By Ken Maguire, Associated Press, 01//02

MALDEN, Mass. -- Recent success on the MCAS exam has prompted education officials to consider raising the minimum score needed to pass, possibly beginning with this year's sophomore class.

The Board of Education plans formal debate this fall, but gave warning Tuesday that it considers the current minimum passing score of 220 too low for a test that students must pass to earn a diploma.

"At some point you run the danger of having a standard that is so low as to be somewhat meaningless for the vast majority of the people," Board of Education Chairman James Peyser said.

About 92 percent of students in the Class of 2003 have passed the standardized exam, either on their first try or on a retest. Eighty-four percent of juniors passed on their first attempt last spring.

Education Commissioner David Driscoll said that when the 220 threshold was established several years ago, "everybody agreed" that a 90 percent passage rate would be deemed a success.

"It's come faster than we thought," Driscoll said.

Students have several opportunities, starting as sophomores, to pass the English and math portions of the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System test by the end of their senior year.

About 5,000 seniors have not passed, however, and cannot get a diploma, even if they've fulfilled all local district requirements.

Officials did not discuss a number, but said the performance of the Class of 2005 this spring -- results will be known in the fall -- would reveal if the Class of 2004's success was an anomaly, or the start of a trend.

"It seems to me that you've got to give a couple year's notice," Driscoll said of a timeline and ruling out any changes for the Class of 2004.

Jackie King, a Cambridge parent and Massachusetts coordinator of the anti-MCAS group FairTest, said the proposal is unreasonable.

"To constantly make the test harder, broaden the areas covered by the test, or in any way put more emphasis on the test is a faulty policy," King said.

School districts are bracing for up to 20 percent reductions in state aid next school year because of the state's $3 billion budget shortfall, King pointed out.

"I don't understand what world they are living in," she said. "Just as the school systems are being squandered by budget cuts, the demands on them are rising higher and higher. That's unreasonable."

The board voted unanimously Tuesday to seek public comment on a proposal that would require students to also pass science and history MCAS tests. Science would take effect in 2009; history two years later, under the proposed schedule.

The same proposal includes a provision stating the board intends to raise the threshold score.

Driscoll cautioned, however, that implementing new subjects relies on financial support from the Legislature.

"I want to make sure that people understand that if we get cut in our assessment line (in the budget), we're going to have to make some trade-off decisions, and one of those tradeoffs might be implementation of science and social studies," he said. "We have to be very real about that."