(last update: 24-Dec-2004)
The MCAS is promoted as the key component of the education reform, yet it is not directly linked to any specific mechanisms for improving education. When a school gets a very low average MCAS score, it does not automatically receive additional funds to reduce class sizes, hire better teachers, provide more books, or improve facilities. The state expects that the score itself will "whip the school into shape", but otherwise leaves the school adrift. It also does not offer any statewide programs for individual students who fail the MCAS.
The MCAS is just a test. Many believe that it does not reveal anything we don't already know. Just knowing the problems is not enough to fix them (more).
Last year, a large fraction of the 10'th graders failed either Math, or English, or both. Such a dismal outcome can only be explained in one of two ways. Either the test is too hard or the schools failed to teach the required material. In either case the test is unfair (unless you believe that the failing students are stupid or lazy).
The MCAS represents what we would like our children to know and what we would like our schools to teach. It is and it always should be forward-looking, ahead of what currently is. This means the MCAS is testing students on what we hope to teach, not what we actually teach.
The MCAS is therefore not appropriate for grading individual students. It only has meaning as an aggregate measure of entire schools, provided that other factors, such as socioeconomic background of students, are taken into account. For the same reason, the MCAS must not be used as a graduation requirement.
Imposing a statewide uniform test while disregarding educational inequities places the burden of the education reform on the shoulders of children. Those children who cannot overcome the shortcomings of their schools will be denied graduation. Those who work extra hard, stay after school, take summer courses, will make the education reform succeed, without the state having to solve the underlying problems of overcrowded classrooms, inadequate supplies, poorly trained teachers, etc. (more)
As taxpayers, we should demand accountability for the billions of dollars that the state is spending on the education reform. We should demand a breakdown of how the goals of the reform are being attained. Is the foundation budget bringing equity in education? Are the dropout rates measured accurately and are they decreasing? Are the schools becoming safer and cleaner? Do they provide a stimulating and challenging learning environments or do the kids dread going to school? Are we hiring more and better qualified teachers? Do all kids have the required books and materials? Do we still have too many kids per class or per teacher? Where do we stand in the implementation of the frameworks? Do the special-ed kids get the required services and are they being accurately diagnosed? Are we improving academic standards? Are there enough after-school programs?
The state is unwilling to facilitate accountability. It only publishes the average MCAS scores. This is not enough for concerned parents (or taxpayers).
Interestingly, the state accuses the school committees that oppose the MCAS of doing so not because of conviction but because of their unwillingness to face accountability. Yet exactly opposite is true. It is the state that does not want accountability, because genuine accountability would quickly reveal that true education reform is a lot more difficult to attain than mere implementation of a difficult test (more).
The MCAS has created anxiety among students, resentment among teachers, and panic among administrators. Must we have such negative sentiments in our education reform? Based on the MCAS scores so for, we have a long way to go before we achieve the primary goal of education reform – equity in education. Perhaps the Board of Education should consider the possibility that the MCAS is the wrong tool, causing more harm than good.
Whatever accomplishments can be indirectly attributed to the MCAS, they could have probably been achieved with much less pain and aggravation. The cost of getting these achievements through the MCAS is unnecessarily high.
The MCAS is much too long. It essentially removes two weeks (6%) from the school year. Too much time is spent on practicing.
The effects of the MCAS are particularly disturbing in the inner-city schools (more). The students there are more likely to be demoralized by such an overwhelming test, leading to resignation and increased dropout rate – effects that are contrary to the objectives of the reform. After-school tutoring and summer sessions are not enough. These kids don't need a test that reveals nothing new, just underscores their difficult situation. To really equalize the field, they need smaller classes, clean and safe buildings, adequate supplies, and skilled and dedicated teachers. The true success of the education reform in the inner-city schools will be measured by lower absenteeism, fewer dropouts, more parental and community involvement, and how well the graduate fare in the world after they leave the school, and not by the MCAS scores (more).
