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| AMELIA
KUNHARDT/The Patriot Ledger |
| Ashley Shea shows samples of
the vocational high school newspapers she has designed to
Paul Dugre of the New England Institute of Technology. Failure
to pass the MCAS test could keep her out of New England Tech. |
College-material
vocational students
often have tougher time meeting MCAS requirements
By DINA GERDEMAN
The Patriot Ledger
 hen
the college admissions officer arrived, Ashley Shea was ready.
Shea, 17, pulled out her resume and a portfolio filled with several
student newspapers she has designed and edited. She made it clear
she would love to enroll in the multimedia program at the New
England Institute of Technology in Rhode Island this fall.
“I just love designing and laying out pages,’’ said Shea, a
senior at Southeastern Regional Vocational High School in Easton.
“I want to go to your school so much.”
The admissions officer, Paul Dugre, was clearly impressed with
her work.
“This is great,’’ he said. “Your passion for graphics is coming
through loud and clear, and that’s something I look for.’’
There’s only one problem: The college requires applicants to
have high school diplomas, and Shea might not receive one because
she has not passed the MCAS exam.
Shea is among the 10,500 students in the Class of 2003 - including
more than 375 on the South Shore - who may not graduate because
they have repeatedly failed the MCAS.
The Class of 2003 is the first group of students who must pass
the English and math portions of the test to graduate. Results
of December’s retest are expected to be released in March. Most
students who do not pass that test will not graduate in June;
although another retest will be offered in May, the results won’t
be ready in time for graduation ceremonies.
Vocational students - who spend half the school year studying
academics and half learning technical trades - often have a tougher
time with the exam than students in traditional high school programs.
Southeastern Regional has one of the highest MCAS failure rates
south of Boston, with 53 seniors - or 23 percent of the class
- failing the exam after repeated attempts.
Shea, who attended Plymouth elementary and middle schools and
now lives in Brockton, is editor of the student newspaper and
was named student of the month in January. She now earns mostly
Bs and Cs, but math has always been tough for her.
In her junior year, her grades took a dive, particularly in
math. Shea injured her back in a car accident and missed more
than 30 days of school.
At the same time, life at home was rocky. Shea was having run-ins
with her mother, and her stepfather was jailed on domestic violence
charges for assaulting her mother. Shea’s mother, Michelle, is
getting a divorce.
That same year, Shea began hanging out with a group of students
who were drinking and doing drugs, and after dabbling in too much
partying herself and adopting a lax attitude toward studying,
her grades began to slip. She ended up failing an Algebra II course.
“I let myself get wrapped up in the wrong scene, and I just
didn’t care about school much,’’ Shea said.
Her attitude changed when she was deprived of doing the work
she loves: editing the student newspaper.
In her sophomore year, she had gotten involved with the newspaper,
taking pictures and then gravitating toward designing and laying
out pages.
“I’ve got a knack for it,’’ said Shea, whose technical coursework
is concentrated in graphic communications. “It’s fun to be creative
with it.”
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| GREG
DERR /The Patriot Ledger |
| Ashley Shea is editor of the
student newspaper and a recent student of the month at Southeastern
Regional Vocational High School, but still has not passed
the MCAS math test. |
Because she failed the algebra class her junior year, the school
kicked her off the newspaper the second part of the year. It was
agonizing for Shea to watch from the sidelines as other students
worked on the newspaper. Rather than miss out on the paper for
the first part of her senior year - until her grades were released
- Shea decided to attend summer school to correct her failing
math grade.
“I realized that the newspaper is a big part of me. It killed
me when I couldn’t work on it,’’ she said. “So that’s what made
me smarten up.”
Newspaper adviser Karen Olsen can see the dedication in the
way Shea leads her staff.
“She can do it all. She can chase a story, come up with story
ideas, motivate the kids to think about issues, take photographs
and design pages,” she said. “Her motivation and commitment are
superior. It’s like an addiction for her.”
Olsen believes if Shea does not pass the December test, she
will keep trying until she beats the exam.
“If she misses it once again, it will be beyond devastating,’’
Olsen said, “but she will hang in there and do whatever it takes.
She’s not one who’s going to give up her aspirations.”
Michelle Shea makes the sign of the cross as she says a small,
silent prayer. She has looked forward to sitting with other proud
parents as her daughter accepts her diploma. Michelle Shea, 41,
never saw her own graduation day; she dropped out of North Quincy
High School in her sophomore year and later earned an equivalency
diploma.
“Seeing Ashley graduate is so important to me. She put four
hard years in. I want her to walk across that stage and be proud.
I never wanted her to follow in my footsteps.”
Vocational school administrators say many students choose to
enroll in technical schools because they have trouble learning
in traditional academic programs. Administrators do not think
students like Shea should be able to wiggle out of passing a test
to graduate, but they believe it’s unfair to use a strictly academic
test with students who spend half their day learning hands-on
skills.
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“Why wouldn’t you take into account that area of study they
spent so much time working on?” asked John Kosko, superintendent-director
of South Shore Vocational Technical High School in Hanover. “When
used alone, the MCAS is not a good judge of a student’s abilities.”
Jerome Burke, principal of Southeastern Regional, points to
a student who is having trouble in his math classes, but is best
in the school at cabinetmaking - a skill that requires mathematical
know-how.
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“I kept going down, and I
started thinking, ‘Is the test getting harder, or am I getting
stupider?’ I was feeling so much stress.”
Ashley Shea,
Southeastern Regional Vocational High senior |
“He said he doesn’t need a ruler, that he just needs to see
blueprints for a cabinet, and he can make it,’’ Burke said. “He
does math like you and I can’t comprehend, but he’s going to fail
a paper-and-pencil test. These kids learn differently.”
When Shea took the MCAS for the first time in her sophomore
year, she passed the English section, but failed the math section
by two points. The second time she took it, her math score dropped
an additional two points. On her third attempt, her score dropped
by another two points.
“I kept going down, and I started thinking, ‘Is the test getting
harder, or am I getting stupider?’” she said. “I was feeling so
much stress.”
The more she failed, the more anxious she became, which seemed
to put a damper on her performance.
“I’m just not a good test-taker,’’ she said. “I tend to freeze
up.”
Shea’s math tutor, Linda Deady, could see that the test was
eroding Shea’s confidence.
“For her, math isn’t the strongest it could be to begin with,
but what this test has done is made her feel even less confident
about her math,’’ she said.
After several weeks of intense in-school tutoring, Shea said
she felt more at ease and confident when she took the last retest
in December.
“I found the test so much easier,’’ she said. “It was the first
time I didn’t struggle with it. I’ll cry tears of joy if I pass.
I’ve worked so hard to walk across that stage. If I don’t pass,
I won’t graduate, and I can’t even think about that.”
Shea, hopeful that a college degree will help her pursue a career
in newspaper design, will not find a loophole in a state appeal.
Since her attendance was so poor in her junior year, she is not
eligible for an MCAS waiver.
Dugre, the admissions officer at New England College of Technology,
said that even if Shea does not receive a diploma, she still has
a good chance of getting accepted if she can earn an equivalency
diploma and pass a basic skills test.
“I’m telling Ashley not to worry,’’ Dugre said. “She should
not have a problem getting in. We don’t have a lot of faith in
the MCAS. If that should stop a good student like Ashley from
getting into (college) and being productive in society, what is
the purpose other than holding someone back?”
Dina Gerdeman may be reached at dgerdeman@ledger.com.
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