New rule casts cloud on MCAS results

Low scorers must pass another exam

Under a new rule that quietly went into effect this year, simply passing the MCAS is no longer enough to satisfy the state's graduation requirement for students with mediocre scores. The change is casting a cloud over this year's 10th-grade results.

Tenth-graders who scored "needs improvement," just one notch above failing, on the English or math exams in the results released this month will have to complete a regimen of courses in the related subject area and take another state-sanctioned test in order to graduate.

The rule aims to better prepare students for college or the workforce by helping students gain a basic mastery of English and math. But the move to broaden state graduation requirements beyond the MCAS is raising questions among some education advocates about whether the test's pass rate should continue as the main barometer of students' fitness to graduate.

The state announced two weeks ago that 80 percent of the class of 2010 passed the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System exam after their first try, meaning they scored at least "needs improvement" on all three sections.

But under the new rule, 60 percent of the test takers scored high enough to meet the state's graduation goal of proficiency - scoring "proficient" or "advanced" in English and math, and at least "needs improvement" on the new science exam, according to state data requested by the Globe last week.

Jim Peyser, who was chairman of the state education board when it approved the new rule two years ago, said he was surprised that the state measured 10th-grade achievement under the old guidelines.

"Passing implies you are done and that's not always the case now," said Peyser, who is a partner at NewSchools Venture Fund, a nonprofit grant-making organization. "I think the record needs to be corrected."

State education officials noted at a news conference and in a chart that accompanied a news release that students who scored "needs improvement" would have to complete individualized proficiency plans, but they did not divulge the overall percentage of 10th-graders who showed proficiency in both English and math.

In an interview, Mitchell Chester, commissioner of elementary and secondary education, emphasized that the new rule does not require students to be proficient when they graduate, but forces them to work toward that goal for the remainder of high school.

"What we don't want is students and schools to think they can slide by on 'needs improvement,' " Chester said.

Of the more than 71,000 10th-graders who took the exam last spring, 21 percent scored needs improvement in English, and 19 percent in math.

The board adopted the rule two years ago in an attempt to reduce the likelihood that Massachusetts high school graduates would have to take remedial courses in college. The board also viewed the change as a step toward meeting a federal mandate that all students be proficient by 2014.

Initially, the board sought to require all students to score at least proficient in English and math this year - four years ahead of the federal deadline - but decided that would be too much of a leap for school districts, which have been struggling to boost achievement of all students, especially poor students or those with learning disabilities.

The compromise pleased some MCAS critics, who have been pushing for other ways to assess students.

But other MCAS critics say the proficiency plans created more regulatory bureaucracy for local schools to manage, and confusion for many parents and students.

"It just seems like we are testing kids to death," said Ruth Kaplan of Brookline, a longtime MCAS critic who joined the state education board last year as its parent representative and opposes the change. "We are placing an additional requirement on kids that will get in the way of a richer curriculum."

High schools will outline in the proficiency plans students' strengths and weaknesses on the MCAS, and the courses they will have to complete by graduation. The schools will annually test students, probably using a state-sanctioned exam other than MCAS, to monitor progress toward proficiency.

Students who failed MCAS - 4 percent in English and 9 percent in math - will also receive proficiency plans, but they will have to retake the MCAS until they pass.

Some education advocates question the effectiveness of the plans because the new rule does not require proficiency by graduation, and schools can rely on a collection of students' work rather than a standardized test to evaluate student progress, adding a level of subjectivity.

"I think we have high standards, but are our standards the same as a high school in another community?" said Maria LeFort, associate principal for curriculum and instruction at Brockton High School.

"The creation of the plans and its monitoring will take effort," said Frank Barnes, the chief accountability officer for Boston public schools. "But helping each student achieve proficiency is our work. . . . We want them to be successful at a postsecondary school or in the world of work."