As high-stakes MCAS testing gets underway this school year and opposition to the test intensifies, including by the state’s teachers union which wants to eliminate it as a graduation requirement for students, a new coalition is taking up the mantel to reform and preserve the controversial tests.
“It seems like it’s been very much of a one-sided narrative when it comes to MCAS and what it does or doesn’t do for students,” said Mary Tamer, director of Education Reform Now Massachusetts. “And we wanted to have a conversation and specifically reached out to folks who acknowledge the value of MCAS but also see the opportunities for improvement.”
The pro-MCAS coalition, Voices for Academic Equity, was convened by Education Reform Now Massachusetts and made up of a dozen education organizations and partners, the group said in a release.
The group released a report, “Toward a Better MCAS: Consensus recommendations from organizations serving the Commonwealth’s students,” on Tuesday, detailing “successes and shortcomings of the test” and suggested changes.
These areas of improvement focus on ways the testing structure does not include communication with families, puts non-native English speakers at a disadvantage, fails to include “items that are culturally relevant for systematically marginalized students,” fails to gauge “harder-to-measure life and career readiness skills” and could communicate results in a more “timely and efficient way.”
The report notes all recommendations “can be implemented without legislative action by the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education.”
The coalition also emphasizes the MCAS are “one of the Commonwealth’s most critical tools for ensuring educational equity.”
The Massachusetts Teachers Association, which has identified eliminating the MCAS as a graduation requirement, argued the group and release are misleadingly framing the issue as if opponents are moving to get rid of the testing altogether.
“Right off the bat, I’ll say they’re inventing a straw man,” said MTA president Max Page, adding that the union is “trying to eliminate the punitive elements of the test, not eliminate the test with the Thrive Act.”
The advocate’s release does not name the Thrive Act — a state proposal which would eliminate the use of MCAS as a graduation requirement and end state receiverships of school districts — but does claim “pending legislation would eliminate the MCAS and undercut the state’s accountability system.”
“We implore state leaders to leave assessments in place as they are our primary tool for objectively understanding how our students are progressing — especially as we seek to quickly mitigate pandemic learning loss,” the report concludes.