Opinion: The MCAS Debate
In November, Massachusetts voters will be asked to vote on Question 2, which seeks to end a state mandate that Massachusetts public high school students pass the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System (MCAS) in order to graduate. Here RBT Founder, Jon Saphier, gives his thoughts.
The Standards Movement has been a critical feature of the educational landscape for several decades, both in Massachusetts and across the nation. Its original intent was to address inequities across districts, create uniformity in curricular demands, and raise expectations for all children’s learning, regardless of a school’s resources or the demographics and backgrounds of the learners who resided there. An important component of the Standards Movement came in the form of the accompanying assessments which were intended to measure and standardize students’ learning outcomes across districts while holding teachers and students to high expectations for teaching and learning. Over the years, Massachusetts has often led the way in this movement. The MCAS test and associated Learning Standards offered a blueprint for those who crafted the Common Core State Standards and others in states who were seeking higher learning outcomes for all.
All of this occurred with the hope of raising student scores, but without the broad-based, well-resourced network of professional development and training that would have assured teachers’ (and students’) success. |
But there has been a problem with this system. While Standards were put into place, and accompanying assessments (MCAS) codified, districts often failed to do the most important part, which was to prepare their teachers with the expertise they needed to successfully implement these new and ambitious standards for teaching and learning. Over time, this resulted in a patchwork of test preparation, “teaching to the test,” and squandered instructional time, as accountability took precedence over teacher preparation. All of this occurred with the hope of raising student scores, but without the broad-based, well-resourced network of professional development and training that would have assured teachers’ (and students’) success. My book, Disrupting the Teacher Opportunity Gap (2023) lays out a detailed district-wide plan to systematically build teaching expertise while addressing the values and limited beliefs that may hold teachers back from the high expectations teaching that should accompany the Standards Movement.
Don’t get me wrong. There have been pockets of success. Many readers may remember when Brockton High School made the front page of the New York Times a decade ago. This school rose Phoenix-like from the ashes of awful test scores to national recognition. Several points should be noted:
- First, abysmal MCAS scores kick-started dramatic improvement. See the interviews of Sue Szachowicz , the principal at the time, on RBTeach.com website explaining how it all started. https://www.rbteach.com/videos/library/being-vulnerable-and-strong-same-time. Also view a second interview https://www.rbteach.com/videos/library/responding-toxic-behavior
- Second, this Phoenix didn’t look for quick fixes. It rose slowly and one step at a time over a continuous, focused 10 years of excellent leadership, consistent excellent leadership to improve teaching. All teachers became teachers of writing and of higher level thinking. The principal and her allies shared decision-making with a task force of 25 teachers, and they did all the PD themselves, using outside consultants to advise them on how to do it, but doing the professional development themselves!
The current problem is not so much what the test asks of our students, but the failure to support educators to raise their own belief in students and in particular to raise the level of teaching expertise to actualize those beliefs. |
So now this issue has come to our ballot boxes, and the general public is being asked to weigh in. The Standards Movement is not wrong. Neither is the MCAS. The accountability and consistency, with measurable outcomes, helps raise standards and expectations for all communities and helps align important content and skills that will truly make Massachusetts students college and career ready. The current problem is not so much what the test asks of our students, but the failure to support educators to raise their own belief in students and in particular to raise the level of teaching expertise to actualize those beliefs. And at last, provide districts with the training and resources that can realize the promise of this long-sought Movement, and the preparation that its proper alignment and implementation will guarantee.
This ballot question presents our voters and educators, which I have been for 60 years, with a difficult decision. On the one hand eliminating MCAS 10th grade graduation requirements feels like getting another oppressive weight off our shoulders and regaining some local freedom. Our teachers and administrators are wracked by ever more bureaucratic demands and top down requirements that obstruct us from using our time for good planning and working together. Lumping MCAS graduation requirements with all of this is a reaction that appears justified, but I fear it misses a deeper point.
Instead of lowering or eliminating our standards for what students should and could accomplish, we need to raise our standards for teacher preparation and support. |
We have a broken system for developing teaching expertise, and that is the prime reason we preserve the achievement gap. But instead of lowering or eliminating our standards for what students should and could accomplish, we need to raise our standards for teacher preparation and support. Otherwise we will let the bureaucrats slip back into deception and make themselves look good by lowering their standards.
Let's set the standards clearly, but not to punish districts that are low performing. Let’s preserve the clearly defined standard that all our children can reach. Give those districts that struggle more resources like Montgomery County, MD did to low performing schools: more Staff Development Teachers, a bigger share of the funding, more professional development, and a non-negotiable focus on more high-expertise teaching for more children more of the time. Maintaining the push of accountable standards is important enough to swing the needle.
Vote “No” on eliminating MCAS graduation requirements.
- Jon Saphier