MCAS foes, grade thyselves

IN HER Aug. 30 letter "State ed policy and the 'whole child,' " Deborah Meier recycles myths perpetuated by opponents of school reform, claiming that the dark phantom of the Pioneer Institute had an "extraordinarily narrow hold" on "the state Board of Education for years." Sadly, Meier and too large a segment of the education establishment oppose greater school accountability and high standards. Why?

Consider the record at the Mission Hill School in Boston, a small K-8 school that Meier founded and ran from 1997 to 2004. According to Massachusetts Department of Education statistics, between 2004 and 2006, approximately 80 percent of the students tested at Mission Hill scored in the "needs improvement" and "warning/failing" categories on the MCAS test. In the last two years, Mission Hill was also placed by the US Department of Education on the federal "in need of improvement" list for low academic performance.

Results are what matter, and Meier's conspiracy theories are no more than a convenient distraction from the low academic achievement of too many schools - unfortunately including her own.

JAMIE GASS
Boston
The writer is director of education research and programs at the Pioneer Institute for Public Policy Research.