Last week, the Department of Education released a report showing that more students than ever are earning their MCAS competency in only two attempts (release). While the numbers may be true, the assertion that this is indicative of statewide education improvement is dubious at best.
Just last December, the Department released a report (release) (pdf) showing that students are dropping out of school in record numbers. And while the average drop-out rate has risen to 3.8%, the rates are substantially higher for students of color (6.3% for black students, 9.1% for Hispanic students) and students with limited English proficiency (9.3%). Most striking of all is the fact that 11th and 12th graders who have not passed the MCAS tests drop out at a rate over 10 times higher than those who have.
While the MCAS tests are not the only reason for a student to drop out of high school, the Department’s own numbers show that the dropout rates have steadily risen since the tests’ implementation as a graduation requirement in 2002. The MCAS is supposed to give our schools the information they need to help struggling students, but instead it’s pushing those students out the door.
To address this issue, I am the lead House sponsor of H. 561 (full text), a bill that would reform how MCAS is used as a graduation requirement. The bill, commonly known as the MCAS Reform Bill, would integrate the test into a multiple assessment system to maintain accountability while avoiding the problems that result from high-stakes testing, such as high drop-out rates and narrowing of the curriculum. The bill has been co-sponsored by 30 other legislators and has the support of numerous individuals and organizations with an interest in improving our state’s schools.
We are failing the students who need the most help and the Department of Education is calling it success. That doesn’t sound like success to me.
Carl Sciortino is State Representative from Massachusetts’ 34th Middlesex district, including parts of Somerville & Medford
As much as I respect and would like to encourage Representative of the Commonwealth to post, write in (under there own names anyway) to public forums. But enough of that. To the Representative if true education reform is to happen why not fight for the inclusion of and expansion of vouchers for public school kids. Especially for those parents whose children attend the public schools identified as failing in whatever assessment system you create Direct the funds set aside for education by the government to a better performing public/private/religious school of their choice. The parents’ choice. You can have no income requirements, and eligibility can be based solely on the success of the public schools. Give the power back to the parents in determining their child’s educations. A recent study has a very compelling argument that even a modest school choice program would help to alleviate the drop out figures. Drop Outs and School Choice
Hi Representative, and welcome to BMG! Hope you get some good feedback on your bill.
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What is your opinion of the current appeals process?
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Since 2003, over 3,000 kids who failed MCAS (i.e., those who scored below the minimum 20 points out of a possible 80 points) DID get diplomas via appeal.
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It used to be that to appeal, a kid needed 16 out of 80 points, but that was changed last year.
I appreciate your support in an effort to change the MCAS. It would be a needed improvement to see the tools used to assess education more accurately reflect education — that is, to expand beyond filling in bubbles and writing highly structured essays.
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Upon reading your bill though, while I agree about the section about multiple formats, it did sound similar to the MCAS Alt, though expanded to all students. This “alternative MCAS” is largely an exercise voguish education theory that says nothing substantive about a child’s education beyond the fact that he/she has a highly organized special education teacher good at tracking paperwork. What measures do you imagine to ensure that these “multiple formats” do not wind up as inconsistent, unclear, and burdensome as the MCAS Alt?
Good question, Sabutai.
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Just for those BMGers who aren’t familiar:
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Sabutai, just curious, in case the Representative doesn’t have time to respond to your query: what would a 10th grade MCAS look like that you’d support? More like an I.B. or AP exam? Like a college final exam?
Why lower the bar? Have we identified why these children are unable to pass this exam? My guess is that they are unable to read, write and calculate (with pencil and paper).
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I don’t know if the problem lays with the teachers (teachers unions) or the inability of the parent (most families I now understand are single parents) to foster an educational enviroment in the home. Back in 1970’s my wife was a sixth grade math and science teacher. Year after year she came home and told me the stories and year after year I would reach into my pocket for stuff for the kids. After that experience I vowed that I would work three jobs to send my kids to private school and I did. Then they went on to university. My kids were like every other kid, except we and the children that they attended parochial school with had parents that education came #1, TV and that other nonsense was #2.
