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Best Practices
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Raising the
Stakes on Testing
Point-Counterpoint |
Massachusetts Graduation Test Raises Barriers, Not Standards
CHRISTINA PEREZ
This June, Massachusetts will
become the first state in New
England to make receipt of a
high school diploma contingent upon
passing a graduation exam. Although
Massachusetts boasts one of the highest
college-going rates in the nation,
with three-quarters of graduating
seniors accepted to college, this success
will become a thing of the past
once the testing requirement takes hold.
As of November 2002, 12,000 members
of the class of 2003—nearly one in five
seniors in the state’s public schools—
had not passed the Massachusetts
Comprehensive Assessment System
(MCAS) exam. Students of color are
over-represented in this pool, with half
of Latino seniors, 44 percent of African-
Americans, and 65 percent of Limited
English Proficiency students in the “failing/needs improvement” category,
compared with 13 percent of white and
17 percent of Asian students.
A new report by the National Center
for Fair & Open Testing (FairTest) and
the Coalition for Authentic Reform in
Education (CARE) demonstrates that
MCAS will result in thousands of capable
students being denied access to
college once receipt of a high school
diploma is tied to the test. When college
acceptance rates from past years
are compared with MCAS pass rates
for the current senior class, the analysis
projects that roughly 12 percent of
African-American and Latino seniors
statewide who would otherwise have
been accepted to college will be
denied admission.
Data from individual high schools
show that the average percentage of
seniors accepted to college is substantially
higher than the MCAS pass rate.
For example, at the Jeremiah Burke
High School in Boston, which is more
than 95 percent minority, all the students
in the past two graduating classes
were accepted to a postsecondary
institution—yet 40 percent of the current
senior class still needs to pass
MCAS. At Lawrence High School, a
review of last year’s college acceptance
rates and this year’s MCAS
scores suggests that 33 percent of
students who would otherwise be
accepted to college will have that
opportunity closed to them. At
Fitchburg High, that figure stands
at 18 percent, while at Cambridge
Rindge & Latin High School and
Lowell High School, approximately
11 percent of seniors who would
otherwise be accepted to a postsecondary
institution will have the door
to a college degree closed to them.
These schools and the others
highlighted in the report represent
lost opportunities for thousands of
graduates. Individuals attending private
and parochial high schools and
those coming from out-of-state still
have the full menu of choices open to
them because they don’t have to pass
the MCAS test to receive a high school
diploma. Only Massachusetts public
school students face this hurdle.
This double standard will only be
reinforced by the state Department of
Education’s plan to grant “certificates
of attainment” to students who have
met all graduation requirements but not
yet passed MCAS. Certificates are not
the equivalent of a diploma for the purposes
of college admission, employment
or military eligibility.
One hope for students who do not
pass MCAS rests with the more than
50 school committees throughout
Massachusetts that have adopted
resolutions supporting full diplomas
for students who have met all other graduation requirements but not passed
the test. While the state Department of
Education has contested the right
of school committees to grant such
diplomas, an overwhelming majority
of school boards affirmed this power
at the 2002 convention of the Massachusetts
Association of School
Committees. The U.S. Department
of Education has also indicated that
students who have local diplomas will
be eligible for federal financial aid once
they are accepted to college.
Differences in admissions policies
between private and public colleges are
an important element in analyzing how
MCAS will affect college participation.
Given the demographic profile of the
students who still need to pass MCAS,
it is likely that most would seek admission
to a Massachusetts community
college or a public four-year college.
Within the Massachusetts public higher
education system, there is currently
no policy requiring students to pass
MCAS before being eligible to enroll in
a state higher education institution.
But applicants must have a high school
diploma to enter a state college or university
and some community colleges.
The Board of Higher Education could
adopt such a policy as part of a push
by the state’s political leadership to
force students to take the MCAS more
seriously. If this does happen, many
students’ access to affordable higher
education in Massachusetts will be
severely undercut.
This contrasts with private colleges,
which set their own admissions policies
and therefore have greater flexibility
in admitting students who have not
passed MCAS. Some private colleges
do not require applicants to have a high
school diploma; others have pledged to
honor the non-MCAS diplomas that
Massachusetts school committees have
endorsed. Several public colleges and
universities outside Massachusetts,
such as Eastern Connecticut State
University, the University of Southern
Maine and the University of New
Hampshire, have also said they will
consider Massachusetts applicants
with “non-MCAS” local diplomas.
