Colleges question MCAS success

Massachusetts instituted the MCAS exam to guarantee that high school graduates would have basic skills needed for the future. But a Globe review shows that the test appears to have had little effect on the skill level of a significant group, those who enter the state's public colleges.

The review showed that 37 percent of incoming freshmen from public high schools had to take a remedial course in reading, writing, or math last year, down only 2 percentage points from 2002, the year before the MCAS English and math tests became a graduation requirement.

The high rate of students who need remedial help is puzzling to some researchers and officials, especially at community colleges, where thousands of students must study subjects they never mastered in high school.

''Basically we haven't seen any change at all," said David Hartleb, president of Northern Essex Community College in Haverhill, where a majority of incoming college freshmen landed in remedial classes. ''I think one of the most important things for a high school graduate to be able to do is be successful in college. So far there's no evidence here."

The Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System is widely viewed as a success, with scores steadily rising. In 1998, when students first started taking the tests, fewer than half of students passed both English and math on the first try. Now, 95 percent eventually pass, some after repeated testing. But the lack of appreciable improvement in skills among incoming freshmen at the state colleges raises a deeper question: How well are Massachusetts high schools truly preparing students, beyond MCAS testing?

''There is a problem that students are coming in not prepared to do college work," said Sondlo L. Mhlaba, dean of the division of arts and sciences at Bunker Hill Community College. ''We are concerned. We have been working to develop tools here to kind of speed up the process."

Whether students need remedial help in college is determined by their score on a standard placement exam covering reading, writing, and math, which all Massachusetts state colleges use. About 60 percent of state college freshmen passed the placement exams.

In an interview, Education Commissioner David P. Driscoll acknowledged concern over the large number of high school graduates still requiring remedial help when entering college. Driscoll said the tendency of many schools to focus MCAS efforts on more marginal students, to make sure they pass the test and graduate, may be partly to blame. He said high schools must aim higher, to not simply help students over that low threshold, but to push them toward mastery of the material.

Currently, students who score 220 out of a possible 280 on the MCAS are considered to have passed the test and can get their diploma. Driscoll wants more students to be scoring 240, which is considered proficient, or ready for college, a trend already underway. Last year, 57 percent of the state's students scored proficient or higher in math, double the percentage in 1998. But less than half of the students in Boston or Springfield performed that well.

''Over time we ought to start to see a reduction in the number that need remediation," Driscoll said. ''The whole state is obsessed over 220, as if it's a great goal. It's not a great goal."

The Globe review analyzed the number of full-time freshmen from Massachusetts public high schools who enrolled in at least one remedial class at public colleges in reading, writing, or math from 2002 to 2004. The statistics were obtained from the Board of Higher Education. State colleges and universities serve roughly 16,000 of the 60,000 students who graduate from public high schools each year.

Community colleges accept all students with a high school diploma or GED, and those schools have the highest rate of students who require remedial classes: 68 percent in 2002 and 65 percent in 2004. State colleges and universities are more selective: Applicants must have a B average or higher. State college remedial rates dipped from 27 percent to 23 percent between 2002 and 2004, while the rates at the University of Massachusetts are unchanged, at 11 percent.

Given the high number of students who passed MCAS but still need remedial help, some college officials said the state should do an in-depth study of whether the test measures what colleges want students to know and of why so many students need remedial classes.

The MCAS English exam tests 10th grade-level skills: reading comprehension, grammar, and writing an essay. In math, the test includes algebra and geometry.

The college placement exam, however, includes a wider range of questions of varying difficulty.

Some students say remedial classes offer a much-needed review for college, boosting their confidence and helping them to succeed in school. But the classes can also drag out their education: Students have to pay roughly $300 for remedial classes, which do not count toward their degree.

Jonathan Goddard, 19, of Methuen, expects to pay for several remedial classes at Northern Essex Community College. He admitted that he sometimes slacked off in high school, but he said he knew enough to pass the MCAS exam to graduate last year -- although he did not recall his score. ''If I did enough to pass the MCAS," he said, ''why couldn't I pass the assessment test?"

College officials say they expect that some students will always need remedial work, but they hope to eventually lower the number that do.

In Boston high schools, 86 percent of the class of 2003 passed MCAS to graduate. But that fall, at Bunker Hill Community College, most of the 365 college freshmen from Boston were placed in remedial classes after testing, from 62 percent in reading to 89 percent in math. As a result, Bunker Hill is starting a three-year grant this year to work with Boston's teachers to improve students' math scores.

Some college and high school officials say it's too soon to gauge whether MCAS is having an effect on college readiness. It wasn't until 2003 that the first class had to pass MCAS to graduate and that students began viewing the test seriously. Some college officials say they have noticed that fewer students are testing at the lowest levels on the college placement test.

''I just think it's going to take some time," said Carole Cowan, president of Middlesex Community College. ''I hope that sometime in the next several years we will see that happening."

But Massachusetts has been pushing schools to improve since 1993, when the state passed a landmark education reform law. Tenth-graders have been taking the MCAS statewide since 1998.

Some educators and business leaders have called for raising the numerical score needed to pass MCAS to improve preparation for college and the workforce. The federal government is pushing states to get all students to score proficient in reading and writing by 2014. And on Tuesday, the state is expected to add another graduation requirement, science, to the English and math MCAS tests that students must pass to graduate.

Others say that more resources for schools, not tougher standards, are the solution. Families from Lowell and 18 other school systems in the state lost a school-funding lawsuit earlier this year pressing for more state aid to help students improve. In addition to low scores, many of the school systems are grappling with high numbers of students from low-income homes where English is not the first language.

Said Gary Orfield, a professor of education and social policy at Harvard who supported the school-funding lawsuit: ''This is the fallacy of the MCAS. It doesn't really change these things, it just changes the scores on the MCAS."

Even as they seek more money, some districts are taking their own steps to raise standards. In Lowell, for the first time, this fall's incoming high school freshmen must pass geometry to graduate. But because of state budget cuts, Lowell High has had to reduce tutoring and increase class sizes.

''I would like to have everyone get a high score" on college placement tests, said William Samaras, principal of Lowell High, where 122 of 248 graduates enrolled last year in remedial classes in state colleges and universities. ''That's what I want, but sometimes when I say I need more resources, people look at me and say, 'Wait a second.' . . . I am constantly fighting for money."

The desire to raise standards beyond the minimum is especially urgent because more students are planning to go to college or technical schools. From Boston to Springfield, most Massachusetts students said in a survey last year that they planned to attend at least a two-year college.

''There's a disconnect that exists right now," said Carl Krueger, a policy analyst with the Education Commission of the States, a nonprofit organization that researches education for state governments. ''Nowadays you need some kind of postsecondary education and training to get a decent job or earn a decent wage. It's really kind of a national imperative to make sure that kids are prepared to succeed in college."