Students' legal bid vs. MCAS rebuffed
The state's highest court refused yesterday to block the use of the MCAS exam as a graduation requirement, dealing a blow to high school students who are suing to abolish the controversial test.
The Supreme Judicial Court denied a request for an injunction to stop the state from giving the high-stakes exam pending the outcome of a lawsuit, saying an injunction "would undermine educator accountability and hinder education reform."
The ruling is the latest development in a class-action lawsuit over the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System that contends that the test unfairly discriminates against minority, special education, and other students who have not been adequately prepared for the exam.
Characterizing the SJC ruling as a minor setback because it dealt with only a small portion of their case, lawyers for the students say they are not abandoning their efforts to have the MCAS declared unconstitutional.
"The case is very much alive," attorney David Godkin said. "The plaintiffs fully intend to press forward with all their claims that the test has and continues to violate the constitutional rights of students."
Meanwhile, state officials are hailing the decision as a sign of more favorable rulings for MCAS.
"This historic decision ensures that no student will ever again graduate from a Massachusetts public school without the fundamental skills needed to succeed in this country," state education Commissioner David P. Driscoll said in a statement.
In April 2003, Judge Margot Botsford denied a motion in Suffolk Superior Court to immediately stop the state Department of Education from denying diplomas to seniors who have not passed the 10th-grade exam.
Lawyers for two of the students appealed Botsford's decision to the SJC, arguing that officials are violating the intent of the 1993 Education Reform Act because the test focuses too narrowly on English and math. That argument was rejected in yesterday's decision by the SJC.
Instead, the judges ruled that MCAS legislation gave state officials discretion to phase in subjects such as history and science "in a reasonable manner and on a reasonable timetable."
In addition, the ruling said, state officials "could properly conclude that a student should have competence in `reading, writing, and arithmetic' before being tested on competence in science, history, and other areas."
Meanwhile, lawyers are preparing for trial in state court on the rest of their case against the MCAS requirement, and are amending their complaint to include arguments that the test also discriminates against students enrolled in schools that were declared "underpreforming" by state and federal government.
"Students attending underperforming schools are students who have not been adequately taught material of the exam," said Godkin.
Students cannot be expected to pass an exam based on materials they have not been taught, Godkin argues.
Withholding high school diplomas from students who pass all other graduation requirements violates their constitutional rights, he said.
The lawsuit was filed in US District Court in Springfield in September 2002 but has since moved back and forth between state and federal courts. In January last year, after a federal judge said the suit centered on issues of state law, the case was refiled in Suffolk Superior Court with appeals made in the SJC.
Yesterday, judges strongly agreed with the original rulings, saying "the plaintiffs have not shown that there is a likelihood of success" of the lawsuit based on the evidence given to the courts.
