In November, Massachusetts voters will decide on a ballot question to replace the standardized MCAS tests as a high school graduation requirement, and instead require students to demonstrate that they have mastered the state’s education standards, skills and competencies through their schoolwork and teacher evaluations.
Talk to your family members, friends and neighbors. Let them know Question 2:
We are going to need all hands on deck to win the ballot question to replace the MCAS graduation requirement. Making phone calls is a great way to contribute to the campaign without leaving home. The MTA is running phone banks from 5 to 7 p.m. on Tuesdays and Thursdays from now until the election. This is an easy option because you can dial in from anywhere, get trained, and start making calls in support of the YES on Question 2 campaign.
Public education advocates have notched a key milestone in their campaign to replace the high school graduation requirement tied to the MCAS exam. The Elections Division of the Secretary of State’s office certified the additional signatures needed to place the initiative on the Nov. 5 statewide ballot.
The ballot question is an effort led by the MTA, joined by other public education allies including parents, students and educators.
“We are one step closer to replacing the punitive graduation requirement with a renewed focus on our best-in-the-nation state standards and academic frameworks,” MTA President Max Page said. “This certification reflects the power of collective action; union educators, parents and community allies united to gather 170,000 signatures – more than any other ballot initiative this cycle and far exceeding the requirements to get on the ballot.”
Massachusetts likes to brag that it has an exceptional national reputation for public education, but in one aspect, it’s a straggling outlier. The state requires a high school graduation test for a diploma, which is becoming a rarity in the United States.
Massachusetts, which administers the MCAS-based graduation test in the 10th grade, is joined by Florida, Louisiana, Ohio, New Jersey, New York (which is moving toward a fairer and more equitable system in place of a graduation requirement), Texas, Virginia and Wyoming.
The ballot question to replace the MCAS graduation requirement will not affect the continued use of the MCAS as a diagnostic tool.
All ballot initiatives follow a specific process in Massachusetts. The MTA has already cleared several steps in getting a ballot question before voters to end the high school graduation requirement of the MCAS, but we have several more to go.
The proposed law would eliminate the requirement that a student pass the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System tests (or other statewide or district-wide assessments) in mathematics, science and technology, and English in order to receive a high school diploma. Instead, in order for a student to receive a high school diploma, the proposed law would require the student to complete coursework certified by the student’s district as demonstrating mastery of the competencies contained in the state academic standards in mathematics, science and technology, and English, as well as any additional areas determined by the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education.
High-stakes testing and the associated accountability measures have undermined our public education system for far too long.
Massachusetts is only one of eight states in the country that ties its standardized test to graduation. The change in attitudes about exit exams is likely related to research indicating that exit exams don't increase academic achievement.
The current testing system reduces time to teach, narrows the curriculum, adds stress and reduces creativity and misuses education dollars. The punitive aspects of the MCAS regime are especially detrimental to students with Individualized Education Plans, students learning English as a second language, students of color and and students from groups that have been historically marginalized from an equitable and supportive education.
When MTA member Jack Schneider spoke on the impact of the MCAS exams at a State House press conference in December 2022, he teared up at the emotional toll the standardized test has had on his own child.
The high-stakes nature of the test, said Schneider, a professor of education at UMass Lowell who studies the impact of MCAS and school rankings, "incentivizes schools to game the system, to do things like teach to the test and narrow the curriculum."
The high-stakes test has been a hot-button issue for students and educators since the Massachusetts Education Reform Act of 1993, which created the MCAS accountability system.
“This is part of a broken system that has been going on far too long.”
MTA Vice President Deb McCarthy