Students praise vote to nix MCAS as graduation requirement

This November, voters in Massachusetts approved Question 2 on the ballot, which eliminated the MCAS (Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System) as a high school graduation requirement. This shift marks a major change in the state’s educational history.

The MCAS was created in 1993 as part of the Education Reform Act. While students take the test in grades 3-8 and in grade 10, they had to pass the tenth-grade test by senior year, with few exceptions, in order to graduate from high school with a state-certified diploma.

According to state officials, the test was administered to help teachers, parents, and students gauge how much students know, to find out where they excelled versus where they needed help.

The law immediately eliminates the requirement for students to pass the MCAS or any other state-wide or district-wide tests to gain a diploma. Instead, students can graduate by completing all their coursework and earning the credits required by their school district. 

The Committee for High Standards Not High Stakes led the campaign in support of the bill. They received $15.2 million from the Massachusetts Teachers Association (MTA). 

Protect Our Kids’ Future: Vote No on 2 was registered in opposition to Question 2, reporting 5.4 million in funding with the former mayor of New York Michael Bloomberg contributing $2.5 million. 

In the statewide vote, [2,004,216] voters (59.07%) approved the repeal of the MCAS graduation requirement, while [1,388,560] voters (40.93%) opposed it, with about a 10% difference in the vote. This marked a clear desire for change in the state’s education system.

I spoke to both ARHS students and educators about their thoughts on this groundbreaking vote. Senior Sanaa Johnson said while she did very well on MCAS, took honors biology, and got an English award for her MCAS performance, she still supports the vote. 

“I don’t think [no longer requiring passing the MCAS] will affect people negatively,” she said. “It’s just a state test to see if the teachers are doing a good job or not, and it’s most often based on the amount of resources a school has.”

Johnson thinks that after students graduate there are probably a lot of people who are “capable of succeeding in the world if they failed the English or Math MCAS.”

“I don’t think it’s fair to predict students’ futures based on their test grades,” she said. “I also think it would reduce stress for students because there is a lot of pressure placed on if you pass or fail.

An anonymous ninth grader agreed. When taking tests, she said, “I am always worried and pressured and when I’m pressured I can’t focus.” She thinks removing the test requirement is a good idea. “I think it will make it a lot better.”

She does not believe that the MCAS was an effective measure of students’ readiness to graduate. “No, it just stresses [students] out,” she said. She is relieved that the MCAS requirement has been removed for her graduating class. 

Eleventh grader Willow Burton called the MCAS “an unnecessary, stressful 2+ hours.”

”MCAS doesn’t really affect our learning; no one is studying for school just to pass the MCAS,” said Burton, though she noted, “in other schools, it might be different because the funding is based off MCAS scores.” 

Schools with lower scores may receive funding to improve students’ readiness. However, those schools also may focus on teaching to the test rather than allowing students to explore more creative and innovative curricula.

“Neurotypical people should never determine whether someone is ready to graduate high school,” added Burton. “Everything is circumstantial. [Education] should [focus] on someone’s overall performance in school, not just one test, especially considering those who struggle with test-taking.”

Burton wished the MCAS graduation requirement had been removed for her class, but also thinks the number of times students still have to take the test, starting in elementary school, needs to be reexamined. 

“I think it’s an even bigger problem that we had to do it in elementary school,” she said. “On my first ever MCAS in 4th grade, I spent the entire school day on my computer trying to finish it. I didn’t get to go to recess [and had to eat lunch in the test room] because I hadn’t finished it.”

Math teacher Geoff Friedman agreed that it was not a big deal for MCAS not to be required for graduation anymore and it would relieve pressure on students.  

“[Standardized tests] bring a lot of stress for some kids,” Friedman said. He also thinks they couldn’t measure what teachers could in a semester or year-long class. “It’s a test you have to take over a few hours, versus the thousands of hours you spend in your classes learning and demonstrating your learning. A lot of us question[ed] if it was a necessary and valid way to measure kids’ learning.”

According to DESE (the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education), schools can “determine the local graduation requirements in their district.” Students will still take the MCAS, but now, they will be able to show competency by reaching “mastery of a common core of skills, competencies and knowledge.” At ARHS, students who failed the MCAS in the past achieved a “competency determination” through completion of a Math portfolio, which will likely continue. 

Friedman said he knows that “all of the math teachers here [will] keep focusing on what matters, making sure students “understand concepts, apply  their knowledge, and truly master the subject matter.”

“In my humble opinion, we’ll take care of 98% of what the MCAS was intending to do anyway,” he said.

ELL (English Language Learner)  Department Head Ashleigh Sayer had a similar view on the results of the vote. Similar to students who failed Math MCAS, Sayer often worked with ELL students who might have struggled to pass the ELA MCAS due to still working to achieve language proficiency goals.

She acknowledged that MCAS has its place and can provide valuable data. “It’s not the worst thing in the world to create some sort of standardized assessment for students and it ensured some kind of general readiness for the next step in life,” she said. Yet there are many things the test cannot gauge.

“MCAS does not measure social skills, growth over time, tenacity, or many other factors that are a bit intangible but important for success in life,” she said.