In effect then, Massachusetts public
school students will be disadvantaged
in the admissions process within
their own state’s public college and
university system, while out-of-state
and private colleges keep their
institutions accessible.
MCAS proponents have argued that
even though the state’s pipeline to
higher education has been very
robust, “borderline” students do not
succeed once they enter college. Data
from Measuring Up 2002, the recent
report of the National Center for
Public Policy and Higher Education,
undermines this myth. No state ranks
above Massachusetts in the percentage
of freshmen at four-year colleges
who return for their sophomore year
nor in the percentage of students who
earn a bachelor’s degree within five
years of high school graduation.
These data indicate that public
schools are already doing a good job
preparing many students for higher
education and of devising admissions
policies that attract academically
capable student bodies. The notion
that MCAS is needed in order to fix
an ailing higher education system
doesn’t match the available evidence.
The evidence also contradicts the
claim by test proponents that only
educationally unprepared students
will be denied a diploma and that
MCAS is somehow saving these students
from having a diploma that “means nothing.”
Given the damage that MCAS will
cause and the high standards already
in place within the K-16 system, the
Massachusetts Legislature and state
Department of Education should
immediately suspend the testing graduation
requirement. Colleges and universities
concerned about how MCAS
will undermine educational equity
and limit access to higher education
should join the many institutions that
have pledged to consider applicants
regardless of MCAS. Without these
efforts, thousands of qualified graduates
will have important educational
opportunities closed to them.
_________________________________________________________________________________________
Christina Perez is an advocate for university
testing reform with the Cambridge, Mass.-
based National Center for Fair & Open Testing
(FairTest). The MCAS report from FairTest
and CARE is available at www.fairtest.org.
Will We Hear the Message...Or Shoot the Messenger?
ABIGAIL THERNSTROM
The day is approaching when some
Massachusetts seniors will be
leaving high school without state recognized
diplomas, although they will
have fulfilled all the traditional graduation
requirements. The problem: they
will have failed to pass the 10th-grade
MCAS exam in math and English
language arts. Making matters more
painful, a disproportionately high number
of those denied diplomas will be
African-American or Hispanic.
A clear civil rights violation? No.
It’s a heart-rending, infuriating state
of affairs. But MCAS is just the messenger,
delivering news about a problem
that we should not ignore. To do
so is morally repugnant, as well as
dangerous to American society.
Today, the typical non-Asian minority
student leaves high school with only
junior-high skills. And yet roughly
75 percent of African-Americans and
70 percent of Hispanics (who have been
in the country since at least eighth
grade) go on to postsecondary education,
according to the U.S. Department
of Education’s National Education
Longitudinal Study (NELS). MCAS,
some argue, will lower those numbers
and, thus, further disadvantage
America’s most disadvantaged students.
In fact, however, as every teacher
and school administrator knows, students
who enter college without even
10th-grade skills are not likely to
flourish academically. This country
has been highly successful in opening
the college doors to African-American
and Hispanic students, even to those
with extremely weak academic
records. The problem in higher education
is not at the point of entry but
down the road. Almost 77 percent of
whites in the NELS sample started
college, but just 34 percent managed
to earn a four-year degree. For blacks
and Hispanics, the drop-off from the
start of freshman year to graduation
was far greater. African-Americans
were as likely to begin college as whites, but only 17 percent finished.
The drop off for Hispanics was almost
as large; 70 percent went on to higher
education, but just 15 percent
obtained a bachelor’s degree.
The extraordinarily high African-
American and Hispanic dropout rate
is no mystery. Students who leave
high school with skills at the eighth or
ninth-grade level can’t keep up in
colleges that are not geared to teaching
students what they should have
learned in high school. A high percentage
of college students take remedial
courses, but the more remedial
work they need, the lower their likelihood
of graduating.
At the same time, students with
similar high school test scores have
the same college dropout rates,
regardless of their race or ethnicity.
Equally skilled and knowledgeable
students—as measured by standardized
tests—do equally well in college.
