CCI ACTION ITEM: MCAS REFORM BILL

Most of us know that public schools in Massachusetts are in serious trouble and suffer from gross inequities in resources and quality of education. While inequities in the public schools harm all students, students in poorly performing schools are harmed the most, and these are disproportionately students of color and low-income children from under resourced communities.
BACKGROUND ON THE MCAS:
The 1993 Education Reform Act was devised to address some of these inequities. Among its many goals was to develop a system of multiple assessments to determine whether or not a high school student had reached a sufficient level of competence to earn a diploma and graduate. However, when the Board of Education began to implement the new standards, it developed MCAS (Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System) instead: a single set of high-stakes tests requiring a minimum passing score for students to graduate from high school. The MCAS violates the spirit and the intent of the Education Reform Act and continues to promote racism, classism and differential treatment across the education system.
HOW MCAS HARMS STUDENTS:
“Teaching to the test” – rigidly focusing on and narrowing the curricula to tested subjects -- contributes to decreased motivation to learn and damages the relationship between many teachers and their students
School resources are diverted away from non-tested subjects.
The use of the MCAS as a must-pass graduation requirement has been linked to the increased drop-out rate and lower graduation rates, contributing to the school-to-prison pipeline. This is particularly damaging to communities of color.
WHAT WE CAN DO:
Representative Carl Sciortino and Senator Pam Resor are sponsoring the MCAS Reform Bill (H. 561) to help resolve some of these issues. This bill directs the Board of Education to create a High School Graduation Requirements Committee that will develop a multiple assessment system to determine student competence provide opportunities for students who do not meet minimum standardized test scores to offset their scores with other measures of performance.
The MCAS Reform Bill is now in the Education Committee but no vote has been scheduled. TO MAKE SURE THIS IMPORTANT BILL DOES NOT DIE IN COMMITTTEE, IT IS ESSENTIAL TO TAKE ACTION NOW! Please call your state reps and senators and urge them to ask their colleagues on the Education Committee to support H. 561.
For a summary of MCAS Reform Bill go to:
MCAS Summary

To read the complete bill, go to:
http://www.mass.gov/legis/bills/house/185/ht00pdf/ht00561.pdf

To find your state representatives and their contact info go to:
http://www.wheredoivotema.com/bal/myelectioninfo

Not sure of what to say? For a sample script, go to:
MCAS Representative Script

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