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Point being, you can’t legislate involvement, encouragement, and educational discipline and teachers can’t perform impossible tasks with children who have zero motivation, desire and discipline to learn. Add into the equation the proliferation of street drugs that have a lifetime consequence on the neurological staus of a child. I once had a volunteer tutor job with a kid who had been sniffing sparay paint and glue since age eleven. His brain was like an overripe tomato.
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Giving a kid a piece of paper that is meaningless is dishonest and cruel.
of the students who are not passing the MCAS in high school have a lot bigger academic problems than a 5 paragraph essay,reading, geometry and algebra, which are the basic 8th grade skill level you need to pass the exam. And one is being tested on 10th grade standards, multiple times.
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So, I respectfully disagree with this bill.
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Many lack any numeracy and literacy skills. And these were kids that would have graduated years ago, hell I probably helped pass some of these kids along myself. Sure there are kids with severe cognitive disabilities who need a different process, but LEP students need to be held to the same standard, even if it takes more time, they will be competing for the same jobs as native English speakers, doing the same college work.
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The appeals process could be reformed, but if go totally to local portfolios or something of that matter, we are likely to have the same experience as New Jersey and their grad requirements, where graduation rates sky rocketed when after failing a state test, they were allowed to do a local assessment. Did these students learn more so they are up to a h.s. standard? Maybe, or maybe it was the grand bargain that many urban schools have had with students, show up, behave and you get to walk with the cap and gown.
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I’m very concerned about the number of students not making it through high school but to say it’s because of MCAS? Don’t think so. How many of “those 10 times as many students” met local requirement for graduation? Would have failed because of attendance?
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I like the idea of additional requirements such as portfolios, presentations etc but these need to be standards that are higher and additional not in place of. I’m also concerned that students may not be as engaged without a requirement.
It’s no big secret that many public schools in Massachusetts are far superior to their private counterparts. That should be no surprise: we have the best educational system in the country, both in math and english.
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The problem is that not every community enjoys the benefits, but sending those kids to private schools will solve none of the inherent causes for a lack of education. They just won’t have to take the MCAS.
I have no idea what you are talking about. Massachusetts has always ranked at the top for education across the country. Here’s the 2006/2007 study for Public schools. As for parochial schools, at the time you are talking about, there were issues with curriculum that didn’t meet the state standards. So it was an unknown when you went to a school what kind of education your kids were getting. With the MCAS testing I think people are trying to have a better balance, I heard from more than one teacher that teaching children how to take a test takes away from their education not enhance it. Should there be testing? In my opinion, yes. But I think we can do better for our children to strike a balance.
…with the MCAS test being so important not only to graduation, but also to funding, is that teachers will be induced to teach to the test. That is faulty from a pedagogical standpoint for a number of reasons.
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I have no problem with standardized testing, I just have a problem with what it is used for. When I was in high school in the mid 1960s we had standardized testing–the Iowa standardized tests (I don’t know why they were called that–we were in Ohio–but they were). The difference is that the results were not used in the same way that MCAS appears to be used. The result were being used to determine whether the students were able to absorb the material, and, if not, determine whether different pedagogical methods should be used. Nobody was denied graduation based on the test, and the school districts were not penalized based on the test results.
I’m really happy to see the dialogue. I would particularly like to hear whether there are parents, students, teachers, etc who have experiences with MCAS (including the appeals and alternative MCAS) to share there experiences. In addition to what I see as the failure of high-stakes testing to actually produce better results and outcomes, I have been particularly disturbed by the experiences of those dealing with the MCAS as it has serious negative byproducts as well.
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On the escalating drop-out rates, some may argue this has nothing to do with MCAS. But that ignores the distinct increase in drop-outs since the implementation of the MCAS graduation requirement.
