Directors of the state’s largest teachers union have voted to back a ballot question aimed at ending the use of the MCAS exam as a high school graduation requirement.

The ballot question was among 42 filed with the Attorney General’s Office last week, and is one of two the AG’s office has received related to the MCAS (Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System) requirement.

“The MCAS has not only failed to close learning gaps that have persisted along racial and economic lines, but the standardized tests have exacerbated the disparities among our student populations,” Max Page, president of the Massachusetts Teachers Association, said in a statement.

Page, a professor of architecture at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, noted that the MTA is not asking voters to end MCAS exams altogether. Students will continue to take the exam, following federal law, he said.

“MTA educators support locally developed and state-approved methods of certifying students’ mastery of academic coursework necessary for a high school diploma,” Page stated.

Once the attorney general has approved the ballot question, MTA members and allies will begin gathering the 75,000 signatures required for the question to appear on the state’s 2024 election ballot.

The other MCAS question was submitted by Lexington mother Shelley Scruggs who filed the petition on behalf of her 15-year-old son. He’s a rising senior at Minuteman Vocational High School and wants to be a plumber, but Scruggs said he has ADHD and “isn’t a great test taker,” according to a State House News Service report.

Removing the MCAS exam as a requirement for graduation appears to have support from many residents. According to a poll conducted by Echo Cove Research between June 2 and June 11, 73% of 800 voters said they would back eliminating the MCAS graduation requirement.

The MCAS exams were created in a 1993 education reform law aimed at improving accountability and school performance. The first tests were given in 1998, and high school students have been required to pass the tests to graduate since 2003.

Massachusetts is one of only eight states that still ties a standardized test to a high school graduation requirement, according to the MTA.

“The kids who don’t pass the test may be the same kids who aren’t planning to go to college, but they’re the ones who need a high school diploma the most,” Scruggs said. “If you’re not going to college, your high school diploma is the most important piece of paper you can have starting in the working world.”

Supporters of the exams say they provide valuable data on school performance and achievement gaps that can then be targeted with funding and interventions, and the graduation requirement gives more weight to a Massachusetts diploma.

“MCAS truly is a tool for equity. It provides educators with information on how their students are doing and what lessons are resonating, and what may not be resonating. That’s one of the things that has been lost in this conversation — MCAS is a tool. It doesn’t tell us everything, but it tells us something really important about how kids are doing in the classroom,” Mary Tamer, state director of Massachusetts’ Democrats for Education Reform, said in April.

The MTA said it is continuing to work for passage of the so-called Thrive Act (H.495, S.246) in the Legislature, which also would eliminate the MCAS as a graduation requirement.

The MTA, a state-level affiliate of the National Education Association, represents 115,000 members in 400 local associations throughout Massachusetts.

Support Cherish Act

At the same time, the MTA’s board of directors voted to support a campaign to pass a bill known as the Cherish Act (S.816) to increase spending on public higher education.

The legislation aims to enable students to graduate from public higher education debt-free, beginning in fiscal year 2024 with debt-free community college, and to establish fair and adequate minimum funding levels for public higher education.

State funding of public higher education in Massachusetts has been cut by more than 30% since 2001, according to the MTA. The effects include a “staggering” increase in tuition and fees, and cuts to staff and faculty, the union asserts.

Sens. Jo Comerford, D-Northampton, and Paul Mark, D-Becket, are key sponsors of the education funding bill. It was referred to the Joint Committee on Higher Education in February.

Material from State House News Service was used in this report. James Pentland can be reached at jpentland@gazettenet.com

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