MCAS ballot question campaign officially launches with polling showing support for effort

by Chris van Buskirk 8 August 2024

Supporters of a ballot question that would remove the MCAS as a high school graduation requirement ramped up their messaging Thursday with the official launch of the “Vote Yes on 2” campaign and release of internal polling showing a majority of likely voters back the idea.

Less than 90 days before Massachusetts residents head to the polls in November, a coalition backed by the Massachusetts Teachers Association argued they already had an “early lead” in the race as an official website went live with promises to “expand interaction” with voters.

Jeron Mariani, the campaign’s general consultant, said a poll of 700 likely voters conducted last month by Washington-based Lake Research Partners found 55% were in support of nixing the MCAS as a high school graduation requirement.

In a memo released as part of the campaign kickoff, Mariani said voters are “predisposed” to support replacing the MCAS graduation requirement with a “more comprehensive approach to gauging student readiness for success after school.”

“Qualitative conversations add to the quantitative numbers, with voters statewide and across partisan lines wondering why Massachusetts is one of only a few outlier states to allow a standardized test to overrule a student’s coursework, GPA and teacher evaluations,” Mariani said.

The question, which cleared final hurdles to appear on the November ballot earlier this summer, would eliminate the requirement that students pass the MCAS test in mathematics, science and technology, and English in order to receive a high school diploma.

Students would instead need to complete coursework “certified by the student’s district” in the same areas as well as any additional subjects determined by the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education, according to the language of the proposal and a summary prepared by Attorney General Andrea Campbell’s office.

The “Vote Yes on 2” campaign launched a website, social media accounts, and pledged to “expand interaction with voters on this question of supporting students, teachers and standards.”

Opponents of the move have said removing the MCAS graduation requirement for high schoolers would eliminate the state’s “single, objective standard” for a high school diploma and instead allow every school district in Massachusetts to “devise its own requirements for graduation.”

“That would result in more than 300-plus different standards for graduation, leading to unequal assessments of student readiness for college and careers and wider inequities in student achievement and opportunities,” opposition group Protect Our Kids’ Future said on its website.

The group launched a $250,000 advertising blitz last month featuring ad spots that included a high school teacher from Revere arguing ending the MCAS high school graduation requirement would “undermine our education standard.”

High-profile elected officials in Massachusetts have also come out against the proposal, including Gov. Maura Healey and House Speaker Ron Mariano, a former teacher.

But supporters like Fran Frederick, the executive director of the Massachusetts School Counselor Association, said standardized testing places a “significant and unnecessary added stress” on students at a time when mental health is already struggling.

“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,” Frederick said in a statement.

The Massachusetts Teachers Association has already spent over $1.1 million in support of the question, including on signature collection efforts, researcher services, and campaign consulting, according to campaign finance records.

The organization’s president, Max Page, said the MCAS high school graduation requirement is “failing” students in the state.

“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,” Page said in a statement.