Word: mcas
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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Perhaps the most significant consequence of high-stakes testing and its interference with quality education lies in the rising attrition rate. According to a Department of Education report, ten percent of the high school Class of 2003—some 6,000 students—has not passed the MCAS and will not receive diplomas, a serious matter for each student. But the ten percent failure rate applies to the Class of 2003 as it exists today, including only those students who now are in twelfth grade. If one considers the Class of 2003 as it existed in 2000?...
There has, of course, always been attrition in high schools, but since MCAS was introduced, the numbers have risen at a disturbing rate. According to data collected and analyzed by Walt Haney at Boston College, in the years before MCAS was introduced in 1997, only six to seven percent of students turned up missing between grades nine and ten. In 2001, the rate at which students were missing between grades nine and ten had nearly doubled to 12.4 percent. The rate at which Latinos were missing from grade ten had also nearly doubled, from 17 percent to 29 percent...
...educators, we believe that this frightening rise in attrition is not the result of students’ fear of failure on MCAS. Rather it is the result of students’ understanding that the worth of MCAS is only a diploma, not education. As our colleague, Dimon Professor in Communities and Schools Pedro Noguera, has recently noted from his interviews with Boston public school students, students want to be challenged and engaged in their work. Formulaic test preparation drains the life out of both classrooms and students...
Moreover, MCAS narrowly defines intelligence, knowledge, and understanding. The MCAS does not respect the fact that a six-year-old is bilingual. The MCAS does not care if a student understands multiplication; it only cares that a student knows the multiplication tables. Public school students know this vital distinction better than proponents of MCAS. From the perspective of a 16-year-old, what is the better use of time: working to earn a wage or staying in a school that is as intellectually engaging as basic training, only to pass a test and end up with a slightly better job?...
...made by teachers, parents, students, and administrators within the school, working under broad guidelines established by the district and state. It requires schools in which the primary pedagogy is a Socratic partnership between teachers and learners. It requires schools in which assessment is truly comprehensive—what the MCAS was supposed to be—and involves students generating products individually and cooperatively that others, including the public at large, can view: portfolios, performances and oral defenses. It requires schools in which the emphasis is on providing students with opportunities to learn, not on ranking and judging them. Finally...