As scores on statewide standardized tests rolled in Tuesday, revealing that students are still struggling from pandemic-related learning losses, education officials contemplated an overhaul of the state’s accountability system – against the backdrop of another possible change coming to the MCAS system at the ballot box this November.

Acting K-12 Education Commissioner Russell Johnston called the results of the annual MCAS exams “concerning.” The scores showed across the board declines in reading and writing, and mixed results in math and science over last year – while students still lag far behind where they were in 2019.

“These results are concerning. They are concerning as we continue to combat pandemic-related learning loss, while we have been operating with a sense of urgency, these results fortify our responsibility, our deep responsibility, to accelerate our work,” Johnston said at a Tuesday meeting.

Among the work he was referring to was the department’s goal to overhaul its accountability system.

The Department of Elementary and Secondary Education’s accountability system is often boiled down in broad conversation just to the MCAS exam – which students take in grades three through eight and grade 10, and is used to collect data on student achievement and compare districts to each other and to past performance.

However, the department’s accountability system also considers other factors, like student growth percentiles and high school completion.

“The current accountability system was approved and implemented in 2018. However, a great deal has changed since that time, such as pandemic-related disruptions to teaching and learning, statewide assessments and student attendance rates. Since then, we’ve also updated our agency’s education vision,” Johnston said Monday.

The department formed an advisory committee, which met seven times over last year to review the accountability system and make recommendations. The look at overhauling how the state holds districts accountable comes at time when their primary tool for measuring achievement shows possible regression amongst students, and as a battle is being waged over that tool at the ballot box.

Voters will have the chance in November to eliminate the requirement that students have to pass the MCAS in order to graduate from a Massachusetts public high school. Currently, all Massachusetts high school students must pass their curriculum requirements to get a high school diploma, plus the standardized exam given in 10th grade. They’re given several opportunities to pass, and alternative assessments are available for students with different learning needs.

Due to state statute that mandates students take the MCAS test to get a diploma, the committee reevaluating the state’s education accountability system did not consider the graduation requirement in the scope of its review. They also did not consider the design of the test, because of an ongoing process to procure a new contract with a vendor to develop the exams.

Rob Curtin, chief data officer at DESE, said there was a minority opinion on the advisory committee who felt the graduation requirement and design of the MCAS should not have been taken off the table.

Though the committee did not consider whether or not the test should be used as a requirement for graduation, supporters and opponents of the standardized testing requirement used the results from the 2023-2024 academic year tests to make political statements.

“It’s concerning that the state continues to use an accountability system that is obviously not working – one that is punitive toward the students with the highest levels of need, one that only exacerbates the achievement gaps we’re seeing between students in our cities and their peers in wealthier suburbs,” says a statement from the American Federation of Teachers, which supports the ballot question.

It continues, “These are arbitrary rankings of our schools during the first full school year after the end of the COVID-19 pandemic, which wreaked havoc on our communities and further widened opportunity and achievement gaps across the state. Our students, especially our English language learners and those with special needs, continue to struggle to recover from the devastating impacts the pandemic had on their education and their communities.”

The other union backing the ballot campaign, the Massachusetts Teachers Association, called the use of the scores to rank schools “deeply problematic.”

“The fact that MCAS scores from the spring are just now being released demonstrates how the exam is not designed to allow educators and districts to take immediate action to support students,” says the MTA’s statement. “Educators also have not received the questions used in last year’s MCAS exams, making it impossible for them to adjust curriculum in ways that could address issues raised by scores.”

Ballot question opponents said results that showed that students are still struggling to make up from learning losses highlight why keeping the high-stakes nature of the 10th grade test is important.

“The spring 2024 results underscore the importance of the 10th grade tests. Student achievement increases meaningfully from grades 8 to grade 10 when students know the test matters. For example, in English Language Arts, 57% of 10th graders meet or exceed expectations compared to 43% who hit this benchmark in eighth grade. In math, the percent of students who meet or exceed expectations moves to 48% in grade 10 from 38% in eighth grade, and in science the scores jump from 49% in 10th grade from 39% in eighth grade,” says a statement from the campaign against the ballot question.

As for education officials, they said the results were a call to continue work on addressing chronic absenteeism, invest in early literacy, have more regular data accountability check-ins.

“This is a moment for action. This is not a moment for us to sit,” Johnston said.