High Standards Not High Stakes Launches Vote Yes on 2 Campaign to Replace Ineffective + Discriminatory MCAS Graduation Requirement

8 August 2024

BOSTON: Today, the Committee for High Standards Not High Stakes officially launched its “Vote Yes on 2” campaign, advocating for students, teachers, and the already high education standards across the commonwealth on this year’s election ballot. 

The Yes on 2 campaign seeks to replace the MCAS graduation requirement, which lets a one-size-fits-all standardized test override the state standards on coursework requirements, GPA, and teacher assessment to determine whether a student is ready for graduation. 

“Here in Massachusetts our students are full of potential, our teachers are top-notch professionals, and our curriculum and grading standards are set high to ensure success for all after graduation. Why would we give graduation veto power to a standardized test that can’t fully measure a student’s aptitude and creates harmful levels of stress for our young people?” said Deb McCarthy, a K-12 teacher of 25 years and Vice President of the Massachusetts Teachers Association (MTA). ”We stand with students and teachers in maintaining high education standards, not promoting high-stakes testing.” 

Currently, the MCAS graduation requirement prevents a student from graduating if they do not meet a particular MCAS score on their 10th grade testing. This harsh standard places significant stress on students according to developmental experts, research, and pediatricians, and is known to disadvantage students of color, non-native English speakers, and students with disabilities. The requirement also makes Massachusetts a national outlier, as one of only eight states that allows a standardized test early in a high school career to outweigh how a student has performed in meeting all of the other education standards set by the state. 

“Replacing the MCAS graduation requirement will create a balanced approach to accountability that includes multiple forms of assessment like GPA, coursework and teacher feedback,” McCarthy continued. “This way, we can ensure schools and teachers are accountable to all students and communities, not just test scores.”

Importantly, Voting Yes on Question 2 will not eliminate the MCAS test altogether. Replacing the MCAS graduation requirement will simply reduce the test score to one of many data points that can be used in assessing a student’s readiness for success after graduation. 

Earlier this year, over 170,000 concerned citizens signed a petition to place this question on the November ballot, asking to eliminate the MCAS graduation requirement and instead allow Massachusetts’ own high educational standards to determine a student’s future success.

Today, the Yes on Question 2 campaign launches with a coalition of support from high school students, parents, teachers, pediatricians, counselors and child welfare professionals all concerned with the harm that comes from high-stakes testing. 

“High-stakes testing places significant and unnecessary added stress on students, at a time when mental health is already struggling,” said Fran Frederick, a school counselor and Executive Director for the MA School Counselor Association. “The MCAS graduation requirement has created a toxic environment where even the brightest students cannot thrive because they're afraid of getting a question wrong and are consumed by anxiety. Voting Yes on Question 2 will lift some of the burden off of students, removing the stress of knowing a single test could prevent them from graduating.”

“The testing regime limits educators’ ability to teach to the whole child and take into account individuality,” said Sarah Woodard, a teacher of 26 years in Hatfield. ”Having to teach to a test reduces our ability to have meaningful, participation-driven sessions that increase critical thinking and encourage students to build skills they’ll need like working together and creatively addressing challenges. Accountability in education is imperative – but we need to be accountable for ALL learners.”

“There’s no way that a standardized test can fully measure my child’s, or any other student’s, full learning and ability to succeed,” said Michelle Willis, mother to a student at New Bedford High School. “Giving this test so much more power over a student’s future than their coursework, GPA and teacher evaluations just doesn’t sit right with me. I want my son to graduate with more than just a test score.”

Today the campaign also launched its official website and social channels to expand interaction with voters on this question of supporting students, teachers and standards. The Vote Yes on 2 campaign has already been knocking doors and talking to voters across the commonwealth about the choice on the ballot this November, and will continue to ramp further with field launches statewide next week. 

“It doesn’t take a standardized test score to show that the MCAS graduation requirement is failing Massachusetts students,” said MTA President Max Page. “From increasing anxiety in all students, to undermining true education by teaching to a test, to stacking the deck against students of color, English learners, and those with learning disabilities, the MCAS graduation requirement is deeply harmful for our students and does nothing to actually increase learning or critical thinking.”