REGIONAL – In a decisive win statewide, Massachusetts voters made clear that they do not want high schools to require that their students pass the MCAS standardized test to qualify for graduation.
What is now not clear is what replaces the MCAS test.
To fill the vacuum the vote created, the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) has pushed the question to the individual districts, who are scrambling to figure out how students will prove they are competent enough to graduate.
“It seemed simple at first, but then it got more complicated,” said Triton Regional Supt. Brian Forget week. He and his board have been discussing the issue for weeks. “There is no clarity.”
The vote, which passed with almost 60 percent despite opposition from Gov. Maura Healey and other high-ranking state officials, took away the graduation requirement that all 10th graders pass ninth grade biology, algebra one and two, and 10th grade English.
Most students passed the MCAS. And those who did not were given the opportunity in their junior and senior years to retake the test to be certified for graduation.
Statewide, only 1,500 to 2,000 students have not met the competency requirements. This year’s graduating seniors will be the first class to graduate without the mandate.
Some students may have to be given a waiver, Forget said.
“I feel pretty good about Triton,” he said. Only “a small handful of students” have not demonstrated competency to graduate.
Last month, Healey created the K-12 Statewide Graduation Council, which is charged with developing proposals by the end of the year.
“Massachusetts has the best schools in the country, and we want to stay that way,” Healey said. “To keep this high standard of excellence, I believe that students, families, schools and employers should know exactly what a diploma earned in Massachusetts represents.”
Critics of the rule change feared school districts will set different graduation rules and diminish the value of a diploma.
Forget asked what is now the definition of mastery. “It is certainly passing with more than 50 percent,” he said. But what else?
What happens if a student moves into the school in the upper years? the superintendent asked.
For students who do not qualify for graduation, there has to be an appeals process, Forget said.
Forget, like other superintendents, has asked top staff members to develop a proposal for new standards that can be presented to the school board. They are gathering ideas from colleagues in other districts, but “People are all over the place,” Forget said. ♦
