Hello Members of the Board of Education,
You are pushing to raise cut (passing) scores on the MCAS under the banner of improving education. Let me ask you a few questions. Are you raising the amount of money you are providing to schools, particularly schools located in low-income neighborhoods so that all students are being well served and experiencing an equivalent education no matter where they attend? Are you providing resources for teachers so that they don’t have to buy classroom supplies out of their own pockets? Are you providing all children with nutritious breakfasts and lunches all year long so that some students do not go hungry over weekends and holidays? Are you providing up to date curricular materials for all students? Are you providing functional, ongoing professional development for teachers, including helping them to learn how to address the trauma, racism, and inequality their students bring with them into their classrooms? Are you providing school districts with enough money so that they can hire the personnel they need and pay them enough to keep them? Are you providing all students with access to high quality health care no matter what their income level? Are you taking active steps to make sure that students are coming to school ready and able to learn, which means that they have a secure place to sleep, have adequate food, clothing, and shelter, access to the internet, housing that is free from lead poisoning and other toxins, and safe streets? Are you offering students an engaging school curriculum that prepares them for their future rather than a deadened test prep curriculum that prepares them for nothing?
If you are not taking these steps, and the many more that would lead to a more just and equal society, this move to raise cut scores is a cynical sham that punishes those who already have the least. You blame the victims, children, teachers, and families for not measuring up to the performance of students in wealthier communities who attend schools with superior resources, buildings, and tools for learning.
There is significant research to show that much of what happens at school is determined or heavily influenced by out of school factors such as inequality, racism, poverty, family or neighborhood trauma, hunger, a lack of opportunity, and more. If you really believe that our public schools offer our students a level playing field, and that comparing test scores of children attending schools in the poorest neighborhoods with those children of privilege is valid, then you are proving how out of touch you are and how unfit you are to serve on the Board of Education. If you really believe that the test scores of those students attending schools in the wealthiest and best resourced districts are a true indication of the quality of the teaching and learning that goes on in our schools in the poorest communities, with the highest percentages of students whose first language is not English, then again I would argue that you provide evidence of how unfit you are to serve on the board.
Most of you board members live in wealthy districts; I wonder how much you know about schools struggling with poverty, racism, and inadequate facilities. You are board members responsible to all children, educators, and districts across the state, not just the wealthy white ones.
Raising cut scores makes for a good sound bite that makes it sound like you are doing something about education, but it’s a shameful act that will lead to more crisis and harm for our children. Please reconsider your decision.
We still have a chance to stop the Board of Education push to raise cut scores on the MCAS. Please contact the Board of Education at https://www.doe.mass.edu/contact/qanda.aspx. You can also contact our local legislators Jo Comerford (Jo.Comerford@masenate.gov), Natalie Blais (Natalie.Blais@mahouse.gov), Lindsay Sabadosa (Lindsay.Sabadosa@mahouse.gov), Susannah Whipps (Susannah.Whipps@mahouse.gov) and Paul Mark (Paul.Mark@mahouse.gov) and urge them to stand up for our children and against the raising of MCAS test scores. Ideally, we would make the MCAS disappear entirely, but at the very least we need to stop them from raising passing scores for this biased and worthless test that punishes our most vulnerable children, educators, and families and blames them for our failures.
Doug Selwyn lives in Greenfield.