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The Life-Altering Effects of Flunking MCAS

For Randolph High School senior Jonathan Galina, the wait is excruciating. In the next few weeks, he will get his MCAS test scores, and those few little numbers will determine whether he walks the stage for a high school diploma during graduation ceremonies this June.

''Waiting for the scores is very difficult,'' said Galina, who has a learning disability. ''I'm feeling stressed. I'm just counting the days until I get my score.''

In early March, the state Department of Education is expected to distribute the results of December's Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System test.

The students most interested in seeing those results are the 10,500 high school seniors - about one out of every six students - who have failed in their previous attempts at the exam.

''The kids ask every day, 'Did we get the results back?''' said Linda Deady, math tutor at Southeastern Regional Vocational High School in Easton.

''I just got a call from a mother who said she worries about it every day. Her daughter worries about it every day,'' said Deborah DePaolo, principal of Blue Hills Regional in Canton. ''Parents are questioning
whether their children's futures will be limited in some way. This test is very much on the minds of everyone right now.''

On the South Shore, more than 375 seniors must still pass the exam. The local schools with the highest number of students who have yet to pass
are Weymouth High, where 46 seniors need to clear the MCAS hurdle; Randolph High, where 42 seniors have failed; and Southeastern Regional, where 53 seniors have failed. More than 20 students from Plymouth South, North Quincy and Silver Lake Regional high schools still must pass the test, along with more than a dozen students in Holbrook, Marshfield and
Stoughton.

''I'll be so upset if I can't go to college because of the MCAS,'' [Ashley Shea, editor of the student newspaper at Southeastern Voc, who has not passed MCAS math] said. ''I want to get a good education, get a good job and succeed. I know I could do that if I had a high school diploma and a college diploma. I don't want this little test to get in my way.''

Many students have already been told three times that they have failed the test. Teachers, who have witnessed a mixture of tears and tantrums, are starting to worry that the repeated sense of failure will eventually leave students feeling defeated and ready to quit.

''We are starting to see kids with the attitude of 'Why bother?''' said Karen Olsen, adviser for the student newspaper at Southeastern Regional. ''We just keep telling them to hang in there.''

Galina, frustrated that months of studying hasn't brought him any closer to a diploma, is close to giving up. He says if he doesn't pass the December retest, he won't take the exam again.

''I tried as hard as I could, and I know if I don't pass this time, I'm never going to pass,'' he said. ''I just can't put myself through that test again.''


— Dina Gerdeman
Students are anxious, perplexed about about the life-altering effects of flunking MCAS
Quincy Patriot-Ledger
Feb. 21, 2003
http://ledger.southofboston.com/display/inn_news/news02.txt

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