Guest columnist Rosalie P. Porter
Daily Hampshire Gazette
The recent guest column “MCAS test requirement just bad policy and practice” [Aug. 27] presents forceful arguments for voting to abolish the statewide test of basic skills for all 10th grade students as a requirement for high school graduation. The author is an experienced, dedicated teacher whose arguments deserve a reasoned response.
I will vote “no” on the referendum Question 2. Abolishing the test as a requirement will lower learning standards and harm the future achievement of all students. My position on this issue rests on my years as a classroom teacher, school administrator and national advocate for upgrading learning opportunities for non-English-speaking students in our public schools.
A little history on the MCAS is in order. A new law was passed in 1993, giving a large increase in education funding, mainly to develop curriculum guidelines for what should be learned in each basic subject in each grade level. The MCAS test was developed to test how well students are learning in reading, writing, math, science.
The curriculum and tests were created by committees of teachers, not by a corporation in some other state. I participated in these projects and served on the governor’s Education Reform Review Committee. We visited schools and studied the data on learning results. The test is standardized on what is taught in Massachusetts schools, not some anonymous, off-the-shelf test made up somewhere else.
The undeniable evidence of the correctness of our state’s policy is in the success of our students. On the National Assessment of Education Progress (NAEP), Massachusetts students often rank first or second in the country. Our state is doing such a great job — why diminish what is working so well?
The complaint that teachers should not be limited to “teaching to the test” does not have validity. Teachers are required to give students every opportunity to master their school subjects. There are no limits on what techniques or variety of approaches they use in their classrooms.
Some years after the MCAS creation, a similar situation in Texas faced a lawsuit. A group of advocates sued Texas to stop using their test of 10th grade students as a condition for high school graduation (GI Forum, et al. v. Texas Education Agency, et al.). I testified as an expert witness on behalf of Texas.
Like our state, Texas invested new money in education improvement and creating a measure of student achievement. Acknowledging that some students were not making it on the test, the state provided extra help for at-risk students, and several opportunities to retake the 10th grade test.
Proof of the value of this policy is in the documented evidence — each year, minority students in greater numbers pass the test and graduate high school. Texas did not lower the learning goals but brought students up to the reasonable standards. The court ruled in favor of keeping the test requirement.
In my testimony, I stated, “The Texas test is a fair test of student learning ... To suggest that students should be granted a high school diploma without demonstrating minimal knowledge or skills on a uniform measure is not acceptable for the current requirements of the technological/ information age job market, or for pursuing higher education.” (“Testing in Texas,” READ Perspectives, Vol. VII, fall 2000).
The need for well-prepared high school graduates has not diminished but increased since the Texas case. I strongly urge our voters to support our students and teachers to continue the excellent results of the system in place — vote “no” on question 2.
Rosalie Pedalino Porter, Ed.D, is an education consultant and UMass alum who has advised school districts, as well as Congress, on the education of immigrant children. She is the author of “Forked Tongue: The Politics of Bilingual Education,” (1996); “American Immigrant: My Life in Three Languages,” (2004); and “America Challenged: The New Politics of Race, Education and Culture,” (2011).
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