The selection of a commissioner comes as Gov. Deval L. Patrick is asking the state Legislature to approve a bill to create a Cabinet position of secretary of education. He or she would coordinate efforts among all education levels, including the University of Massachusetts.
Supporters cited Chester’s leadership traits, administrative skills, strong recommendations from colleagues, and experience with unions and political leaders.
“He actually said it was irrelevant for suburban schools,” she said. “He is looking at multiple assessments, which I appreciate.”
State Education Board member Thomas E. Fortmann, a mathematics consultant from Lexington, said that Chester is committed to closing the achievement gaps between mostly white students in the suburbs and poorer, minority students in the cities.
“In Springfield, that is an issue that is at the top,” Fortmann said.
Education Reform of the 1990’s has played itself out. All it ever added up to was the belief that if students and school systems were beaten hard enough with test scores, education would improve. Education, unfortunately, is less a matter of laziness than it is dealing with the specific cultures where that education takes place. As Chester says, MCAS “was irrelevant for suburban schools.” He’s right.
At ELHS we’ve yet to graduate a student due to failing the MCAS test. We don’t drive kids out of school to boost our scores. Over 90% of our students will pass the first time they take MCAS (at least in English, I’m not familiar with the rates for math). By senior year, students have re-taken and passed the test. Those who fail receive mediation, though it’s questionable if preparing for MCAS is the best of all possible education. The day may come at ELHS when a student doesn’t pass by senior year, but it hasn’t come yet. And if it happens, it won’t be due to laziness or a lack of concern on the school’s part.
Driscoll regarded MCAS and testing from the more is better perspective. If students are reaching a certain level of achievement, he reasoned, demand a higher level. This makes less than it seems because MCAS tests aren’t particularly helpful in guiding or improving real instruction. MCAS tests sample only a fraction of what we teach in classrooms. Science tests, for example, don’t include lab work; English tests completely ignore some curriculum standards (class discussion and visual literacy) and provide so few questions concerning other strands that an inference concerning achievement is tenuous.
There are a few possible directions for MCAS in the future: 1) abandon testing altogether 2) increase benchmarks and push schools and students harder 3) preserve and perhaps modify existing testing and add other indicators of student achievement and school success. The first direction is politically unfeasible. The second is No Child Left Behind, perhaps with changes. The third is, in my opinion, the way to go. Teaching and learning are too complex to be meaningfully reduced to a test scores, and education is too complicated to be regarded from the perspective of 20 hours of work with a paper and pencil.
It remains to be seen whether or not Mitchell Chester will be able to affect significant improvements in Massachusetts education, even as educational secretary, but given the little information available right now, he looks promising.
–Mb