Education commissioner wants to replace 10th grade MCAS tests

Massachusetts should scrap the 10th-grade MCAS tests and instead require sophomores to pass a tougher battery of tests that would give them entry to a public college or university in the state, Education Commissioner David P. Driscoll said yesterday.

Driscoll is promoting the change and a slew of others as part of his work on a national commission proposing an overhaul of the nation's education system, state by state, by 2021. Driscoll, who plans to retire in August, is one of three Massachusetts members on the commission.

The New Commission on the Skills of the American Workforce, which also included Thomas W. Payzant, former superintendent of Boston Public Schools, and Harry A. Spence , commissioner of the Massachusetts Department of Social Services, released wide-ranging recommendations yesterday to improve American education and better prepare students for college. The proposals come as Congress prepares to debate the reauthorization of the 2001 No Child Left Behind law next year.

Driscoll said he will begin describing his ideas for Massachusetts, which stem from the national panel's work, at next week's Board of Education meeting.

"The commission is looking for some states to take up the charge of overhauling the system, and I'm hoping Massachusetts will be one of them," Driscoll said. "It really is a case of saying to the American people, 'Look, we're not getting there.' "

The commission calls for reducing the number of standardized tests, but improving the quality of those given. Driscoll said he hopes the state can appeal to the US Department of Education for a waiver from the No Child Left Behind law, which requires testing students in reading and math each year between grades 3 and 8, and once in high school. Instead, Massachusetts should substitute the incremental tests for a more comprehensive series of exams that include humanities in addition to current tests in math, science, and English for fourth-, seventh-, and 10th-graders, Driscoll said.

Students would have to pass the exams to get into the state's four-year colleges and universities, as well as community colleges, Driscoll said. More discussion is needed before determining whether the tests should be required to graduate from high school, education officials said.

Driscoll did not specify what the new exams would look like, but likened them to the tests high school students take to earn college credit for Advanced Placement courses or an International Baccalaureate diploma.

Students who pass the comprehensive exams at age 16 can enroll in community colleges or technical schools, Payzant said. If they get high scores on the exams, they may choose to stay in high school and pursue more rigorous courses to prepare for college . If they fail the exams, they can also stay and take the tests in future years until they pass.

Payzant said the high school diploma will carry less weight in the future and the expectation is that students will continue their education in some form, whether in technical schools, two-year community colleges, or four-year universities.

"It's not the high school diploma that matters anymore," Payzant said. "Just having a high school diploma will guarantee low-wage, low-skill jobs."

Driscoll said the commission's recommendations would require public debate and time to explain. The shift is radical, and it could take years to introduce new, tougher exams in place of the MCAS. By international standards, the Massachusetts 10th-grade math tests are at an eighth-grade level, he said.

"Unless we take this approach, a radical overhaul of our current system, our kids are not going to succeed," he said.

Patricia Plummer, chancellor for higher education in Massachusetts, said she supports the idea of a test to determine whether students are ready for college. Currently, too many college students spend their first year taking remedial classes in subjects they should have mastered in high school, she said.

"The MCAS doesn't tell us anything about college readiness," Plummer said.

But 10th grade is too early for a college readiness test, she said, and she would prefer that students take the new tests in the 11th grade instead.

The nonprofit National Center on Education and the Economy formed the bi partisan, 26-member commission a year ago. The organization was concerned that US students continue to lag behind other countries on international math, science, and literacy test results and high school and college graduation rates. Private foundations paid for the report, issued 16 years after another commission, created by the same center, urged the country to adopt international education standards to remain competitive in the world economy.

The commission also proposes recruiting better teachers by raising salaries to as high as $110,000, hiring independent contractors to run schools, and sending more students into community colleges after the 10th grade.

Tracy Jan can be reached at tjan@globe.com.

Correction: Because of an editing error, a story in yesterday's City & Region section about Education Commissioner David P. Driscoll and MCAS tests carried an incorrect headline. Driscoll wants to scrap the 10th-grade MCAS tests and instead require tougher tests that would give sophomores entry to a public college or university in the state. He did not call for an end to all MCAS tests.