Word: mcas
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Protests against Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System (MCAS) have been sprouting out about the state. Most recently, 25 Arlington tenth-graders were suspended this Tuesday for collectively boycotting the standardized test, which will become a graduation requirement for the high-school class...
While much of the criticism against the MCAS has been aimed at its potential to prevent almost 50 percent of the class of 2003 from receiving their high schools diplomas, its flaws lie even deeper than that...
...state must adopt a more fair and realistic approach to MCAS. Retaining the test as an index of school and individual performance rather than a graduation requirement would give schools a similar incentive to improve standards without unduly punishing the students. Alternatively, giving another type of diploma to students who receive a certain score on the test--a system similar to the Regents exams in New York--would help to indicate and reward achievement...
...student's graduation from high school should never be contingent on one standardized test. While MCAS will help districts measure the relative success of their curricula in certain areas, it will also inflict too much punishment on too many students. High standards are important to improving student performance, but if they are coupled with a punitive test, Massachusetts education will suffer rather than benefit...
...MCAS standards demand that high school seniors pass a relatively basic math and English test geared toward tenth graders. Questions ask students to identify the main clause in a sentence, identify the rate of increase if the minimum wage goes from $5.25 per hour to $5.75 per hour and demonstrate similar basic skills. The staff shortchanges high schoolers when it suggests this is an unreasonably high standard of material to expect them to know. And the staff would do the students no favors by sending them out into the world without these basic math and English skills...