The MCAS and the goal of schools

GOVERNOR PATRICK says his support for MCAS is clear. But with the Readiness Project report's characterization of the past 15 years of education reform as "batch processing," calls for assessments to "complement" MCAS, and its "whole child" rhetoric, you have to wonder.

At a press conference following the plan's release, the governor promised to examine "the suite of assessments that capture progress on all the dimensions of a student." He noted that he was "deeply skeptical. . . whether any single standardized test alone is enough to measure the whole of a child's intellectual development."

But are schools really charged with the whole of a child's intellectual development? Parents, family, religious groups, and friends influence who kids become and how they think. Schools are meant to provide the basis for citizenship and success in the marketplace.

The appointment of a "21st Century Skills Task Force," which will review curriculum frameworks on which the MCAS tests are based, raises the question of what the governor expects of schools. The task force will help the state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education develop "plans for the next phase of MCAS" and determine "how the assessment system should evolve going forward."

An MCAS primer might help inform their work.

The exams assess knowledge of four key subjects students will always have to master to access a liberal arts education. A long line of thinkers and statesmen, from the nation's founders to Abraham Lincoln and Martin Luther King, have called liberal arts education an essential ingredient for citizenship in a self-governing society.

Among the founders, Thomas Jefferson had the clearest (and most radically democratic) view of education. All citizens were to gain command of the basic knowledge and skills needed for business transactions, to express ideas, and understand and exercise one's duties and liberties.

Jefferson called for the young to know "the most useful facts." The MCAS measures just that, focusing on English, math, history, and science.

The academic content standards behind MCAS ensure that all students, notwithstanding class or ZIP code, attain a minimum level of knowledge. Urban parents know that, and that is why they strongly support the tests.

As it undertakes its work, the task force should keep three principles in mind:

First, ensuring equal educational opportunity requires that students in both wealthy and poor communities have access to the same liberal arts curricula and are measured by the same objective academic standards. Anything less is a return to the disparities the civil rights movement and architects of the 1993 Massachusetts Education Reform Act worked so hard to remedy.

The task force should beware of watering down the exams by adding "complementary" subjective tests and portfolio assessments or, as some states have done, reducing their difficulty to increase passing rates. If adopted, these changes would continue to provide cover for those who have for too long failed to help students bridge achievement gaps between white and minority, rich and poor.

Second, the task force should avoid linking the MCAS to high dropout rates and the elimination of music, art, and extracurricular offerings. More than 70 percent of dropouts have passed the MCAS. The narrowing of enrichment offerings is about local budget priorities, not the MCAS. Local school committees are free to institute additional music, art, and extracurricular requirements.

Third, the practice of "teaching to the test" is more about teacher quality than anything else. Teachers who narrow the curriculum in hopes of getting more students to pass lack imagination, passion, and/or confidence in their students. Remember, passing MCAS represents the minimum students need to know to be fully engaged citizens.

Times may change, but schools neither can nor should do everything. Schools must first focus on ensuring that all Massachusetts students have access to the liberal arts, which are the wellspring of citizenship and social mobility. That requires mastering core English, math, history, and science concepts. Only after children achieve proficiency in these key academic areas should we consider add-ons.

Jim Stergios is executive director of the Pioneer Institute.