Question 2: What to know about removing the MCAS graduation requirement

by Molly Farrar 7 October 2024

Voters will decide if Massachusetts high schoolers should be required to pass the MCAS to graduate as one of the November election’s five ballot questions.

All sophomores in public high schools across the state take the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System, or the MCAS, a standardized test that students currently must pass to graduate.

All students must reach a minimum score in three sections: English language arts, math, and science and technology/engineering. Some students who score below “proficient” can graduate by fulfilling an Educational Proficiency Plan, which includes more required courses in their junior and senior years.

What would Question 2 do?

Question 2 wants to eliminate passing the MCAS or any other statewide or districtwide assessments in English, mathematics, and science and technology as a requirement for high school graduation.

Instead, graduating high schoolers would be required to complete coursework standards set by their district in those same subjects, as well as any other areas determined by the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education.

Students would still be required to take the MCAS, and students who fail would still be required to retake the test in the following years, according to the ballot question. Any student who was previously denied their diploma due only to their failing MCAS score would also be able to request their diploma.

Proponents of removing the graduation requirement

The Massachusetts Teachers Association, the main proponent of Question 2, argues the standardized test graduation requirement unfairly holds back students of color, low-income students, students with disabilities, and students who are English learners.

MTA Vice President Deb McCarthy said the union wants to remove just the high-stakes testing part of the graduation requirement and focus on modern skills, not memorizing content.

“We are creating test takers, creating anxiety, removing agency and autonomy around information that’s really important and engaging, and reducing it to a test score,” she told Boston.com.

McCarthy, a fifth-grade educator for more than two decades, said when a student fails the MCAS as a sophomore, “your junior and senior year becomes all about passing a test.”

“You lose out on all the other courses that you would find really engaging or that would really help you,” she said.

Opponents say the MCAS keeps districts and teachers accountable for maintaining the state’s high education standards. However, if the ballot question passes, the MCAS would still be used to gauge a student’s progress and would be “a metric in place for accountability purposes,” McCarthy said.

“The standards are going to be in place, but the MCAS doesn’t measure all of the standards, like public speaking, doing a research paper, and we are looking for the opportunity to allow all learners to thrive,” she said.

The union has already reportedly put more than $1 million into their campaign as of last month.

State Sen. Jason Lewis, who chairs the Education Committee, announced last month that he supports the initiative to remove the graduation requirement. He said that MCAS is useful to provide data but shouldn’t decide a student’s future.

He said he intends to file legislation in January requiring graduating students to complete MassCore, which is currently just recommended, for districts across the state. He said that would align Massachusetts with most other states.

“Standardized tests are imperfect and cannot measure the full scope of skills, knowledge, and competencies that we want to develop in our young people and are critical for their future success,” Lewis wrote on social media. “Research has shown that test scores are highly correlated with student demographics, like family income.”

State officials, business leaders oppose ballot question

Earlier this year, Secretary of Education ​​Patrick Tutwiler said he and Gov. Maura Healey support a “state standard” for graduation.

“That question, if it passes, would deliver us to a place of no standard, essentially 351 different standards, for high school graduation,” he said in March. “I don’t believe that is the right direction to go.”

The group Protect Our Kids’ Future: Vote No on 2, which launched an advertisement campaign in August, argues that parents believe high standards will lead to more success for students.

The campaign said their top contributors for the ads are Raymond Stata, Robert Rivers, Richard Burnes, and Paul Sagan. According to campaign finance records, each man has donated $100,000 to the campaign to keep the graduation requirement.

Sagan, the former chair of the state’s Board of Elementary and Secondary Education and current venture capitalist, gave more than half a million dollars to a pro-charter school ballot question in 2016.

When reached by email, he said he was speaking as an individual when he said the graduation requirement protects “the future for all of the children in the Commonwealth.”

“We’ve seen from decades of experience that MCAS, as part of a grand bargain to maintain local autonomy over schools paired with financial support and oversight from the Commonwealth, propelled our public schools from middling to be the best in the nation and competitive globally,” Sagan wrote. “As a matter of equity, we should do whatever is needed to prepare young people to succeed in life.”

Keri Rodrigues, who works with the Vote No on 2 campaign, is the founder of Massachusetts Parents United and the president of National Parents Union. Rodrigues has children in state public schools and said removing the standard of passing the MCAS would be “deeply unfair and deeply inequitable.”

“What (teachers) are doing is kicking the can down the road and saying, ‘We just can’t serve these kids,’” Rodrigues told Boston.com. “(They’re) going to grade them on a vibe, hope they do the best, and hope that maybe if they get to higher education, they’ll figure it out there because that’s what ends up happening, and then we have to pay for it.”

Rodrigues said there’s only one requirement statewide for graduating seniors: four years of gym. That’s a claim the campaign echoes in their social media ads. While the state recommends their MassCore curriculum, statewide requirements include physical education and U.S. history and civics in addition to the MCAS, according to the state.

All districts already set their own graduation requirements in English, math, and other subjects.

“You don’t have to know how to read. You don’t have to be proficient in numeracy and math,” Rodrigues said. “I know tons of kids that show up, that do the work, that show good effort, and get good grades based on an effort grade and not on a proficiency standard.”

Multiple chambers of commerce in the state also oppose the ballot question. The Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce donated $25,000 to the campaign, according to finance records.

President and CEO James Rooney said their advocacy in education isn’t new and “the Chamber continues to invest in the success of all children.”

“Ensuring that everyone votes NO on Question 2 is part of protecting our kids while maintaining accountability and appropriate standards in our classrooms,” Rooney said in a statement. “Investing in our children means that we are putting them first in every classroom, school, district, and neighborhood.”

Sagan said he thinks business leaders oppose the question because “it is not a punitive or aspirational standard, but one that protects families and our community.”

The Boston Globe, meanwhile, came out against the question this week, saying its passage would result in the loss of “a fundamental part of the state’s guarantee to all students: that no matter their background, no matter the wealth of their community, their school has to provide at least a minimal basic education encompassing math, science, and English.”

What happens if Question 2 passes or fails?

If Question 2 fails, nothing happens. The graduation requirement to pass the MCAS will still be in place.

If the ballot initiative passes, students would still take the MCAS as high school sophomores, and students who fail it then would still take it a second time later in their high school career. However, their diplomas won’t hinge on their scores. Instead, their graduation would be contingent on their grades, attendance, and other district-set graduation standards.