|
|
9486 in the collection
Massachusetts Pass Rates are a Scam
The word "scam" didn't enter the last week's upbeat news stories about the high percentage of Massachusetts high school seniors who have passed the MCAS tests to qualify for a diploma.
But that's the view of Boston College education researcher Anne Wheelock, who said bluntly, "the pass rates are a scam."
Statewide, the Department of Education announced, about 90 percent of the class of 2003 passed the MCAS tests and earned the right to graduate. Those numbers were lower in bigger cities, including 82 percent in New Bedford and 84 percent in Fall River.
But, Ms. Wheelock said, the reported percentages come from a smaller pool than was originally tested. When one compares the number of successful students in the class of 2003 with the number in that class who took the tests in their sophomore year, the percentages shift dramatically in some cases.
In New Bedford, the success rate drops to 53 percent, and in Fall River, it slips to 42 percent.
State and local education officials are extremely pleased with how well this year's seniors are doing after the third round of re-testing, the last group to be done in time to graduate with the class of 2003.
After three re-tests and some successful waiver applications, less than 10 percent of the seniors statewide have failed to clear the standardized testing hurdle in math, English or both.
But even the high passing rate among seniors who didn't drop out, or transfer to night school, or decide to pursue a GED, begs the question: Even if the MCAS system works, is it doing the right things for our schools? Is education improving? Is MCAS everything it is advertised to be?
What it isn't doing, in the eyes of Ms. Wheelock and other opponents of high-stakes testing, is reaching those students who most need equality, justice and support in public education: inner-city students, minorities, immigrants, the poor.
At the same time, critics continue to argue that the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System is stifling innovation, demoralizing teachers and snuffing out students' curiosity and ambitions as they "drill and kill" and "teach to the test."
A report released last week concluded as much. The Lynch School of Education at Boston College surveyed teachers in states with high-stakes testing and concluded that teachers, especially in elementary schools, are unhappy about being constrained by the high demands of the tests.
"The findings in this report need to be examined by policymakers and educators in their own state to determine whether the effects of the state test, as reported here by teachers, are the desired ones," said the authors of the report.
The results are absolutely the desired ones, in the view of Dr. Ronald Souza, New Bedford's assistant superintendent for secondary education.
"I think (MCAS) has definitely made the schools better," he said. "I think we're still on a learning curve to perfecting the whole process, but once we fully implement the standards-based learning and the expectations are known, it will definitely improve education.
"The proof is in the pudding. I think we need to see what's going to happen in the next couple of years. We need to re-examine the frameworks, the curriculum, and we need to be addressing topics in math that are important. Maybe the framework has to be changed," he said.
"But I'm absolutely buying into it, although I think we have a long way to go," he said.
With just one class graduating under the requirement so far, "We don't have a longitudinal study. We need to see students graduate and get good jobs and be successful. But we have to start somewhere.
"I don't think we're there yet. I don't think MCAS is the greatest test on earth," he said.
Ms. Wheelock questioned the practice of repeated re-testing, since students will learn better test-taking methods that won't reflect improvements in real knowledge. "The assumption is that more kids are doing better because more kids are smarter," she said.
Conversely, opponents have also argued that poor test-takers need alternative assessments.
School officials acknowledged that test-taking skills are a real factor, and that they are part of the tutoring.
Know the Score
There are other things at work. A previous decision by the state to round MCAS grades up instead of down "catapulted a couple thousand kids into the passing category," Ms. Wheelock said.
"So there have been some decisions on the part of the testers that just standing on their own have made a difference to higher scores," she said. "That tells us nothing about whether the students themselves know more and can do more with what they know.
"It does tell us that scoring matters. I think we just basically don't know on the basis of scores whether kids are reading more thoughtfully or doing math more thoughtfully or are more attentive to the quality of their work," she said.
Dr. Wayne LaGue, Wareham's superintendent of schools, praised the effect MCAS is having on the system. "I think it has done remarkable, wonderful things for public schools. It really has raised the levels of competency of students."
But he cautioned, "that's completely aside from regulations about what is adequate yearly progress without adequate yearly funding. At some point, if funds are cut it's going to become a moral issue."
And a legal one.
Court challenges to MCAS are still pending in various corners of Massachusetts, filed by students who contend that the inequities in funding and opportunities still weigh heavily against those students who have been historically deprived. Their argument is that despite the massive increases in local aid to education designed to level the field of opportunity, Massachusetts is still penalizing many students not for anything they did, but for the shortcomings of the system that failed them.
Getting Organized
Jackie King, a coordinator for MassCARE, a parents' group opposed to the MCAS requirement, said her office was deluged last week with calls from distraught parents complaining that their children were being unfairly denied diplomas. Some school committee members have been phoning in, too, exploring their options, she said. So far, boards in seven communities --none in SouthCoast -- have voted to defy state officials and issue diplomas based on their own local standards.
"We felt that it was a sad day in Massachusetts for 6,000 students" who are still in school but haven't passed the MCAS in time to graduate this spring, said Ms. King.
