EDITORIAL: MCAS still being used as a standard bearer, but minus a true performance incentive

Consider this scenario. Imagine running the iconic Boston Marathon and after conquering Heartbreak Hill and steaming into Kenmore Square — way ahead of the pack — and much to your dismay, there are no crowds waiting to cheer for you at the designated end of the race, not a soul. Further, there are no Roman-esque wreath crowns to be given to the first-place finishers, no trophies, basically no acknowledgement, period. Heck, there is not even a finish line anymore!

But get this, runners’ times were still being recorded held up in comparison to times they had run in the past, and how they compared to their fellow runners that day. “What’s up with that?” one might ask. Against the timeworn adage, this scene seems like “No risk AND no reward.”

Some might say this is the same fate that befell one of the most successful innovations and additions ever made to the Massachusetts public schools: the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System (MCAS). For the 31-year run in this Commonwealth, a passing score in the English (ELA), Math and Science MCAS tests has been a mandatory requirement to be awarded a high school diploma.

A lot has changed in less than a year when it comes to measuring academic performance by public school districts in Massachusetts. Call it “MCAS Rebellion” — what happened at the ballot box in Massachusetts in November 2024. Voters in our state voted nearly two to one, 59 percent to 41 percent, to end MCAS results as a graduation requirement. The most expensive ballot question battle in Massachusetts history cost $16.4 million spent on the winning side, nearly all of it — some $15.7 million — coming from the Massachusetts Teachers Association, about $134 for every one of its 117,000 members. Led by hefty donations by philanthropist Michael Bloomberg and Mass.-based charter school supporters, over $5 million was spent on the “Vote No” side of the ballot question seeking to keep the graduation requirement in place, which lost nearly a year ago.

For many years, through several political administrations and numerous state secondary education Commissioners and other highly placed academic leaders, one shining light has been that Massachusetts has been either #1 or close to it — nationally — as an academic performer. This status has been determined through achievement on some national standardized testing platforms, but primarily, through evaluations of Massachusetts students’ performance on MCAS. That time looks to be ending sooner rather than later.

Reason being? The true performance incentive locked into MCAS results for over 30 years has been abolished, and everyone knows it: students, parents and caregivers, all school personnel.

So what happens now?

Well, despite the graduation requirement piece gone by the wayside, the Mass. Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) is continuing to include MCAS testing results in its Accountability Report. Not only is this not fair to anyone involved, it is also not accurate. Since the November 2024 vote ending the MCAS graduation requirement, DESE has stated it would provide new graduation requirement guidance for school districts. Nearly a year later, the districts are still waiting.

Malden Public Schools’ results were presented at Monday night’s School Committee meeting and, like in an estimated 91% of all 350-plus districts in the Commonwealth, they showed a decrease in previous results and little progress, especially at the high school level. Not a word was mentioned by anyone Monday night about the collateral damage to the newest MCAS results, caused by the abrupt removal of the most pertinent motivator for performance for the first time in over 30 years.

Looks like another race that took away the finish line.