Versus: Should MCAS Be Removed as a Graduation Requirement?

November 30, 2024

(Source: Ben Choi-Harris (I))

Yes, MCAS Should Be Removed.

By Harry Dinh (IV)
Contributing Writer

Every year, Massachusetts students from grades three to ten are required to take the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System (MCAS)and the stakes are high: failure to pass the test in tenth grade means no high school diploma come senior year. The passage of Question Two this November thankfully eliminates that requirement. Adrlthough most Boston Latin School students rejected the proposal in a mock election, the end of the MCAS graduation requirement benefits students as a whole across Massachusetts.
The biggest beneficiaries of the passage of Question Two are English as a Second Language (ESL) learners. A study conducted by Brown University showed that in Louisiana, there was a seven percent increase in the number of ESL students graduating from high school after their standardized test was removed as a graduation requirement. Standardized tests unfairly punish ESL students who grasp the content they are learning but cannot demonstrate this due to language barriers.
BLS ESL teacher Dr. Kelly Sample explains, “A lot of the issues that [ESL] students might face are due to language obstacles and not actual content knowledge, so [the MCAS] may not have been an accurate representation of what they actually knew.” ESL students should not be denied a diploma solely because they do not understand English as well as their peers.
Before Question Two passed, Massachusetts was one of only eight states that still maintained a “high stakes” test for students to graduate. These tests represent a disproportionate amount of a student’s academic performance and do not sufficiently prepare students for higher education and life.
Instead of a single test that determines everything, there can be alternatives to make measuring student growth and comprehension more accurate. For example, the Massachusetts Consortium for Innovative Education Assessment is currently working with school districts to design performance-based assessments for students to demonstrate their understanding.
BLS ESL teacher Mrs. Caroline Falcone Dolan furthers, “Teachers [could] gather work samples from students over time [and] that could show their growth […] and what they’ve learned.” These alternative assessments remove the “high-stakes” of the MCAS that students stress over.
Test scores for the MCAS at BLS are relatively high compared to other schools in the state. The curriculum of BLS is more rigorous, which means the MCAS is inaccurate in measuring student growth and demonstrating what they have learned. Andy Yu (II) states, “The teaching [at BLS] goes a lot farther beyond what the MCAS assesses for, so […] we’ve soared above that bar.” When a school far exceeds the state standard, a standardized test does nothing to assess student growth.
Some may be concerned that without a standardized test, there will be no benchmark to track students’ performance. The removal of the MCAS, however, only impacts the graduation requirement — the test itself does not go away. Teachers can still use the MCAS data to assess student performance and modify their teaching methods.
However, although standardized tests can point out poor student performance, they fail to provide solutions with how to improve it and help students who struggle. Yu points out that “the problem is that we are not doing enough to bring those students who are doing poorly and make them perform better.” If the assessment that measures student progress is not helping those who are struggling, then what benefit is there to still have it?
The removal of the MCAS as a graduation requirement decreases barriers for ESL students and disparities in graduation rates. The removal of one test that determines everything will allow room for lower-stress assessments that more closely assess student comprehension and growth throughout the year.

No, MCAS Should NOT Be Removed.

By Atticus Scovel (II)
Contributing Writer

Nobody likes taking the MCAS. You sit in the dining hall for a few hours, four or six days a year. Most people are bored. Some are nervous. Despite the annoyance it may cause, we still need to take it.
In November, nearly 60 percent of Massachusetts voters decided to remove the MCAS as a high school graduation requirement. These voters had reasonable and well-considered rationales for voting as they did: the potential for standardized testing to exacerbate inequality, the concern of teachers “teaching to the test” and students being unable to get jobs solely because they cannot pass the test, among other reasons.
All of these reasons, however, stem from a single concern: public education is failing Massachusetts kids. Removing a standardized test will not fix any of that.
Many argue that standardized tests like the MCAS cause teachers to “teach to the test” and not focus on meaningful skills. Director of the McCarthy Center Ms. Rose Delorme Metayer argues against this concern, saying that “[Schools are not] supposed to be spending months teaching the MCAS because it should just be built into your standards […] You teach children to high levels of curriculum and all else will fall in place.”
Additionally, teaching the skills covered in the MCAS is actually beneficial for students. Unlike many assessments which contain niche content with little real world significance, the questions on the MCAS assess important and applicable skills like reading comprehension, interpreting data and problem solving with math. Having a test that assesses these skills forces teachers to ensure that students understand them, since teachers and schools have an outside benchmark to which they are accountable.
Another frustrating aspect of the MCAS being abolished as a graduation requirement is the negligible amount of planning that went into it. “I don’t even think we went into this removal of the test with a plan,” says Ms. Delorme-Metayer. “[And] who is at stake? All young people.” The removal of the test did not include any form of a holistic plan to accompany the change. The change was instituted in order to solve problems with the system, but very little discussion took place as to what specifically those problems were and what alternative ways there might be to address them.
The primary goal of standardized tests like the MCAS is to keep schools accountable and ensure that students are being provided with a quality education. “To not have a statewide graduation standard feels scary,” says Ms. Delorme Metayer. “When you live in a town where the [median] home [price] is in the millions, your school community will always have access to rigorous and high quality teaching […] To say that those schools who are already well-resourced, [won’t] have to compare standards to other districts [poses a major problem].” Ms. Delorme Metayer argues that the removal of standardized tests can potentially exacerbate socioeconomic differences and inequities between schools and districts.
Opponents of the MCAS argue that it prevents kids who have attended high school but cannot pass the exam from getting jobs. BLS science teacher Ms. Gina Castellanos-Ellsworth argues, “For the students across Massachusetts that don’t get a diploma because of the MCAS, what is their future? What are their job prospects now that they don’t have a diploma?” While this argument is a powerful one, it misses a crucial point: the skills that are tested on the MCAS are themselves necessary for the majority of jobs. Most jobs that do not require skills such as mathematical problem solving, reading comprehension and writing composition (the skills required to pass the MCAS) will not require a high school diploma either.
We, as citizens, parents, teachers and students must ensure that we educate our children and provide them with opportunities later in life. In a perfect world, students would not need to spend 20 hours a year taking a test, but as it stands, the MCAS requirement ensures that school systems are providing students with the necessary skills to succeed later in life.