere, such as our welfare costs. One of my personal qoutes to freinds has been, “Spending more on education today means spending less on welfare tomorrow.” And from some of the reports I have seen this is true, I have two books I am going to recomend when I get home so I can get the titles such correct. I was unable to speak with Tim on his thoughts concerning my reform ideas,but if I do get the chance you will know. I hope I have answered some of the questions you have posed, if you still have some please let me know, I typed this at work so it was kind of rushed. Take care!
<
p>
~John
You wrote: “As a side note I spoke with Mayor Tim Murray who is running for Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts and he is appaled at the lack of funding for our educational reforms. Since there adoption they have been cut 30 percent and he feels that if it (the MCAS and other reforms) is to be a success we need to boost funding.”
<
p>
If that’s what Mayor Murray told you, he shouldn’t be LG. It would certainly be news to their city manager.
<
p>
Spending on Worcester schools is up 87% since MCAS was approved in 1993, as part of the Education Reform Act. In constant dollars, that’s a 47% increase. Almost all of that is from the state.
<
p>
I’ve long thought that any community which wants to undo Ed Reform of 1993 should be allowed to do so. That is, Tom Birmingham engineered the Ed Reform deal to provide lots more money in exchange for innovation/choice (a few percent of kids allowed to attend charter schools) and accountability (MCAS for all).
<
p>
Give back the money, boot the MCAS, explain to the parents who chose charters that they were jerks to leave district schools in the first place!
First off thank you for catching a mistake I overlooked, and that would be my own fault for failing to cross check the numbers. For clarification Murray is appalled at the lack of funding and believes that funding does need to be boosted, I should have clarified above that he did not give me specific numbers due to the fact that I caught him in passing. I received the numbers from a trusted associate of mine, my failure to cross check the numbers is absolute and and you have my apologies (this just goes to show that even trusted associates can make mistakes). I am grateful that someone caught my mistake, and since your reply I have done some digging of my own and here is what I have come up with.
<
p>
In the past fiscal year the Stateâs support for education in grades K-12 was 38 percent of the expenses of the State. Well below the 50 percent promised by the Education Reform Act, it is this sub par funding that Mayor Murray is referring to. To add to it our State cut per student funding, from 2002 to 2004, more than any other. Among this was an 80 percent reduction in funding in aid for those students that were having trouble with the test material on the MCAS. Funding may be up 47% in real dollars in Worcester since 1993, due to some excellent leadership perhaps, but the State wide funding is still below the promised 50 percent.
<
p>
~John
I’m confused as to what you’re saying.
<
p>
I may need to take the math MCAS.
<
p>
1. Are you saying that the Ed Reform Act promised that 50% of all Massachusetts state spending would go towards K-12?
<
p>
That’s news to me. Do you have a cite for that?
<
p>
2. The MCAS “80 % reduction” you mention is misleading. DOE spends $4 billion per year. They had a small grant program for MCAS remediation, and they cut that, instead protecting more money to go to districts (Chapter 70) to spend however they choose.
<
p>
3. The big picture here is that spending has ROCKETED in MA since MCAS was approved in 1993.
<
p>
I am a K-12 advocate and worker, so I benefit from all this money. In fairness, though, I think we’ve gotten more than our fair share compared to other needs. For example, I look at mental health spending for the poor, and that’s gotten the shaft because their lobby is far less effective. Or housing. Or DSS.
<
p>
4. This isn’t just about cash. While every school district always feels constrained, MA cities approach the Achievement Gap in different ways.
<
p>
Some city leaders contend that poverty and outside factors mean that while schools can do a little around the edges, they fully expect the Gap to remain mostly unchanged, that 5 years from now their black and Hispanic kids will still have much worse educational outcomes than white and Asian kids.
<
p>
Other leaders put forward a vision of hope that with hard work, the Gap can be closed. It’s hard work with no guarantees and lots of reasons to expect failure. But at least it’s plausible.
<
p>
You might explore whichi is the more prominent view among your own city leaders, and whether you are comfortable with that.
