MASSLIVE: School districts can skirt intentions of new MCAS law, ‘Violates the will of voters’

By Hadley Barndollar
Originally appeared in MassLive on December 19, 2024

When Massachusetts voters passed Question 2 last month, they effectively eliminated the statewide requirement that public school students must pass 10th-grade MCAS tests in order to graduate.

Keyword: statewide.

Now, guidance issued by the state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) last week offers an additional interpretation of Question 2. Individual school districts, by way of their school committees, can still use MCAS scores as a local graduation requirement.

The new DESE guidance, according to Massachusetts Teachers Association President Max Page and Vice President Deb McCarthy, “clearly violates the will of voters.” The union, which was the driving force behind Question 2, will “fight any schemes aimed at undoing the election results,” they said.

The passage of Question 2 directed school districts to create their own “competency determinations” in place of the statewide MCAS requirement. But the competency determination is just one half of what public high school students must do in order to graduate: they have to meet “local graduation requirements,” too.

Those requirements, set by a district’s governing body (most often school committees), constitute as other academic standards students must fulfill to receive a diploma, in addition to earning the competency determination.

In its most recent guidance released on Dec. 11, DESE advised school districts that they’re allowed to use high school MCAS scores as part of their local graduation requirement, “apart from the competency determination.”

“The establishment of local graduation requirements is at the sole discretion of school districts,” DESE stated.

When MassLive sought further clarification from DESE, a spokesperson said that while Question 2 prevents MCAS from being used for the competency determination, there isn’t anything preventing it from being used as a local graduation requirement.

The DESE guidance means a school district can technically still require students to pass all three 10th-grade MCAS tests in English language arts, math and science in order to achieve a diploma.

“It wasn’t front and center in the debate, but once you see it in black and white in the DESE guidance, it makes sense,” said Ed Lambert, executive director of the Massachusetts Business Alliance For Education and opponent of Question 2. “We have a state where districts can create their own local graduation requirements.”

Lambert said this latest unfolding underscores his belief that “complicated public policy” decided by ballot questions is a “bad idea.”

“To the extent that voters believed they were changing the system, what they literally were doing was ending it as a statewide graduation requirement,” he said. “Nothing in the ballot question prevents (districts) from adopting an additional local requirement.”

In their statement, the MTA’s Page and McCarthy said voters “overwhelmingly” agreed with the intentions of Question 2. They urged DESE to be “partners” in a new era of public education in Massachusetts.

“Voters have made clear that they want their schools to focus on students and not on test scores,” they said.

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 without MCAS scores.

The Legislature could also step in to create a new standard. Some lawmakers have already said they intended to file related bills during the upcoming session.

On Dec. 6, 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.

Both proponents and opponents of Question 2 have said they support a process to create one.

Until then, school districts will rely on local graduation standards and competency determinations set by their respective school committees. The standards vary widely from district to district, the Boston Globe recently reported.

Under the new DESE guidance, Lambert said he expects MCAS scores will be used in a “piecemeal” manner across the state. He anticipates there will be pressure in communities that voted in favor of keeping the graduation requirement.

Voting data shows wealthier, suburban communities with the state’s highest MCAS scores fought to keep it, while urban cities with the lowest scores overwhelmingly scrapped it.

“I can see why districts would want to (still use MCAS scores), and I can see potentially even employers and parents in the community advocating for it,” Lambert said.

Also included in DESE’s latest guidance is that former students who missed out on a diploma in the past solely because of MCAS “must be afforded a process” by their districts to obtain their competency determination based on their successful completion of required classwork.

State education officials have said about 700 students don’t receive diplomas each year solely because of their MCAS scores.