Whether or not Massachusetts students should be required to earn a passing score on MCAS to earn a high school diploma is a complicated issue, writes Jack Schneider, a professor at UMass Amherst. With more than eight months until the election, we have an opportunity to find an evidence-based compromise that all parties can live with.
School busses lined up outside of New Mission High School in Hyde Park awaiting students prior to school release.
Meanwhile, they have had a disproportional effect on minoritized and marginalized student populations. When exit exams are in place, students of color, English language learners, and students from low-income families are denied diplomas at far higher rates. And given the fact that a high school diploma means so much more than what can be measured by a standardized test, I have serious concerns about using that tool in a way that denies our most vulnerable students this basic credential.
But, because the election is still about 8 months away, I don’t have to make that choice. Instead, I can continue pushing for what I support most strongly — an evidence-based compromise that all parties can live with. After all, there are plenty of smart and well-intended people who support keeping the MCAS requirement; I’m more interested in hearing them out than shutting them down.
I don’t have a firm position right now on removing the MCAS graduation requirement because I actually think we can do better. Right now, members of the state legislature are trying to identify a compromise. And the MTA appears open to ideas. Secretary of Education Patrick Tutwiler, despite opposing the effort to remove the requirement, has also said that he is open to looking at the test and seeing if it can be changed.
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