Schools on Cape get more like 14% from the state – and have more kids in the school lunch program than Dorchester!
or so it seems to me! Sorry i haven’t been on for a while, work has had me working too much overtime lately. Here are the sites you asked for:
âMaking the Grade”
[www.massbudget.org/KidsCutsandConsequences.pdf Kids, Cuts, and Consequences]
Chapter 70
<
p>
~John
Sorry the hyperlink didn’t show up for the second one, here is just the URL: http://www.massbudget.org/KidsCutsandConsequences.pdf
<
p>
~John
Thanks for your post. Personally, I support MCAS and also the other aspects of a high school education you describe. Passing the test should be necessary for graduation, but not in itself sufficient. Among other benefits, the test makes teachers and school systems more accountable — case in point, Cambridge, which has been trying to excuse the poor performance of their schools, in both relative and absolute terms, by shooting the MCAS messenger.
Full disclosure first, I’m a high school English teacher, so I have a dog in this fight and I’m not unbiased.
<
p>
I’ll be brief as I have to leave for school. I find the people who get most riled up about MCAS are those who have little to do with it. Now, please don’t take that as an endorsement of the assessment–it’s not. Here’s my take in a nutshell:
<
p>
1. MCAS is a deeply flawed assessment. The composition portion of the English test has reduced writing in the classroom to a formulaic five-paragraph essay challenge. Garbage. I hate it with a passion and think it has actually hurt rather than helped writing instruction in the main. The multiple choice questions are basically worthless, and the open response is especially egregious for reasons too complicated to go into here.
<
p>
2. MCAS does not speak to an entire cohort of special needs students who will never, in a billion years, pass this test as it’s currently configured and administered. Portfolio? Yeah, right. The test has been dumbed down over the years to sweep more special needs kids into the net, but there is still a cohort of students who will never pass.
<
p>
3. MCAS has, however, forced some standards into the classroom as a barbaric measure of teacher performance, but accountability is a complicated issue.
<
p>
A standardized assessment is not a bad idea by any means. We just need an assessment that is actually meaningful and valuable; MCAS just ain’t it.
<
p>
Please excuse any typos; I’m in a hurry and a bit late now. 🙂
“Public schools are about turning children into adult members of society.”
<
p>
Wrong. PARENTS are about turning children into adult members of society.
<
p>
Schools are for teaching facts and logical method by which to assess future facts.
<
p>
All this sentimental schmaltz about cap-and-gown and prom night is just that – gravy. IMHO, you adult life begins with your first paycheck when you become a taxpayer, which may come before or after a ceremony. Of course, I’m not an upper class person, and know many kids in their early 20’s who are self-supporting GED’s. And before you feel sorry for them, a car mechanic makes twice what a social worker does.
<
p>
The SPED argument is a sidebar – those kids will always exist, and will always need special accomodation. What’s wrong with testing them on what was in their IEP, to ensure comprehension?
<
p>
MCAS serves to demonstrate if your public school is teaching a rudimentary educational background. Before you complain about teaching to the test, consider that then, at least they know THAT much.
is so offensive porcupine. What about those children without parents?
<
p>
Actually Public schools are about turning children into adult members of A DEMOCRATIC SOCIETY, and lets not forget we are a republic.
<
p>
I am an opponenet of MCAS in throey and in practce. We can do better. I am all for accountability and assessment no matter how you spin it a standardized te4st is not an accurate asseeement of a child/student. We can do better. In other states a student can graduate by meeting minumum requirements and receives a regent type seal on their diploma and a note on their transcripts what’s wrong with that approach?
<
p>
“MCAS serves to demonstrate if your public school is teaching a rudimentary educational background. Before you complain about teaching to the test, consider that then, at least they know THAT much.”
<
p>
Fine flunk the school let the student receive their diploma.
Oh yeah,…… spend more on early childhood education and we can forget the MCAS debate
<
p>
For those who do not have their original parents in their lives, we have individuals or relatives who act in loco parentis, and that responsibility devolves upon them.
<
p>
Please advise – in your parent-less world – why EARLY education should be super-funded for the few while the majority are underfunded in regular elementary and vocational school.
<
p>
The problem with the Regent’s seal approach? Truth in advertising, aka bait and switch. Hire a ‘graduate’, find out they are illiterate, and get stuck with them as useless employees.
while some lucky children may find replacements for their parents not all do, surely you know that, and to diminish a parents role in the life of a child is ludicrous even for you.
<
p>
Do a goole search for the return on investment with early childhood education and who said super fund it, oh yeah YOU DID BTW it’s not in my parentless world it is in the real world.
<
p>
Bait and switch, ha ha ha ha, I cant tell you how many people Ive hired with very impressive educational backgrounds only to find out they had very little common sense…. but I guess they tested……… good?