A Boston Globe article in
September 2001 told the story of
Mayra Marquez, who was a junior at
the Burncoat High School in
Worcester. She wanted to be a pediatrician,
she said. But MCAS was an
“intimidating obstacle [that stood]
between Mayra and her dream,” the
Globe reported. In fact, it was not
MCAS, which simply assesses basic
academic competence, that threatened
to thwart her hope of becoming
a pediatrician. Without the skills that
MCAS tests, Mayra was unlikely to
make it through college, medical
school and medical boards.
At worst, MCAS will discourage
unprepared students from pursuing
unrealistic dreams. More likely, however,
the new demand will encourage students
like Mayra, their families, schools,
school districts and the state to try
harder, raising the number of youngsters
who have the skills and knowledge
to do well in college and beyond.
Indeed, so far, that seems to be the
story. The state is certainly trying
harder, with more equitable education
funding to ensure more equitable educational
outcomes. The gap between
per-pupil expenses for the 25 percent
highest-spending districts and the
25 percent lowest-spending districts
was 40 percent in 1993; that number
has now been reduced to 3 percent.
It is a real triumph of public policy
and the strongest possible signal of
the state’s commitment.
The Massachusetts Department of
Education has worked with hundreds
of educators to develop curriculum
frameworks in English and math that
have been recognized by nonprofit
groups such as Achieve Inc. and the
Education Trust, among others, as
national models. The MCAS math and
English tests, themselves, have also
been held up as models of good tests,
well-aligned with the standards and
using open-ended response questions
to assess the ability of students to
think analytically and present well organized
evidence.
But none of this investment and
hard work would accomplish much,
history tells us, without reasonable
stakes attached. The proof is right in
front of us. The 10th-grade MCAS
became a high school exit exam for
the first time with the class of 2003;
when the assessment started to count,
scores began to climb dramatically.
Consequences, in other words, change
the level of student effort; students
could do better, we learned. And so
could educators. Effort—inspired by
inadequate academic performance on
a statewide test—pays off.
Our goal has been ambitious, but
in English we are very nearly there.
We now have 90 percent passing rates
for the class of 2003 and 86 percent
(after just one try on the test) for the
class of 2004. Two-thirds of African-
American students in the class of
2004 passed the test this past spring,
which was the first time they took it.
For those who did not make it, small
instructional groups, individual tutoring
and other forms of help, including
post-12th-grade programs at community
colleges and elsewhere, will be available.
Districts can also choose to issue
a “certificate of attainment” to students
who fall short on the last available
MCAS retest, but who have otherwise
met all graduation requirements and
maintained an attendance record of
at least 90 percent. State community
colleges have promised to accept these
students into remedial programs, and
federal financial aid may be available.
Without the MCAS graduation
requirement, there is every reason to
believe that students without minimal
math and literacy skills would have
been ignored—a long and dishonorable
tradition. Instead, Massachusetts
this year is pouring $50 million into
remediation, $30 million of which will
go to high schools—a remarkable and
unprecedented commitment. Students
are receiving support, attention and
resources that simply didn't exist
before. The result: with each retest,
thousands of previously failing
students in the class of 2003 are
making it over the bar.
Those test scores are not the only
measure of a good education. High
school graduates should be responsible
citizens and caring people, as well
as competent in math. But disciplined
minds and an understanding of history,
science and other basic subjects
are not only essential to individual
welfare; an educated citizenry is the
foundation upon which a good society
and a democratic polity rest.
Students who do not acquire basic
skills and knowledge by the end of
high school or soon thereafter are not
likely to catch up with their more prepared
peers down the road. And most
tragically, if we do not insist that all
students meet 10th-grade academic
standards—and insist simultaneously
that schools provide the help they
need—a high proportion of those left
behind will be black and Hispanic
youngsters. The result will be persistent
racial and ethnic inequality—that
old story that never seems to end.
Those who care about civil rights
should embrace MCAS. The test
results are telling schools, students
and parents what they may not want
to hear. But those results point to a
problem too long ignored. And they
are already forcing change.
_________________________________________________________________________________________
Abigail Thernstrom
is a member
of the Massachusetts state board
of education, a senior fellow at the
Manhattan Institute and a commis-
sioner on the U.S. Commission on
Civil Rights.
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