MASSLIVE: Everything you need to know about MCAS heading into 2025

By Hadley Barndollar 
This article originally appeared in MassLive on January 2, 2025

Standardized testing in Massachusetts won’t look much different in practice in 2025.

But what will be vastly different is the absence of a statewide mandate that students’ scores dictate whether or not they earn a high school diploma.

On Nov. 5, 2024, Election Day, voters overwhelmingly approved Question 2, doing away with the requirement that public school students must pass the 10th-grade MCAS tests in English language arts (ELA), mathematics and science in order to graduate.

It was one of the most hotly debated ballot questions the state had seen in years, backed by the largest teachers union in the state and opposed by Gov. Maura Healey and a slew of other top state officials.

While voters handed down their judgment, state education officials are at the beginning of the work they must do. The Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) is now faced with developing a new statewide graduation standard to take the place of MCAS.

Until then, with the passage of Question 2, school districts are resorting to local graduation standards and competency determinations set by school committees. The standards vary widely from district to district, the Boston Globe recently reported.

A new wrinkle is the latest guidance issued by DESE that says school districts can still use MCAS scores as part of their local graduation requirements. To leaders of the Massachusetts Teachers Association, this circumvents the intention of Question 2, they say.

Here’s everything you need to know about the future of MCAS heading into 2025.

Will MCAS still be administered?

MCAS tests will continue to be administered, as required by state and federal law. The state will gather the same data regarding student performance and achievement as it always does.

This difference is that results will not dictate whether or not a student graduates with a high school diploma.

Does the Class of 2025 need to pass MCAS?

Most students in the Class of 2025 have already passed their required MCAS tests. But for those who haven’t, as of now, they won’t need to — as long as they meet all local academic requirements, known as a competency determination.

The competency determination will be based on “satisfactorily completing coursework that has been certified by the student’s district,” according to Question 2.

Prior to the passage of Question 2, approximately 700 students per year didn’t graduate solely because of the MCAS exams. However, they were earning passing grades in their classes.

In new guidance issued Dec. 11, 2024 DESE said students will no longer be able to earn their competency determination through the MCAS exam and instead will have to earn it through the process proscribed by the new law.

“It is important that districts focus first on students in the class of 2025 who have not yet earned the (competency determination),” DESE said.

A student who hasn’t yet earned a competency determination has to demonstrate “mastery of a common core of skills, competencies and knowledge” in the areas measured by MCAS.

Do students need to retake MCAS now?

Students have been able to retake MCAS tests multiple times in order to pass. The question now is if retakes will be required, given the absence of a graduation requirement.

DESE will continue with all scheduled retest opportunities for high school students in the spring, it said, but students won’t be required to participate in them.

“DESE will evaluate the frequency of retest opportunities in future school years,” the agency said.

A series of retakes for the ELA and math tests were administered in November soon after the election. At the time, DESE said it recommended that “districts highly encourage all students eligible for retesting in the November administration to do so.”

Can former students get their diploma now?

On Dec. 11, 2024 DESE announced that it will apply the new guidance retroactively, meaning students who left high school without a diploma solely because of the MCAS will get a second chance.

DESE said former students “must be afforded a process” to earn their “competency determination” based on their successful completion of required classwork, not their MCAS scores.

“District processes must allow former students who satisfactorily completed the relevant coursework to earn a [competency determination],” the guidance stated.

The guidance only applies to students who met all local graduation requirements but did not earn their competency determination because of the three 10th-grade MCAS tests previously required for a diploma.

The ‘local graduation requirement’ squabble

Included in DESE’s most recent guidance is that school districts can still use MCAS scores for their local graduation requirements, just not the competency determination.

The state agency contends the ballot question simply eliminated the standardized test as a statewide requirement.

Leaders of the Massachusetts Teachers Association have said the interpretation “violates the will of voters” and that they’ll “fight any schemes aimed at undoing the election results.”

What’s next for DESE?

Education Secretary Patrick Tutwiler has said the state will start convening stakeholders to discuss what the future of a new uniform standard could look like.

Both opponents and supporters of Question 2 agree on the need for a new statewide standard.

Ed Lambert, the executive director of the Massachusetts Business Alliance for Education, who was in favor of keeping the graduation requirement, called on state leaders shortly after the election to begin the process of “creating a new, strengthened, uniform high school graduation standard that preserves high expectations and educational equity.”

Max Page, president of the Massachusetts Teachers Association, recently told the Boston Globe the union wants to see the creation of a “blue ribbon commission” to study alternative graduation requirements.

On Dec. 6, 2024 the nonprofit Mass Opportunity Alliance released its own polling results showing 75% of residents support a new statewide graduation requirement in place of the MCAS exam.

Will there be lawsuits?

At a November meeting, Katherine Craven, chair of the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education, said she expects the state will be sued for failing to assure adequate and equitable learning is taking place across all schools, State House News Service reported.

“This is the place that the lawsuits come,” she said.

After the election, John Schneider, chair of “Protect Our Kids’ Future: Vote No on 2,” called the elimination of the requirement without a replacement “reckless.” He said ballot questions are a poor way to “address complicated education policy.”

“Those responsible for our state’s public education system need to have an honest conversation about whether moving forward with this proposal is the right decision for Massachusetts,” Schneider said.

Could the Legislature still step in?

Before people had even made their way to the ballot box, the state Legislature’s top officials — House Speaker Ron Mariano and Senate President Karen Spilka, both Democrats who supported the graduation requirement — were already leaving open the possibility for future intervention in the results of Question 2.

Nothing has happened as of yet, but there isn’t any time limit on doing so.

There is at least one time the Legislature fought a voter-approved ballot question — starting in 1998, according to the Boston Globe.

That year, voters passed a law to create a system of publicly financed campaigns for candidates who agreed to certain fundraising and spending limits. But the Legislature refused to fund it, and that prompted a Supreme Judicial Court justice to order the state to auction property to pay for the program, the Globe reported.

Ultimately, the state raised some money, and lawmakers later agreed to put millions into it. But in 2003, five years later, they voted to repeal it outright.