Word: mcas
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Proponents see MCAS as an essential diagnostic and accountability tool, while it often seems as though critics, seeing MCAS as unfair, believe that if we just got the testing instrument right, then all children would be able to demonstrate mastery. This is manifestly false. MCAS tests show what virtually all tests have generally shown, that knowledge and skill in our society are unequally and unfairly distributed. The question is: What do we do about...
...most controversial aspect of MCAS is the stakes attaching - for the first time this year - to performance on the 10th grade test. These stakes are a distinct policy intervention designed to create incentives for effort and performance. The stakes make the test results matter, they make performance count. The stakes are the fulcrum of the accountability system, an essential, pivotal component. They create the urgency, the push to dislodge the low expectations that characterize the status quo, and creates the widely disparate impact of our current, ineffective and unequal system of public schooling...
...have seldom driven change or improvement. In Massachusetts, we have had countless standardized tests over the years that have demonstrated the widespread, well known and commonly accepted inequity in education. Typically, the results of these tests were accepted with a shrug of resignation and nothing changed. Now, we have MCAS. The results demonstrate the same inequities, but this time, there are real stakes, and suddenly change is everywhere. More resources and attention than ever before are aimed at those children who we have historically served least well in education. Teachers are engaged in more professional development than ever before. Curriculum...
Students have five chances to pass the MCAS prior to graduation. Soon there will be even more testing opportunities. There is an appeals process that seeks to equate classroom performance with expected MCAS performance in instances where students feel that MCAS consistently fails to measure their genuine level of achievement. There is a “certificate of attainment” for those who have met local graduation requirements but fail to achieve an MCAS competency determination and want to be recognized with their class on graduation...
Critics claim that withholding a diploma for failure to achieve the competency standard on MCAS is a “punishment” to the student. Proponents believe that although failure to graduate on time with one’s class can be a painful inconvenience, it is a far greater injustice for educators to pass students on to college or employment knowing they lack skills or knowledge that will likely be required to meet the next challenges in their lives. Instead of a punishment, we offer the benefit of additional education to each student, an education specifically aimed...