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Do They Know That Adage in Boston About Shutting the Barn Door?
School Superintendent Thomas W. Payzant faced a barrage of criticism for his tough policy banning Boston high school seniors who did not pass the state's MCAS test from participating in graduation ceremonies in June.
Now the Boston School Department is aggressively reaching out to such students, hoping to help them pass a retest of the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System and planning a special fall graduation ceremony for everyone who clears the final hurdle this summer.
Wilson Acevedo, who took the summer retest this week in Roxbury, said he was thrilled to learn that those who pass might be able to don their caps and gowns after all. But some critics of Boston's efforts to help struggling seniors say the School Department's intense focus on the class of 2003, the first required to pass the MCAS exam in order to graduate, is long overdue.
''The good thing is that they're finally taking responsibility,'' said John Mudd, policy director for Massachusetts Advocates for Children, a nonprofit watchdog group. ''It's too bad it didn't happen three months ago when these kids could have been tracked. Now the worry is that they have been forgotten, lost, or that they have even given up.''
As graduation becomes a distant memory for most members of the class of 2003, pressure is mounting around the state to help the 4,200 Massachusetts students who still have not passed MCAS.
Yesterday, several lawmakers and a group opposed to the MCAS graduation requirement demanded that Education Commissioner David P. Driscoll directly notify the families of those students that there is still time to seek a waiver from the requirement.
Driscoll alerted school superintendents last month that he would accept a new round of appeals through Sept. 30. Critics worry that the word has not reached the eligible students.
''Whatever can possibly be done to find them, communicate with them, send them a lifeline, needs to be done,'' said Lisa Guisbond, a state coordinator of the Massachusetts Coalition for Authentic Reform in Education, which opposes the MCAS requirement.
A spokeswoman for Driscoll said the Department of Education does not have student addresses, but that the commissioner will encourage superintendents to contact families. In Boston, school officials acknowledge that they do not know for certain how many students have met the district's graduation requirements and would be eligible for diplomas if they pass the MCAS exam this summer. The district estimates that 82 percent of Boston's roughly 3,500 seniors passed the MCAS exam by the end of the school year, compared to 93 percent statewide.
Conveying a new sense of urgency on the subject, Payzant established a committee this week to solve the district's data-collection problems and track down members of the class of 2003.
New estimates show the number of seniors who would graduate if they pass both English and math portions of the MCAS test is about 150, or roughly 300 less than predicted last spring.
The lack of solid information, more than two months after most Boston seniors left high school, has been a growing source of frustration to some officials.
''There is no question that the numbers have been all over the map, and all of us are sick and tired of trying to figure out what's the real number and exactly who are these students,'' said Boston School Committee chairwoman Elizabeth Reilinger. ''And that's why we are attempting to put a better system in place.''
School administrators acknowledged the discrepancy, but defended their record, saying that keeping track of the 3,500 students in the class of 2003 is difficult.
Christopher Horan, Payzant's chief of staff, said that principals were making their best guesses when they predicted in April that 455 students who had not yet passed MCAS would meet all local requirements by graduation day. But a June tally, taken after students left school, showed the numbers to be far off.
''In many cases . . . students who [the principals] thought were meeting local requirements actually didn't,'' said Horan, cochairman of the committee that Payzant set up to find the class of 2003.
Payzant has been on vacation this week and could not be reached for comment.
He asked the 10-member committee of school and business leaders to compile an accurate list of all members of the Class of 2003, identify whether each student has met local graduation requirements, and determine whether students who failed MCAS sought help this summer to prepare for retests.
Payzant also wants to seek advice from the state Department of Education on how to keep track of students who continue to take retests long after leaving the Boston public schools.
One reason for delays in figuring out each student's status, Horan said, is that the state and the district use different numbers to identify each student, leaving it up to local school officials to match up the numbers.
The class of 2003 committee will meet for the first time Aug. 19. Payzant asked for a report by the end of September.
Meanwhile, school officials hope to hold a fall graduation ceremony in October or November to celebrate the accomplishments of seniors who finally pass MCAS, but not in time to graduate with the majority of their class.
''We wanted to recognize that this is a very unusual year and the fact that the class of 2003 was the first facing the MCAS requirement,'' Reilinger said.
State education officials said they know of no other district that is holding a second graduation.
Payzant was criticized as insensitive last spring for not following the lead of superintendents across the state and allowing those who met local requirements but failed MCAS to participate in graduation ceremonies. Instead of a diploma, many students in other districts got a state-endorsed ''certificate of attainment.''
For now, students like Acevedo, who took the MCAS retest this week, are hoping they will finally receive their diplomas later this year. ''If I pass, I will definitely be there,'' said Acevedo, who attended Charlestown High School. ''I was mad when I found out I couldn't walk [in the graduation ceremony]. I was thinking, this is the only chance you get to do it, and they aren't letting us go to graduation because of one test?''
— Megan Tench
Boston schools seek those who didn't graduate; Those passing MCAS could get fall diplomas
Boston Globe
August 2, 2003
INDEX OF OUTRAGES
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