As high-stakes MCAS testing will get underway this college 12 months and opposition to the take a look at intensifies, together with by the state’s lecturers union which needs to remove it as a commencement requirement for college students, a brand new coalition is taking over the mantel to reform and protect the controversial assessments.
“It seems like it’s been very much of a one-sided narrative when it comes to MCAS and what it does or doesn’t do for students,” mentioned Mary Tamer, director of Education Reform Now Massachusetts. “And we wanted to have a conversation and specifically reached out to folks who acknowledge the value of MCAS but also see the opportunities for improvement.”
The pro-MCAS coalition, Voices for Academic Equity, was convened by Education Reform Now Massachusetts and made up of a dozen schooling organizations and companions, the group mentioned in a launch.
The group launched a report, “Toward a Better MCAS: Consensus recommendations from organizations serving the Commonwealth’s students,” on Tuesday, detailing “successes and shortcomings of the test” and prompt adjustments.
These areas of enchancment concentrate on methods the testing construction doesn’t embrace communication with households, places non-native English audio system at an obstacle, fails to incorporate “items that are culturally relevant for systematically marginalized students,” fails to gauge “harder-to-measure life and career readiness skills” and will talk ends in a extra “timely and efficient way.”
The report notes all suggestions “can be implemented without legislative action by the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education.”
The coalition additionally emphasizes the MCAS are “one of the Commonwealth’s most critical tools for ensuring educational equity.”
The Massachusetts Teachers Association, which has recognized eliminating the MCAS as a commencement requirement, argued the group and launch are misleadingly framing the problem as if opponents are shifting to do away with the testing altogether.
“Right off the bat, I’ll say they’re inventing a straw man,” mentioned MTA president Max Page, including that the union is “trying to eliminate the punitive elements of the test, not eliminate the test with the Thrive Act.”
The advocate’s launch doesn’t title the Thrive Act — a state proposal which might remove using MCAS as a commencement requirement and finish state receiverships of faculty districts — however does declare “pending legislation would eliminate the MCAS and undercut the state’s accountability system.”
“We implore state leaders to leave assessments in place as they are our primary tool for objectively understanding how our students are progressing — especially as we seek to quickly mitigate pandemic learning loss,” the report concludes.
Source: www.bostonherald.com”