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| GREG
DERR /The Patriot Ledger |
| Randolph High School senior
Jonathan Galina has yet to pass the MCAS test. |
Students are anxious,
perplexed about the
life-altering effects
of flunking MCAS
By DINA GERDEMAN
The Patriot Ledger
 or
Randolph High School senior Jonathan Galina, the wait is excruciating.
In the next few weeks, he will get his MCAS test scores, and
those few little numbers will determine whether he walks the stage
for a high school diploma during graduation ceremonies this June.
“Waiting for the scores is very difficult,” said Galina, who
has a learning disability. “I’m feeling stressed. I’m just counting
the days until I get my score.”
In early March, the state Department of Education is expected
to distribute the results of December’s Massachusetts Comprehensive
Assessment System test.
The students most interested in seeing those results are the
10,500 high school seniors - about one out of every six students
- who have failed in their previous attempts at the exam.
With graduation less than four months away, students are increasingly
anxious as they wonder whether the MCAS will prevent them from
receiving high school diplomas.
“The kids ask every day, ‘Did we get the results back?’” said
Linda Deady, math tutor at Southeastern Regional Vocational High
School in Easton.
“I just got a call from a mother who said she worries about
it every day. Her daughter worries about it every day,” said Deborah
DePaolo, principal of Blue Hills Regional in Canton. “Parents
are questioning whether their children’s futures will be limited
in some way. This test is very much on the minds of everyone right
now.”
On the South Shore, more than 375 seniors must still pass the
exam. The local schools with the highest number of students who
have yet to pass are Weymouth High, where 46 seniors need to clear
the MCAS hurdle; Randolph High, where 42 seniors have failed;
and Southeastern Regional, where 53 seniors have failed. More
than 20 students from Plymouth South, North Quincy and Silver
Lake Regional high schools still must pass the test, along with
more than a dozen students in Holbrook, Marshfield and Stoughton.
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Yet many South Shore schools are faring well, especially when
compared to urban districts that have as many as half of their
students failing. For example, all 98 seniors in Hull and all
130 in Norwell have passed. And only one senior in both Abington
and Canton have yet to pass.
But even at schools with only a handful of MCAS failures, officials
are worried about those few.
“We see the kids as people. They are not just a number. We hear
their goals and aspirations in life,” Deady said. “And we know
in some cases they won’t be able to achieve those goals without
a diploma. When push comes to shove, there will be a lot of doors
that won’t be open to these kids without high school diplomas.’’
Among those who are sweating the test are four seniors from
South Shore high schools who have repeatedly failed the exam.
All of them are counting on passing the MCAS retest they took
in December. The Patriot Ledger will follow their progress through
the school year.
- Galina is a special needs student who wants to work as a
veterinary technician, but cannot pass either the English or
math section of the MCAS.
- Quincy High School senior Joe Cao, an immigrant from China,
would like to pursue a career in computer graphics, but is struggling
with the English section of the MCAS.
- Ashley Shea, editor of the student newspaper at Southeastern
Regional, wants to design news pages some day, but can’t get
past the math section.
- And Jennifer Mueller, a regular education student at Whitman-Hanson
Regional High School, has her heart set on a career as a sign
language interpreter, but is struggling with the math section.
These four students, and about 60,000 others in the Class of
2003, are the first group of seniors who are being required to
pass both the math and English portions of the 10th-grade MCAS
to graduate. Although another retest will be offered in May, the
results of that test won’t be ready in time for graduation ceremonies
in June.
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Many students find it hard to believe that after 12 years of
school, their future now hinges on one test.
“I’ll be so upset if I can’t go to college because of the MCAS,”
Shea said. “I want to get a good education, get a good job and
succeed. I know I could do that if I had a high school diploma
and a college diploma. I don’t want this little test to get in
my way.”
 |
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| GREG
DERR /The Patriot Ledger |
|
| A student gets tutoring for
the math portion of the MCAS. More than 375 seniors on the
South Shore must pass the exam. |
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Yet state officials who defend the MCAS argue that the test is
doing just what it was intended to do - weeding out students who
do not have the necessary skills that make them deserving of diplomas.
