GREENFIELD — After Massachusetts voters opted to toss out the MCAS test as a graduation requirement during the November election, the Greenfield School Committee voted Wednesday to set its graduation requirement benchmark at a D- grade for core high school classes.

Introducing the topic, Assistant Superintendent of Teaching and Learning Stephen Sullivan clarified that the Greenfield School Department will continue to administer the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System exam as an accountability measure to track growth.

“With the change in the law around MCAS, there was a bit of a shift in the goalposts, which not everybody foresaw,” Sullivan said. “We started the school year like any regular school year, where the state assessment, MCAS, was determining a student’s competence so that they can graduate … while local districts were able to identify whatever local graduation requirements were required in order to get a diploma.”

Without a state-mandated MCAS requirement, Sullivan explained the School Department has been working with the city’s legal counsel to develop a measure to determine competency for graduation based on subject matter that was tested in the 2023 MCAS — English, math and science.

The new standards for graduation require Greenfield students to earn a D- grade or higher in algebra and geometry, in at least two of the four high school English classes, and in either biology, chemistry or physics to receive a diploma.

After School Committee Vice Chair Stacey Sexton questioned why a D- was the benchmark grade and the ramifications of bringing the minimum grade to a C, Sullivan explained the benchmark was determined to be fair to the Class of 2025, who were less than a year away from graduation when the law changed in November.

“A number of students in the Class of 2025, who are due to graduate months from now, who may have passed the MCAS, maybe didn’t pass a class with a C. They might have passed the class with a D-,” Sullivan explained. “Shifting that on them now would mean they no longer would have the competency determination to graduate.”

When Sexton asked how many students would lose their graduation competency if the standard was raised to a C grade, Sullivan responded that while he did not have the exact number, it was more than 50%.

Sexton responded that the fact that more than half the graduating class could not make a C grade benchmark is “bonkers,” and suggested changing the competency determination in coming years, should the district be able to boost its grades.

Before the School Committee voted 6-1 to approve the new competency requirements, with member Kathryn Martini voting “no,” Sullivan added that the state is working to create a new competency benchmark to replace the MCAS, although information on the topic is currently “very vague.”

“Trying to find the sunnier view of it, I’m hearing that our classes are more rigorous and harder to pass than the MCAS,” School Committee member Ann Childs remarked. “Someone has to be optimistic.”

Anthony Cammalleri can be reached at acammalleri@recorder.com or 413-930-4429.