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Haverhill School Committee members last Thursday chose to take no position on whether to support a ballot initiative that would remove the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System—or MCAS, as a graduation requirement.
As WHAV reported previously, Committee members debated Oct. 14 the proposed elimination of the graduation requirement.
Committee members last week also debated whether to support a fresh resolution brought forward by member Yonnie Collins.
“I think this is pivotal for our students who are left behind often, those who are English as a Second Language, those who have special learning needs—they’re the students who are impacted most by this,” she said.
The testing standard, which has been in place since the Massachusetts Education Reform Act was passed in 1993, requires high school sophomores to successfully meet certain English Language Arts, mathematics and science and technology standards.
Collins said the test “exacerbates” some students’ “intellectual limitations.”
“Moving forward, we can focus as a team and as a board on a curriculum that is robust and evidence based and that empowers creativity in our teachers to get the information across and not a standardized test that fully encompasses the needs of all of our students,” she said.
Collins’ resolution calls the standard as a graduation requirement “punitive” and that it restricts city curriculum.
“[It has] shifted the focus of education in our public schools toward meeting a test score instead of fostering an environment of creativity, critical thinking and real teaching and learning that helps students reach their full potential,” she said.
Member Thomas Grannemann, who has previously opposed the ballot initiative and called the exam “woefully inadequate in assessing the accomplishments of our students or the performance of our teachers,” voiced his opposition to the resolution.
“Even though I recognize many of the limitations of MCAS, I think on balance, MCAS is more helpful than harmful in helping the state and our district meet high standards and our educational goals,” he said.
He acknowledged that the test has “biases that we need to address.”
Member Gail M. Sullivan voiced concern over removing the standard without a replacement. “What this is saying is that each district will certify that our students will have satisfactorily completed coursework,” she said. “How do we compare our progress or how we’re doing with everybody else because if every district is saying that ‘yes, the students have met this,’ we can’t have any discussion.”
She added, “Right now, we could say that Fall River did a great job in reading achievement and we didn’t, why is that? This would eliminate any way to compare ourselves to any like districts.”
She later cited Oct. 11 reporting from the Boston Globe, which found that half of Massachusetts high schools do not abide by state recommended graduation requirements.
Vice Chairman Paul A. Magliocchetti, though supportive of eliminating the graduation requirement, opposed the resolution proposed to the committee.
Mayor Melinda E. Barrett said she has already voted yes on Question 2 and called the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education and the legislature “complacent” on improving the exam. “I don’t know that they will ever change it because no one is making them,” she said. “Even if this is a close vote, I think maybe they’ll consider looking at what they’re doing.”
The Committee opted not to take a position on Collins’ proposed resolution.