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But that is only one example of the problem of high-stakes testing. There are also the issues of the narrowing of curriculum (teaching to the test), and the elimination of subjects that students have the opportunity to learn. The state has a wide range of standards of what students should learn, but only test on a small subset of those standards. When budgets are tight, it isn’t surprising to hear how school districts are forced to drop arts, music, AP courses, and other coursework that aren’t a part of the MCAS graduation requirement, but what should be a part of a well-rounded curriculum if we actually want to educate the whole child.
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The MCAS test was meant to be one measure of education reform’s progress. Rather than being the assessment of education, the MCAS test has become the standard of what students are learning. And as far as alternative MCAS, it applies to a very small number of students, and adds significant additional burdens to teachers and schools, again taking away valuable time from actual teaching and learning. Unfortunately, while it may be helping in some cases, it does nothing for the thousands of students who are being failed by the current system.
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The answer to me, and I believe many who are actually in the classroom as well as those parents and students going through this educational experiment, isn’t to continually add more tests…we need students spending more time learning, not more time testing!
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I think the most critical assumption I’d ask you to challenge yourself on is this: has high-stakes testing actually produced a better educational environment and outcomes for our students? How about for the students who drop out? If students were getting by too easily before, and getting a diploma without adequate skills, what happens when they now still don’t have the skills, and also drop out earlier? Keep in mind, students are dropping out in record numbers in the 9th and 10th grades!
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One clarification on the bill as well: it does not actually eliminate the MCAS test itself. I am not arguing that having a standardized test as a part of an assessment is necessarily bad, in fact I believe we have seen some benefits from the implementation of testing. The bill calls for a multiple assessment system to be created by individuals with actual expertise in how to assess student learning and abilities (for example, higher education admissions officers, who can tell you why they don’t simply rely on the SAT to evaluate applicants!).
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There is a wide body of research on multiple-assessments, that can actually measure something valuable without creating the by-products we’ve seen from the MCAS. There are many helpful resources, but just to point to one, take a look at http://www.fairtest.org
That’s the key point, from my point of view: MCAS is self-contradictory.
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One of the most basic things in scientific research is knowing that there’s an inherent conflict between measurement and influence/control. A good measurement needs to be as independent as possible. The more influence something has over the process, the worse a measurement tool it is.
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Having a standardized test to assess how schools and students are doing, can be very useful. But by definition, that test must not have direct consequences. We can’t avoid it having some consequences, but the more direct they are, the less useful the test is as a measurement. It’s a tradeoff: do we want to measure, or do we want to control? We can’t do both with the same instrument.
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MCAS, as I understand it, was designed as an assessment, not as a tool for setting curriculum. Since it’s intended as a measurement and designed for that, and is not intended as a way to control schools and not designed to do a good job for that, then in order for MCAS to serve its purpose, we must remove all direct consequences from the test. It needs to play the role it was meant for, which is measurement.
I’ll look over your bill. I certainly agree with your concerns that the MCAS graduation requirement has played a significant part in driving many students to drop out. I think graduation, for many kids, is more important than passing the MCAS. And on the other side of the equation, the MCAS doesn’t challenge most kids who are college bound, but it does consume a lot of those kids classroom time and curriculum focus.
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I think portfolio-style assessment, which is what I believe you’re proposing, might be well suited for lower grades. My kids, even in first grade, are getting MCAS prep worksheets now. I don’t mind a bit of this, but the balance is out of whack. It’s time to take a breather and explore some other ways of improving education besides further escalating centralized testing. Maybe figure out ways to use technology locally and interactively, to focus attention on individual kids, rather than in the mainframe, command and control mindset of central testing.
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The ELA test for 4th graders is next week. I’m thinking of setting up a web site “waitingformykidsMCASresults.org”, to count down the days between the time they take the test and test results get sent back to parents. That’ll be about half a year from now, next October. The daily posts would be things like pictures of grass growing and paint drying, I suppose.
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Meaningful feedback for young kids ought to be given quickly after testing, at the very least early enough that parents can make use of the information to enroll in summer school or evaluate the proper placement for kids the next school year. Multiple choice tests should be graded and returned to parents within a week, and the essay and written answers, within a month.
