School Committee fights against MCAS this spring

The School Committee unanimously agreed to push back on this year’s MCAS requirement, approving a letter calling for state leaders to obtain a testing waiver from the U.S. Department of Education.

“This testing is not going to tell us anything we don’t know,” School Committee member Amy Marr said.

MCAS is administered annually to grades 3-8 and grade 10 and a passing score on English/Language Arts, math, and science exams is required for graduation — and to assess the competency of education in the school system. 

The exams were canceled in 2020 due to COVID-19, and state officials said in January that the exams are needed this year to determine learning loss over the course of the pandemic. Schools will not be punished for low scores.

MCAS will be delayed this year. Grades 3-5 will be tested between May 10 and June 11, with other grades to be determined later. Students who are enrolled in the Remote Learning Academy will be required to take the tests in-school.

The Massachusetts Association of School Committees in November called for a moratorium on MCAS, with multiple school committees signing on to the resolution.

Grafton’s letter, penned by member Elizabeth Spinney, is below.

Dear Governor Baker, Commissioner Riley, Rep. Muradian and Senator Moore,

By this letter, we, the members of the Grafton School Committee, call on you to seek and obtain a testing waiver from the U.S. Department of Education (USDOE) to put a moratorium on MCAS testing in Massachusetts for the remainder of the 2020-21 academic year. This action was supported by unanimous consent of the Grafton School Committee at our March 23, 2021 meeting.

In this year unlike any other, the need to preserve precious learning time is more important than ever.  Our hope is that this moratorium will allow students to benefit from time focused on direct instruction, rather than on more testing (other than what our teachers are already doing to gauge students’ progress), and that all students be held harmless for not taking MCAS in determining graduation requirements.  Although we applaud the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education’s plan to allow high school seniors who have fulfilled all local graduation requirements but have not passed the ELA or math MCAS exams to graduate based on related coursework, we ask that this be extended to this year’s 10th and 11th graders as well.

We believe that it is vital to let teachers and students focus on staying healthy and problem-solving to sustain our education system, rather than worrying about test prep and wasting time on administration.  We ask that you allow our teachers to focus on social-emotional learning and helping our students recover from the stressors of the COVID-19 pandemic rather than pushing the students into anxiety-producing high-stakes testing such as the MCAS. In addition, test-related funding, including the annual $30 million for the MCAS testing provider, could be better spent by providing relief for schools and vulnerable students at this critical time.

Over the past year, School Committees throughout the Commonwealth have demonstrated support for this moratorium.  On November 7, 2020, delegates to the Massachusetts Association of School Committees (MASC) Annual Meeting voted overwhelmingly, by a vote of 112-9, in favor of a resolution calling on the Commonwealth to suspend MCAS testing this year.  We ask that you join all of us in our efforts to help students to get the most out of this year by obtaining an MCAS testing waiver.  Thank you for your attention to this matter.

Sincerely,

The Grafton School Committee      

Laura I. Often, Chair
Jennifer Connelly, Vice Chair
Amy L. Marr, Secretary
Rahul Rathi
Elizabeth Spinney

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