“The students who are struggling with this test are, generally
speaking, students who are struggling academically,” state Board
of Education Chairman James Peyser said. “There are some people
who think we shouldn’t expect all students to achieve minimum
competency levels. I think that would be a tremendous disservice
to those young people. This is not about conferring empty degrees.”
The MCAS exam is the cornerstone of the Education Reform Act
of 1993, a movement encouraged largely by the business community
who urged the state for greater accountability and better-skilled
graduates.
Worried that students who couldn’t write an essay or complete
an algebra problem were slipping out of high school with diplomas,
state officials drew up an extensive outline of curriculum frameworks,
doubled the amount of taxpayer money spent on education and created
the MCAS, the final gateway to a diploma.
Many school officials, parents and students agree that graduates
should be held to high standards and that the MCAS has accomplished
the goal of pushing students harder. But ever since the first
pencil was put to the MCAS in 1998, many have questioned whether
it makes sense to block students from receiving diplomas based
on one exam.
“Schools have done a great job assessing when a student has
met the requirements of graduation,” said Quincy High School Principal
Bob Keuther, who noted that the 11 seniors who have failed the
MCAS are otherwise qualified for diplomas. “The MCAS is an all-right
tool to assess a student, but it shouldn’t be held above a student’s
head to graduate.”
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Certain groups of students find the exam more difficult. While
87 percent of regular education students statewide have passed
the test, just a little more than half of special needs students
have mastered it, and only 35 percent of students with limited
English skills have passed.
Yet state officials are making no apologies about requiring
nearly everyone to pass the test to graduate.
“We believe that what we’re doing here is for the good of all
students,” said Heidi Perlman, spokeswoman for the state Department
of Education. “We are raising standards across the board. A high
school diploma needs to mean something.”
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“I’ll be so upset if I can’t
go to college because of the MCAS. I want to get a good
education, get a good job and succeed. I know I could do
that if I had a high school diploma and a college diploma.
I don’t want this little test to get in my way.”
Ashley Shea,
Southeastern Regional senior |
Peyser said that an appeals process is the safety net for otherwise
degree-worthy students who cannot pass the MCAS. The state has
granted waivers to 313 students - including 53 South Shore students
- who have earned at least a 216 on each section of the test,
have good attendance records and have gotten solid grades in the
MCAS subject they are struggling with.
But teachers are worried that safety net will not catch all
students, particularly those who have failed the MCAS but are
likely to be successful in college. Peyser, however, finds it
hard to believe that a student could test poorly but do well in
college.
“This notion that you can be successful in college even though
you can’t meet the MCAS requirements is just patently false,”
he said.
Legislators have called for the abolishment of the MCAS. Court
battles are raging over alleged inequities between white, affluent
communities and poor, minority ones. And five defiant school districts
- Northampton, Easthampton, Falmouth, Cambridge and Hampshire
Regional - are planning to award diplomas to MCAS failures despite
the state’s insistence that they run the risk of losing funding.
“This is absolutely the law, and communities that break it will
be essentially handing out worthless diplomas,” Perlman said.
“This is not something that can be blown off.”
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Although the battle over the MCAS is likely to continue, many
seem resigned to the fact that it appears the graduation requirement,
for better or worse, will stick this year.
“I think some kids still think it will go away, that there’s
no way the state will not give diplomas to 10,000 students,” Deady
said. “I keep saying, ‘I don’t know. At this point, it looks like
this is our reality.’’’
Many students have already been told three times that they have
failed the test. Teachers, who have witnessed a mixture of tears
and tantrums, are starting to worry that the repeated sense of
failure will eventually leave students feeling defeated and ready
to quit.
“We are starting to see kids with the attitude of ‘Why bother?’”
said Karen Olsen, adviser for the student newspaper at Southeastern
Regional. “We just keep telling them to hang in there.”
Galina, frustrated that months of studying hasn’t brought him
any closer to a diploma, is close to giving up. He says if he
doesn’t pass the December retest, he won’t take the exam again.
“I tried as hard as I could, and I know if I don’t pass this
time, I’m never going to pass,’’ he said. “I just can’t put myself
through that test again.”
Dina Gerdeman may be reached at dgerdeman@ledger.com.
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