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Students Who Passed Re-Test Get Graduation Ceremony

The rah-rah for the test didn't ring true for students attending this make-up graduation ceremony.

Boston last night held its first graduation ceremony for students whose failure on the MCAS test kept them out of the lineup when it came to graduating with their classmates in the Spring.

Speaking from a stage at Faneuil Hall, school Superintendent Thomas W. Payzant told about 80 students and hundreds of their relatives and friends that the new MCAS graduation requirement meant the students were better qualified than past generations to attain good jobs and find success.

"The diploma you walk away with tonight is worth more than previous diplomas from Boston public high schools and other public high schools in Massachusetts," said Payzant. "You really do deserve to be prouder than high school classes that have come before."

The ceremony honored the students who were denied diplomas in June but who qualified to graduate over the summer by retaking and passing the MCAS exam or satisfying other graduation requirements.

Minutes before the ceremony, Leonard Sheffield, 18, stood against a wall by himself in his Snowden International High School cap and gown and talked about receiving his diploma six months after his classmates.

Sheffield, who hopes to land a job in appliance repairs, did not pass the math part of the MCAS until this summer.

"It's hard with your friends graduating earlier," said Sheffield. "I don't like the MCAS. I could have graduated earlier with everybody else."

Across Massachusetts, the Class of 2003 was the first required to pass the English and math sections of the MCAS test to graduate. The MCAS, or Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System test, was a key part of the 1993 Education Reform Act that significantly increased statewide education spending and was meant to bolster academic performance statewide.

In Boston, more than 2,900 members of the class of 2003 had passed both sections of the test by May 2003, while 636 had failed one or both sections, according to the city school department. Last night's ceremony honored the approximately 240 students who passed the test or satisfied other graduation requirements over the summer.

Many chose not to come to Faneuil Hall because their class had graduated or because they had already found jobs, according to some in attendance last night.

In May, the Boston School Committee decided, unlike some other communities, that students who passed all other graduation requirements but not the MCAS would not be allowed to walk across the stage with their classmates. The School Committee decided to hold a special ceremony several months later for students who belatedly satisfied the requirements, and encouraged students to seek tutoring and other available help to improve their scores so they would be able to take part.

Last night Mayor Thomas M. Menino looked out at the rows of brightly colored caps and gowns and congratulated the students for continuing to work toward their diplomas, even after many of their friends had graduated.

"You could have been out there hanging out on street corners, but you made a choice," said Menino. "We're certainly making history tonight."

Natasha Deleon sat in the second row, cheering with her mother and grandparents for her brother Luis Ruiz, who was graduating from the Boston Community Leadership Academy.

Deleon, 20, a sophomore at Newton's Lasell College, said she was proud of her brother, but she disagreed with Payzant that the new diplomas that included the MCAS test were worth more than previous diplomas. In fact, she said MCAS had weakened high school education by focusing on test preparation, not learning.

"We all went through the same four years of high school," said Deleon, who graduated from New Mission High School in Boston in 2002, in the last graduating class before MCAS became a requirement. "I don't think it makes their diploma more valuable than mine."


— John McElhenny
Turning MCAS test failure into success
Boston Globe
2003-12-09
http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2003/12/09/turning_mcas_test_failure_into_success/

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