OPINION: YES on 2 Restores Fairness to Graduation

by Bob Erlandsen, 8th Grade Science Teacher, Cohasset Middle School 21 October 2024

This November, voters will be able to help students in a major way by removing the MCAS graduation requirement by voting “Yes” on question 2. Let’s be clear about what a YES vote won’t do. It will not stop MCAS testing. That is federally mandated and will continue. It will not reduce the high standards that Massachusetts is known for. Those are here to stay. What it will do is remove a narrow standardized test from consideration for awarding HS diplomas to our students.

The data collected by the MCAS will still be available for ensuring that Massacusett’s high state standards are being taught. Student data will be available to assist educators in identifying atypical learners who are in need of specialized teaching strategies and environments to be successful. What will be removed is the punitive and arguably cruel use of the data to deny student advancement, even if they have demonstrated all other graduation requirements.

As a veteran science teacher of over 25 years at Cohasset Middle School, I have seen the advent of the MCAS system and the effect it has had on teaching and learning. Resources and time were devoted to MCAS tested subjects over arts and civics.

Discussions on student needs were centered around MCAS scores. Now we can argue about the validity of the MCAS as a way to address district inequity, the accountability measures that it provides to make sure standards are being taught. Those are valid discussion points that are to come. But the immediate concern is that MCAS scores are being used in a punitive fashion against the students they were supposed to support.

My biggest concern is for my students who are not your typical learners. These are the students who have unique minds and abilities that are not measured by the MCAS. A lot of times these kids are English as a second language learners or have been

diagnosed with learning challenges that require creative ways to allow them to express their understanding. I have knocked on almost a thousand doors across the south shore this summer, and I have frequently heard people say, “but if they don’t pass, they can take it again with remediation courses.” The problem is that trying to force these square peg kids into the limited round hole of the MCAS takes these students away from the arts, music, and elective courses that give these kids their wonderful diversity.

I have had so many conversations with people who were these unique students before the advent of the MCAS. They are business owners, visual artists, and other creatives who feel they would not have been able to pass that test and therefore been denied a diploma. HS diplomas are not just a piece of paper. They can be the difference between getting financial aid or not, being accepted into a trades program, maybe even staying in school as some of these students just give up. Denying a generation of these creative innovators will have consequences for our entire society.

In my school, standardized testing interrupted the instruction of committed teachers on 14 separate days. The inequities MCAS was supposed to fix has continued in communities of color and gateway cities, and the $150 million cost to Massachusetts taxpayers is way overpriced that would be better sent to the towns and communities. But it is the use of that data to punish students that is most offensive to me.

Reasonable educators know and understand the limitations of assessments and make allowances for our students on a daily basis to show their understanding in the modes that they do best. MCAS does not allow for that flexibility and allowing that rigid pass/fail system to punish some of our most vulnerable students is unconscionable. With that in mind, I implore you to take a stand with the 60+ state legislators including Senator O’Connor and Rep Meschino, dozens of School Committees, four State Representatives to Congress including Bill Keating and Ayanna Pressley, Senator Elizabeth Warren, and the Cohasset SEPAC (Special Education Parent Advisory Council) to pass question 2 in support of all students. Please vote Yes on question 2 and bring some common sense back to our schools.