You can disagree with me, but I do not think I have been rude to you.
really matter if you think you have been rude to me or not I am telling you….. you have. Your lack of insensitivity amazes me. To suggest children, or even adults as children who were subjected to horrible conditions and then to have you suggest they were parents is rude and perhaps even ignorant
I hope I can ALWAYS project a “lack of insensitivity” in my reasoning.
I would write more, but I need to run, but I wanted to throw out there that children spend much more time in schools than with their parents. They are probably disciplined much more often in school than by their parents. Plus, children explicitly are taught (or at least offered) a lot of material in schools that has a lot more to do with becoming adults than with book learning. Examples are sex education, and driver’s ed. (I could probably think of more if I had more time.)
The point is, both these facts, in addition to the gravy of my main post, support the premise that generally preparing children for adulthood is a core function of public schools.
Sometimes liberals and people who really want to fix problems have little patience in actually how to attack the problem. They tend to throw money at the problem to try to solve it and here’s a shock the problem is still there. Then a republican gets elected just by telling the voters he’s not going to waste their hard earned money. My point is that if there is no concrete and comprehensive plan to fix the problem then putting little money into it is essentialy the same thing as overloding it with millions of dollars. The MCAS is made to be a monster to those who dislike the test, and I’m here to say that’s not the truth at all. The MCAS is a very simple test that can be tooken over and over again if you should have a ruff day. A student who is on a path to graduation should have no trouble at all with the MCAS. If we intend to compete with China and India in the global economy than these types of test are going to be crucial in helpng Americans get good paying jobs down the line.
about those students that went to school an extra year took the test over and over and over again missed by 3 points quit trying got her GED has since graduated from a 2 year college on the honor roll at that, and has been accepted to a 4 year college. It has as much to do with the child’s type of intelligence as it does a “ruff” day. MCAS should not be a graduation requirement period.
But isn’t the GED a test? Is it less objectionable to you because it is easier than MCAS?
how did you get from my illustration of an intelligent person overcoming the shortfall of MCASA as a gradutaion requirement to……. it is l”ess oblectionable to me”. That is a huge leap on your part and I don;t understand.
much easier than passing MCAS. I taught GED prep for the Department of Correction, so I’m very familiar with the test. The tests are essentially comparable. The difference between GED test-takers and MCAS test-takers is generally one of maturity and motivation. The test, therefore, seems “easier” to the successful GED test-taker than the MCAS seemed at the time the student was–often repeatedly–failing it.
I agree that GED seems comparable to the Grade 10 MCAS retake. I haven’t examined them side by side, though.
<
p>
MCAS retake is a different test than MCAS. The harder problems have been stripped away. A kid needs to score a higher % on the easier ones that remain. In net, I think it’s easier to pass the retake than the “regular MCAS.”
Here’s an interesting bit of news from today’s Northampton paper:
<
p>
http://www.gazettenet.com/newsroom/index.cfm/2006/6/6/Area-MCAS-success-rate-soars
<
p>
(followup story is pay content, like nearly all of the Gazette site, I’m afraid)
<
p>
When MCAS was started it was supposed to be a floor of achievement — checking the basic math and writing skills that the normal student should reach by 10th grade or so. It looks like (if this article is to be trusted) that we might have reached the point in the Valley where nearly everyone is reaching this floor, and the schools can worry about the more general, holistic measures of achievement that many rightly consider more important.
<
p>
We are a fairly affluent area, but the “13 Gazette area schools” include some pretty poor Latino areas in South Hadley, some decidedly non-affluent public housing projects in Amherst, and Smith Voke, which contains mostly non-college-bound students. Of course students who have dropped out of school rather than take the MCAS don’t show up on these stats, and are not talking about dysfnctional urban school systems where MCAS success rates are far lower.
<
p>
The more difficult a system finds it to get their kids through the MCAS, the more it is going to dominate the curriculum. Like many posters above, I don’t like the pervasiveness of the exam — taking several days out of teaching for the testing itself, for example. But this news raises the possibility that we might reach the desired steady state where the MCAS becomes a relatively small part of life at the school.
<
p>
(Disclaimer: This is an academic issue for me in many respects because my only child is at a private high school, which we get for free because her mom teaches there. And the public high school in Amherst, where I live and pay property tax, is pretty good. So I’m not arguing that my moderately pro-MCAS perspective is the only one by any means.)