City Council resolution supports ballot question to repeal MCAS graduation requirement

By Barbara Taormina

City councillors unanimously agreed with a motion from Councillor-at-Large Marc Silvestri and Juan Pablo Jaramillo and Ward 5 Councillor Angela Guarino-Sawaya for a resolution from the City Council supporting ballot question 2, which calls for the end of the state’s use of the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System (MCAS) as a graduation requirement. Jaramillo said the MCAS test was unfair to students who are poor test takers, and unfair to students who successfully complete coursework but are denied a diploma because they did not pass the test. It’s also unfair to teachers who are judged poorly because they have students who fail MCAS.

Guarino-Sawaya stressed that the Massachusetts Teachers Association supports ending the MCAS requirement and relying instead on a student’s mastery of the skills, competencies and knowledge of the state standards. She also said that MCAS was a disadvantage for special needs students and English language learners. For Silvestri, the problem with MCAS is that there are many different types of learners and no single test can assess everyone; it won’t show how some students shine.

School Street resident Ed Terrell responded to the motion with information he said everyone should know. Terrell said 82 percent of students graduate from Revere High but only 50 percent are proficient in reading; in math, 38 are proficient and 48 percent in science.

“There are fundamental problems in our high school that need to be addressed,” he said, adding that problems go beyond MCAS. Terrell said that as it stands, with a 50 percent rate of students able to read, Revere is creating a community of generational poverty.

But Revere Teachers Association Secretary Katie Fontes and Co-President Michelle Ervin said it is the MCAS graduation requirement that’s handicapping students by keeping them from jobs, vocational training and colleges. Fontes and Ervin described how MCAS disrupts learning by forcing teachers to focus exclusively on the test. Ervin, a veteran teacher with 20 years of classroom experience, said she’s devoted classroom time to teaching students how to take multiple choice tests. Fontes added that MCAS only tests students on information and skills that can be put into multiple choice or short written answer questions.

Ervin described her own challenges passing a standardized math test needed for her graduation. “Only nine states still have the graduation requirement,” she said. “I urge you to support having Massachusetts join the other 40 states.”

City Council President Anthony Cogliandro said he agrees with Silvestri that students learn and excel in different ways. He said that, in his role as a teacher, he couldn’t see using one test for all students. Cogliandro said he is excited to see what teachers could accomplish if they are freed from the handcuffs of MCAS.