Rep. Sciortino: MCAS not working
by Matthew Keough, Medford Transcript
June 7, 2007
Whereas SATs and getting into good colleges used to be foremost on the minds of high school students, in recent years the MCAS, or the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System, has become what looms largest over their high school careers, and is often even a cause of panic for students in all grade levels.
Though it was devised as a revolutionary way of tracking student progress and teachers' strengths, it shouldn't be the sole determining factor in whether or not a student is able to even graduate, said Rep. Carl Sciortino, D-Medford.
"In most contexts the MCAS have become the end-all-be-all of the education system," Sciortino said, outlining a set of revisions to the controversial testing method that he planned to introduce on June 5.
"The bill that we filed essentially says the current MCAS program is not good enough and we can do better," Sciortino said. "It's one size fits all, standardized testing and it's causing teachers to alter their plans and just teach to the test. Years of data showed that students have shown no improvements since the MCAs came about."
Instead of fostering improvement, Sciortino said MCAS testing has caused students to suffer from a host of "unintended consequences."
"Students are having problems with the most fundamental subjects in college, while the tests have caused the drop-out rates to increase," Sciortino said. "Schools are forced to spend so much time on them, yet we've seen that employers and colleges just aren't interested in the results. I think that if we have students who are graduating without the required skills, then it's time to reassess the situation."
Superintendent of Schools Roy Belson expected to speak alongside Sciortino on June 5, after the Transcript's deadline, and cited the bill as a much needed reevaluation of a troubled testing system. "I certainly support the work that Carl is doing and I think it's about time we started this discussion," Belson said.
While he values the some of mandates set forth by President Bush's No Child Left Behind Act, Sciortino said the MCAS actually originated from the 1993 Education Reform Act and his bill will be a return to the original spirit of the act.
"The reform called for a comprehensive system, not high-stakes testing, and we hope we can get back to that original purpose," Sciortino said.
Belson added the tests have not truly served students or teachers by taking only a limited view of a student's entire curriculum.
"With some youngsters, there need to be other factors, other ways to test their knowledge," Belson said. "What about music and the arts, what about taking other aspects into consideration? I think the way it's set up now is just too one-dimensional. The whole thing was supposed to be part of a greater system but its all come down to one signal test."
Roberts Elementary Principal Kirk Johnson said possible revisions would be more than welcome by both students and the teachers who Johnson said are forced to forsake much of the normal curriculum to instead "teach to the test."
Rep. Paul Donato said he too was lending his support to Sciortino's bill, and noted MCAS improvements have been a long time coming.
"When I first came on I signed to a bill to make sure this test wasn't the determining factor when it comes to graduation," Donato said. "Dedicating ourselves to excellence in education is fine and a big part of that is testing, but no test should be the end all be all."
While Sciortino said the more specific details of his potential reforms would have to wait, the state representative confirmed he worked alongside a collation of groups for more than six months brainstorming possible alternative.
"We have a lot of ideas but we're not going to include them in the bill at first because we think the first step is admitting that something is wrong," Sciortino said. "But we're all feeling good about the cause. We have a lot of support and some of its pretty loud. And it should be because there is no reason a fourth graders knees should be shaking before they take a test."