MTA-backed campaign to remove MCAS as graduation requirement officially launches

by Molly Farrar 8 August 2024

The campaign to remove the state’s standardized MCAS test as a high school graduation requirement officially launched Thursday.

Organizers announced a canvassing date for later this month and released internal polling indicating a majority of voters already support their initiative.

The Massachusetts Teachers Association-backed ballot question will go to the voters in less than 90 days. The “Yes on 2” campaign — from the Committee for High Standards Not High Stakes — comes a week after the business-backed opposition rolled out their $250,000 advertising campaign.

Question 2 is one of five ballot questions coming to the ballot in Massachusetts this November. It would eliminate the requirement to pass the English, math, and science MCAS exams to earn a high school diploma. The MTA and other advocates say the requirement disproportionately harms low-income and English-learning students, while state officials say it maintains a state standard.

The campaign launched social media accounts Thursday, and the union set Aug. 17 as their canvassing kickoff.

Jeron Mariani, the general consultant foe the campaign, announced their “early lead” in a campaign email, according to a survey of 700 voters conducted by research firm Lake Research Partners in July.

The poll showed that 55 percent of voters already support replacing the MCAS graduation requirement without any background information.

MTA Vice President Deb McCarthy said the ballot question would replace the graduation requirement with “multiple forms of assessment like GPA, coursework, and teacher feedback.”

“This way, we can ensure schools and teachers are accountable to all students and communities, not just test scores,” McCarthy said in a statement. If the ballot question passes, students will still be required to take the MCAS in tenth grade, but their graduation would not be contingent on it.

The group’s polling also showed that 48 percent of voters are unfavorable towards the test, and half of voters are “not confident in the ability of standardized tests to measure students’ preparedness for success after graduation,” Mariani said.

“As further confirmation of this finding, we need only look to the opposition campaign’s latest spot: not once do they mention the MCAS or say ‘standardized testing,’” Mariani said.

The “Yes on 2” campaign announcement marks the beginning of a costly campaign for both sides of standardized testing in Massachusetts, one of the few states that still requires an exit exam.