About MCAS
The Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System exam was mandated by the 1993 Education Reform Act to test all public school students in the Commonwealth.
The test-takers:
In spring 2004, more than 524,000 students in grades 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 10 were tested. Depending on their grade level, they took exams in reading, English, math, or science. Some tests were given in April; most were administered in mid-May. More than 99 percent of students enrolled in the grade levels tested actually took the exams. That number includes many limited-English students who previously were exempted from testing, but who had to take MCAS this year because of changes in state and federal law. About 5,200 severely disabled students took a portfolio-based alternate assessment.
Testing breakdown:
Grade 3: reading.
Grade 4: English and math.
Grade 5: science.
Grade 6: math.
Grade 7: English.
Grade 8: math and science.
Grade 10: English and math.
The tests:
The scoring:
More than 10 million answers to open-response questions, short-answer questions, and written compositions were individually read and scored by teams of Massachusetts educators over the summer. Multiple-choice answers were machine-scored by Harcourt Educational Measurement, the Department of Education's Texas-based testing contractor. Because the 10th-grade test counts for graduation, two scorers reviewed openresponse answers on the 10th-grade English and math tests.
Source: Mass. Department of Education
