Consider the following groupings of students: Students for whom English is not their first language, whose families live in poverty, and/or whose schools lack basic resources, materials, and adequate facilities, who are children of color, who are gifted in dance, or athletics, or painting, or music, or technology, or mechanics, but struggle to read, or write, who are gifted in communication with others, who are compassionate, caring, and supportive of classmates but who are not strong readers, who have a learning disability, who have lives touched by trauma, or illness, or loss, or family challenges, who are terrified by testing and do not show what they know either through pencil and paper or on computer.
What do these children have in common? Many of them will be defined as failures because they will score poorly on the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System (MCAS). Their teachers and schools will also be judged as failing. The MCAS has played this outsized role in defining success or failure for more than 20 years now, despite there being literally no evidence or data to justify their importance. And the state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) seems determined to ignore their own data and continue this high stakes testing policy.
Let me offer one other example of the absurdity of defining intelligence so narrowly. Imagine that you are on a dirt road in the middle of rural Massachusetts and your car dies. Who do you hope comes along next? Me, who scored well on my tests but have no mechanical aptitude, or someone who scored poorly on the test but can fix any engine anywhere? Who is the more intelligent in this situation?
Why do these tests carry such weight? Simply because those in power have decided on that policy. There is a racist history to these tests, and they have helped those in power to stay in power, so the decision makers don’t want to make change. While we know that there is no one measure of intelligence, that there are many ways of being intelligent, schools continue to pretend that the only valid measure of intelligence is the scores on these tests. There is significant research to show the impact that economic inequality plays in school performance, that out-of-school factors play a significant role in school performance but DESE ignores that data and instead focuses primarily on test scores, while refusing to act on reducing the inequality, racism, and other out-of-school factors that are at the root of the issue.
So here are a few things to know about the MCAS:
There is no evidence that they lead to better education. None. And plenty of evidence that they bring harm to many, especially children in those groups I listed above.
There are great disparities from one school or district to the next in terms of resources, finances, and community support. Public schools offer anything but a level playing field, so these so-called standardized tests are clearly biased in favor of those who are white and wealthy. They are not really standardized at all.
The MCAS has taken hundreds of millions of dollars from the public treasury and placed them in the deep pockets of private corporations such as Pearson.
Curriculum has been narrowed to year-long test prep. Everything that happens at the schools is now focused on getting kids to pass the tests, and those activities that are not geared towards that, such as recess, the arts, field trips, creative play, hands on projects, and other experiences that get children excited about learning are shoved aside; we don’t have time for them.
We have lost local control of our schools.
What can we do about this? There are several steps we can take.
First, opt your child out of these tests (if they are in grades three through eight). Simply write a note to your child’s principal saying you refuse to have them take the ELA or math MCAS.
Second, communicate with others in your community about the steps you are taking and the reasons for it. Spread the word. Bring conversations to parent organizations. Share on social media. There are many resources out there supporting these actions. Citizensforpublicschools.org is a good site for more information.
Third, work to pass the Fair Share amendment, which will generate more funds for education by taxing the very wealthy in our state. This is a real step you can take to help make education better.
Say no to MCAS. Stand up for our children. Opt out of MCAS.
Doug Selwyn is a resident of Greenfield, a former educator, and a member of the FCCPR education task force.