A test as important as the MCAS should have an extensive and ongoing validation process. No such process in in place. What is being done is the bare minimum of ensuring self-consistency. The technical details of whatever is being done is well guarded secret that cannot be penetrated by even the most dedicated researchers. There is no proven record that the test correlates well with individual success and the state does not plan to study the issue.
The 6 million open-response questions are graded each year by 800 out-of-state contractors, half of whom do not have any teaching experience and a third do not even have a college degree. The contractors are given brief training, then they are put on a job of deciding which students, after twelve years of schooling, should graduate.
Many of the MCAS questions are confusing, biased, or poorly graded. Take a look at the following examples: confusing, biased, poorly graded.
Not surprisingly, some students who perform well on national tests get needs-improvement scores on the MCAS.
Serious errors have occurred in the past (more).
Given these facts, we should be cautious in accepting the MCAS results as an accurate measure of academic performance (more).
The MCAS is interchangeably promoted as a test of basic skills, a test for increasing the academic standards, a test that raises the bar, a test that monitors the implementation of the frameworks, a test that indicates school performance, a test that is a graduation requirement, and a test that is a diagnostic tool for determining the weaknesses of a given student. That's too many roles for one test.
Some of the roles are self contradicting. The MCAS cannot be simultaneously a test of basic skills and a test that raises the bar. It should not be used to determine that a particular school does not teach the required material and then be used as a graduation requirement to fail students who have not learned the material that has not been taught (more).
Trying to accomplish all these objectives with one test is flawed. We should have one short test of truly basic skills to be used as a graduation requirement (as required by law), and a separate short MCAS-like test for monitoring the implementation of the frameworks, but not for evaluating individual students (more).
It is falsely promoted as representing knowledge that is necessary to function in the modern world, so no one graduates without the basic skills. First, a test that lasts eight days, takes six months to grade, cannot be considered a test of basic skills, or a diagnostic tool (more). Second, it would be a stretch to think of history of Egypt or matrix operations as necessary knowledge, while computer skills, creativity, artistic and musical talents, organizational aptitudes, independent thinking, adaptability to change, inventiveness, imagination, etc., are not on the test (more). Does anyone expect that a potential employer will ask only for the MCAS scores and nothing else?
The high failure rates are viewed as an indicator that our education system is inadequate, yet the system is considered one of the best (more). The MCAS is too limited in its scope to be a meaningful gauge of how effective our education system is. It merely covers the material specified in the curriculum frameworks, and giving it a broader meaning is unwarranted.
It is also represented as necessary to facilitate accountability. Again, it provides too narrow a view to be used for accountability. As taxpayers we should demand a far more comprehensive accountability that reflects all of the goals of the education reform, and we should not let the state hide behind the simplistic numbers offered by the MCAS (more).
There is nothing the Education Reform Act that resembles the MCAS. That law calls for the Board of Education to develop an assessment method based on "a variety of assessment instruments", including "consideration of work samples, projects and portfolios", and "the cultural and language diversity of students" (more).
The law also specifies a graduation requirement that is to be based on "a common core of learning", not on a test designed to monitor the frameworks or to increase academic standards (more).
The insistence by the state that the MCAS is the law is simply false (more).
Why can't we have education reform without the MCAS? An overwhelming majority of teachers, administrators, school committees, and parents who are closely involved with schools, is opposed to the MCAS. So why our Governor, the Board of Education, and many of the state legislators are such strong proponents of the MCAS? Perhaps the reason has a lot more to do with politics than education.
Not one member of the Board of Education has K-12 teaching experience. On the other hand, several are associated with the conservative Pioneer Institute whose goal is to "drive broad-based educational reform through the expansion of competition and parental choice". They are trying to convince the public that there is a serious education crisis that requires drastic action in form of the MCAS, with its consequence of denying graduation to scores of students (more).
The political outcome is that the MCAS is given too much emphasis, shortchanging other goals of the education reform. It has become unnecessarily controversial and politicized (more).