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I think our Dept of Ed might consider a “graduation plus” test that is broader and more rigorous than the MCAS but which is not a graduation requirement. And perhaps phase out the tradtional 10th grade MCAS and its graduation requirement, and shift focus toward keeping more kids engaged in school through graduation.
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Your bill borrows from Duval Patrick’s “whole child” language. Has Patrick reviewed or commented on this bill?
The arguement is: There is a direct cause and effect relationship between the necessity of passing the MCAS test to receive a diploma and the HS drop out rate?
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Students so anxious and troubled by their perceived failure to pass MCAS drop out of school? Would someone please cite the research and the numbers. I would be also interested in why students leave for other reasons.
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Am I now to understand that private and parochial schools are graduating academically substandard students and are doing this by virtue of MCAS evasion.
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“A “graduation plus” test, broader and more rigorous than MCAS but which has no graduation requirement” , which has no meaning or consequence. Why bother take it, I certainly wouldn’t.
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MCAS was iniated years ago for a reason. We were and still are graduating students that are unable to effectively function in our present job market. So, the state legislature spent millions more and initiated MCAS. Our junior colleges now must have reading and reading comprehension tutorial services. Children are unable to do simple arithmatic in their minds or with an assist of pencil and paper. They have no idea where Europe is on a globe, they have little or no knowledge about the Revolutionary War, the Civil War, the civil rights struggle, the structure of our government or fiscal responsibility with a credit card.
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Schools tears ago were not the Taj Mahals we have today, they were boxes. Kids came to school with play clothes.
There were thirty to forty kids per class. A child was not asked to do anything, a child was told that he/she will or shall be properly prepared for the next day by learning XYZ. We were not concerned with self esteem, political correctness, diversity, drugs, sex, aggression & violence, our only concern was learning and do as you are told.
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Perhaps our state legislatures should spend less time pandering to the MTA local school committess who wish to build schools that are too large, enviromentally inefficient, and fiscally inefficient do to sky rocketing operating costs. Perhaps the legislature should cap spending for students who have “issues” and stop jamming unfunded mandates down the throats of towns and communities. Perhaps teachers don’t need aids in the classroom, principals with three assistant pricipals, superintendants with squadrons of assistants and vice/deputy superintendents.
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Education has become a black hole for the taxpayers dollars. The taxpayer is getting short shrift for his hard earned dollar. One can also place some blame with parents who are completely uninterested in their childs education and use scools essentially as a babysitting service ( read all day every day kndergarten)
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This is a problem that our society must reflect on—the legislature can only apply band aids.
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Our economy years ago was not as it is today. Kids who dropped out could find a job at the local factory. There was no expectation that 100% of the students would go to college, and although I don’t know what the graduation rate was, I suspect it was lower than today simply because there were less repercussions to dropping out.
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Society was also different. We didn’t have the same distractions. No video games, no MTV, no in-your-face marketing telling kids that if they don’t wear certain clothes, drink certain beverages, and act a certain way they will be failures.
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Families were also different, particularly with respect to the economy. It only took one parent to support a household. If things were that way today, a two-parent household could get by with each parent working 20 hours a week. Very few people today can afford that luxury.
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So let’s stop talking with personal-responsibility-speak while pretending that this is the only change in the past 50 or 75 years. It’s not.
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We clearly have a problem: kids are still dropping out even though the “penalty” for dropping out is higher. Did you ever stop to think that maybe our current system, while successful for most people, doesn’t work for everyone? One size does not fit all.
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Instead of simply writing those people off — as you appear to suggest — let’s recognize that if we support a society that dooms people without education (different from 50 years ago), we need to do everything we can to make sure that everyone gets an education. It might be more expensive — big deal! Change the economy back to what it once was, so those people are no longer doomed.
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Everything is connected, and you can’t just dismiss people who don’t fit an imperfect mold.