"Amid the celebration and hoopla on part of the state, we are ignoring or glossing over serious disparities between suburbs and inner cities, and with black, Latino and special ed students," she said.
"Disturbing facts are being glossed over," she said. Specifically, the group calculated that 16,700 students, or 22 percent, have been lost statewide from the class of 2003. In other words, they are not being counted toward the current MCAS pass rates. Add that 22 percent to the roughly 10 percent who still haven't passed, and the failure rate is in the vicinity of one-third, she said.
"We refuse to believe that the state would actually feel that it's perfectly all right and acceptable to have 25 percent of African-American and 33 percent of Latinos failing the test. That is such a striking inequity. It isn't enough just to point out the existing inequities. These are exactly the students education reform was supposed to reach," she said.
At the same time, her view is that MCAS is worsening education for those students who do persevere and pass the test.
"We believe education is harmed, not helped, by MCAS. It narrows the curriculum and encourages a 'drill and kill' mentality. It certainly encourages school systems to push out more in-depth, creative, exploratory courses which foster real knowledge and critical thinking. It certainly discourages authentic assessment which would be to use multiple ways of measuring how students are progressing," she said.
Standard Bearers
MCAS advocates hold that having an array of alternative standards by which to judge student performance does little more than to revert to the days when some schools graduated students based on standards so loose as to be meaningless, shortchanging many students because the expectations for them were so low.
The universally applied test, say school officials, has energized students because they realize they are competing with the students in other communities on exactly the same level.
Yes, there is pressure, but there is also jubilation when students who initially failed manage to boost their scores enough to qualify for a diploma that really means something.
To those who contend that the MCAS grading has been lowered to make it easier to pass, Dr. LaGue said, "This is not a minimal competency test. This tests for higher achievement levels."
That is reflected in the frustration many students feel as they are confronted with the most advanced questions far beyond their ability. "They are very frustrated," Dr. Lague said. "They feel the upper-level questions are ridiculous. Others find them challenging. The objective is to set a reasonable threshold."
The question also arises: How much knowledge can be poured into the heads of students and how quickly? And is our school system equipped to meet that challenge?
Ms. Wheelock points to Japan, where such intense pressure is put on students that once they qualify for college, they are so weary that they slack off dramatically compared to students elsewhere.
Dr. LaGue is concerned that in the current budget atmosphere, the ever-rising expectations of state education officials -- who threaten to take over schools that do not make enough annual improvement on the MCAS -- might be unrealistic and invite more lawsuits.
On that point, Ms. King was adamant."Education reform was designed to ameliorate some inequities, and equitable funding is a step in that direction. The steps we're told are going to be taken by the Romney administration will mean massive cutbacks across the board, which absolutely will affect core education programs.
"They will mean teacher layoffs, larger class sizes, smaller libraries," she said.
"Tell me under that scenario how we can in good conscience hold students accountable for systems that are suffering under those kinds of cuts," she said.
Bound and Determined
Regardless of the setbacks, school officials say they are determined to try.
Parents have been brought into the picture more than ever as schools contact them and explain the opportunities for MCAS tutoring in after-school and weekend sessions, not to mention those offered during school hours at such places as New Bedford High School.
In many respects, those efforts appear to be paying off. Students report that they enjoy the added attention, while MCAS critics respond that it is because they don't get the attention they need in the regular classroom.
In addition, the dropout rate statewide does not appear to have worsened dramatically, if at all, which was pointed out by Education Commissioner Edward Driscoll.
In New Bedford, the dropout rate has been decreasing slightly in recent years, a relief in that MCAS critics predicted wholesale dropout increases when the MCAS barrier was thrown in the face of demoralized students.
Ms. Wheelock has produced figures suggesting that the trend is for those who are destined to drop out to drop out earlier.
Dr. Souza asked, "Is this going to have an impact on the dropout rate for future classes? The reality is finally hitting, and this can do one of two things. It can make the kids really take education seriously, or discourage those on the fence who conclude that they might as well drop out now.
"We've been proactive, trying to get to the kids on the fence and make sure they don't become discouraged. We're trying to be optimistic," he said.
One way of encouraging students is to withhold the waiver applications that could exempt them from the MCAS graduation requirement.
MassCARE criticized urban districts for skimping on the waivers on the grounds that they are cumbersome and expensive. Ms. King expressed mild surprise that New Bedford had deliberately held back on waiver applications as a lever to encourage students to pass the MCAS head-on. The celebrations last week in the households of successful students spoke to the success of that approach.
Dr. Souza said that the waiver process will now proceed for eligible students -- those without a lot of absences who otherwise meet the city's graduation requirements.
The process is being repeated across the state, and MCAS pass rates are expected to nudge up a bit when the final tallies are in.
— Steve Urbon
MCAS rates don't tell whole story, critics say
Standard-Times
March 9, 2003
http://www.s-t.com/daily/03-03/03-09-03/a01lo002.htm
INDEX OF OUTRAGES
Pages: 380
[1] 2 3 4 5 6 Next >> Last >>
|
