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The Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce writes to offer testimony in opposition of H.4252, an initiative petition that would eliminate the requirement that students pass the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System (MCAS) test, or any other state assessment, to receive a high school diploma in the Commonwealth. The petition would effectively eliminate any statewide standard to ensure our students have the basic, foundational knowledge and skills necessary to succeed in life beyond high school. We urge the committee to take no action on the petition and oppose this ballot that, while having many negative, long-term impacts on our schools and employers, is most importantly bad for students in the Commonwealth.
Undermining High Quality Education in Massachusetts
Passage of the petition would drastically undercut decades of state efforts to bolster and support a high quality and high standard public education system, beginning with the Education Reform Act in 1993 and reaffirmed with the Student Opportunity Act in 2019. The Commonwealth paired significant investment of state resources in public K-12 education with high standards and accountability of school districts to ensure all students receive a quality education. Firmly in the top-10 states for per-pupil education spending[1] along with high standards for graduation, Massachusetts leads the nation in student achievement and is recognized for having one of the best education systems in the country.[2][3]
Currently, the MCAS test provides the only statewide mandated evaluation of student achievement in the Commonwealth for a high school diploma. While the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) provides statewide guidelines, school districts are allowed to determine local graduation requirements and interpret state guidelines to form their local curriculum. Eliminating the state assessment, whether the MCAS testing requirement or some alternative, will lead to vast district by district variations on graduation requirements, curriculum, and metrics, with no universal or common method to measure success of schools or their students. This inevitably leads to lower, inconsistent standards, leaving students unprepared for future opportunities, including experiential learning, college, and careers.
Instead of the highly regarded education system we have today, Massachusetts would be left with over 330 different district standards for graduation, significantly devaluing a Massachusetts high school diploma. Eliminating our only statewide graduation requirement would place Massachusetts well outside of the norm, as 49 out of 50 states and Washington D.C. have comprehensive state graduation requirements and represent a huge step backwards in promoting high quality education for all.
High educational standards are important to the Commonwealth’s employers. Required statewide standards that emphasize a quality education ensure students graduating high school have basic skills and educational attainment, regardless of where in the Commonwealth the student received their degree and provides confidence that our students can succeed in the workplace, at an internship, in college, or in experiential learning opportunities – whichever direction a student chooses to take in the next phase of their education or career. The Commonwealth’s talented and highly educated workforce is one of our strongest competitive advantages, and why businesses locate, stay, and grow here and seek out our talent. More importantly, employees want to live and work in a state with good schools – especially when that state has a high cost of living. As we grapple with outmigration, the state’s schools are an area that attracts people to live and raise a family here. Lowering education standards only further erodes our ability to retain people in-state and diminishes the potential opportunities for students and their families.
Disrupting Accurate Metrics
Local school districts, today, are empowered to determine coursework requirements for graduation, utilizing statewide guidelines as a tool in developing local approaches. However, it is essential that local requirements are paired with statewide metrics that allow Massachusetts policymakers to measure, apples to apples, student learning and the success of our educational system overall. The MCAS test is currently the best tool we have to measure competence and equity in our education system across all school districts. And while the initiative petition does not halt testing itself (testing will continue as required by federal law), eliminating the graduation requirement will warp the results. Students predictably will not take the exam seriously or avoid taking the test altogether if there are no consequences or benefits to them. Illustrating the point, testing results among students dramatically improved once a graduation requirement was in place in 2003, compared to state results the previous 5 years when the MCAS was not yet a requirement for a diploma.
Importantly, Grade 10 MCAS scores help predict future earnings. Students with higher MCAS scores go on to earn substantially more in the labor market – providing vital insight into a school district’s ability to prepare student for a professional career.[4]
Deprioritizing Students Most in Need of Support
An accurate measure of student learning and baseline skills is critically important to identifying achievement gaps, prioritizing the deployment of resources, and ensuring equity in public schools. Utilizing the data we have from MCAS testing and competency determinations, DESE can identify gaps in learning or student populations that need additional supports or policy attention to improve outcomes and foster equity in our schools. And further progress is necessary to improve equity in our schools, as the data shows. A lower proportion of English Language Learners, IEP, Black and Hispanic student groups earn their competency determination in school than their White and Asian peers, according to 2019 competency data provided to the committee by DESE.
While this data illustrates the problem, proponents only point to the testing requirement instead of engaging in a conversation about how the state should urgently address these achievement gaps, provide new ideas for programming or instruction dedicated to these student populations, or recommending resources or changes to the assessment structure to deconstruct any inherent biases that methods of testing may impose on students. Many of these conversations are necessary and ongoing, but resorting to the drastic step of eliminating all state standards in education is a gross overstep that risks reconcealing inequities in education. Providing every student the tools needed to meet standards to succeed in high school and beyond should be our focus instead of tearing down education standards as a whole.
Inaccurate Portrayal of the “High Stakes” MCAS Test
Proponents of the ballot initiative point to “high stakes testing” as a one-time, high-pressure test with significant consequences for students that leads to disillusionment and in some cases dropping out of high school. This is an inaccurate portrayal of the MCAS process, the several alternative pathways to earning a competency determination, and the actual impact on the student population. In fact, more students fail to graduate high school because they do not meet local district graduation requirements than solely an inability to pass the MCAS exam.
As a reminder, MCAS testing evaluates 10th grade competence standards, as opposed to 11th or 12th grade standards. Looking at 2019 statistics on MCAS testing (avoiding COVID-19 era disruptions in testing), 96% of approximately 70,000 students earned their competency determination by passing the MCAS exam on their first try. However, the first MCAS test is only one of several pathways to earning a competency determination and ultimately a diploma. Students can retake the test up to 4 times, and most students that do not pass the MCAS in 10th grade pass during a subsequent attempt. Students also have several appeal avenues that may allow them to receive their diploma without passing the MCAS exam. In 2019, only 700 students did not receive a diploma solely because they failed to pass the MCAS exam, and in many of these cases, school districts failed to pursue all possible avenues available for a competency determination. The state must focus on providing this small percentage of students (less than 1% of the total student population) with the critical resources they need to obtain a sufficient score on the MCAS, or, an alternative pathway to a diploma. Instead, the petition eliminates the entire state assessment approach in one fell swoop when a targeted policy approach would likely provide much more benefit to these students.
Lack of an Alternative Approach to High Quality Education or Targeted Intervention
Regular evaluation of the MCAS test, and improvements to the state’s assessment mechanism, should of course continue. However, the initiative petition is a blunt instrument and provides no alternative state standards, no replacement, and no nuanced approach to consistent, high standard education across the state. To the extent adjustments are warranted to the state’s assessment methods or graduation requirements, thoughtful conversations among our policy experts, including DESE, state legislators, teachers, parents, employers, and teacher union representatives, are necessary to find a solution that benefits students. We have a responsibility to provide high quality education to all students in the Commonwealth, and high state standards measured by a state assessment mechanism are critical to achieving that goal.
We urge the committee to take no action on H.4252.
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