Students, teachers demand MCAS reform to reduce state dropout rates
by Jackie Catcher, BU Daily Free Press
2/14/08
More than 150 students, educators and advocates gathered at the State House yesterday to demand Gov. Deval Patrick reform the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System test given to high schoolers across the state.
Massachusetts sophomores are required to pass the MCAS test in order to graduate high school, and the test has been a contentious issue for educators and legislators since it was first administered in 1993. Students brought in from local schools held hand-drawn posters in protest and signed postcards with a message urging the governor to support MCAS reform.
Patrick stated he does not plan to change his stance on the MCAS in a Tuesday op-ed piece in The Boston Globe.
"The message we want to send today is 'reform MCAS' not 'no more MCAS,'" Director of Citizens for Public Schools Marilyn Segal told the crowd.
Legislators and Boston-area high school students aired their frustrations with the test.
"I'm just one voice that had to deal with this test," said Somerville resident Greg Rego. "We're not just numbers on the page. Don't make us the enemy."
Rego said he failed the math portion of the exam by two points and dropped out of high school his senior year.
Exam reform supporters claim a 32 percent increase in high school dropout rates from 2001 to 2005 was a result of the installation of the MCAS test.
Nearly every student at the lobbying event raised his or her hand when Rep. Carl Sciortino asked how many of them knew someone that had dropped out of school.
"We need to make sure our education system touches every student," he said. "We need to reach the students who get pushed out of our school system every year."
The exam has met criticism similar to that offered against the Bush administration's No Child Left Behind Act. MCAS supporters said they hope to decrease the dropout rate by placing less emphasis on the exam and allowing students to meet graduation requirements through alternative means.