Many parents like me are unsure whether to remove the MCAS graduation requirement. Here is a two-part perspective from educators from both sides.

For the sake of fairness, I have shortened each interview to approximately the same number of words with the main points.

School is easy for my second grader. My oldest is dyslexic, so I also went through the IEP process. Maybe he's not the best test taker. I see the problem from both sides.

Thank you for sharing this. It's one of the reasons I left the classroom.

When Ed Reform came out, I was a big advocate and really believed in the promise. I was known in my building as the MCAS guru.

We hear so often that there will be no standards, and that is simply not true. The standards are a big part of education reform. Investing in tax money was a big part of it, and then there was this assessment. We cannot pretend that these standards are not an integral part of this.

As an educator, these standards dictate everything I must do. My lesson plans must be created according to these standards. We purchase curricula (because) the Massachusetts standards are directly embedded in them. You literally write your lesson plan using the curricula that the district has purchased, with the Massachusetts Framework standards incorporated into it. We have standards-based credentials. When I get evaluated every year – even after 25 years, every year, and it's a really rigorous evaluation process – it's based on these standards.

When I meet with my administrators, I need to show them how my lesson plans and my assessments meet the standards.

You are not currently teaching.

I left the classroom to become vice president of the Massachusetts Teachers' Association. I have used my voice for over a decade because I truly believed in it. Over time, the stakes were high—essentially a system of accountability at the expense of students. I started seeing too much damage.

I had parents (with) 10-year-olds come up to me and express their fears and concerns. The parents didn't want their children to take the test. I had a really difficult situation when a student lost his parents. He was a straight-A student. Mom didn't want him to take the test, but since he was a straight-A student, the administration tried to advise him to take the test.

I had another student on the spectrum. Mom didn't want him to take the test. He was immediately advised again. I remember the day as if it were yesterday, even though it was twelve years ago, when the supervisor said, “He hasn't answered that question further for two hours.”

And I say, “I know. And there's probably something wrong with the question. They don’t understand his learning style and are causing harm.”

The more I saw the harm to the learners and the more parents expressed that harm, the more we started talking about: Why are we testing these learners, especially the dyslexic learners?

It is equipped with the next best answer to multiple choice questions. My dyslexics would miss the word “not.” What they do is they make this their first selection. And when people say, “We don’t teach to the test,” that’s not true, because you have to teach them these strategies.

Your dyslexic is so excited. They know the content, they see the answer, they breathe it in, and then it turns out they didn't see the word “not.”

I have students who are natural mathematicians. They manipulate the data. You construct the data. The question then asks them to write three to four paragraphs about how they came to their answer. You will be graded on a rubric that includes a topic sentence, three talking points, and the summary. They lose points because they are not the strongest writers, but they are the strongest math student in your class.

One last thing about this, and I promise I'll stop: We don't get the MCAS scores until the students are in the next grade. The data about the learner is not good.

They get points for how they respond if they aren't the strongest writers – but most kids pass, right?

It's not that hard unless you are the student learning a second or third language. You are a student completing an IEP. You are a student in a community where schools are not fully funded and adequately resourced, or you are a dyslexic. We know that… While most who initially fail retake and pass, 85% who never pass are English language learners and students with disabilities. As an educator, I need to differentiate my assessment and teaching, and we don't differentiate on this metric.

However, many people say that there is no other national standard.

Remember that the standards are not going anywhere. Last year a student from Hull was accepted into Harvard. Someone from Weymouth got into Harvard. Someone from Wellesley got into Harvard not based on MCAS scores, because they don't ask, but based on their GPA, which was based on their rigorous course of study.

People say there will be no alignment. There is alignment. We have the alignment of these rigorous courses because they are aligned to standards. Reason number one (Massachusetts schools) has nothing to do with a snapshot, a one-time assessment. This has to do with the fact that educators in Massachusetts don't just have to get a license. You have to get your master's degree. You must recertify every five years and achieve 120 continuing education credits. They are evaluated annually. There is consistency across the board.

We hear that teachers feel like they are teaching to the test, which leads to distraction and anxiety and takes time away from teaching effectively. What changes if your instruction is already standards-aligned and the MCAS reflects that?

As educators, we want to educate the whole child. The indicators that are actually important in the 21st century are not actually evaluated. However, if we blame the teachers, I say again: it's not the teachers. We are not the ones demanding that the focus be on the results of the score. It's also kind of unfair because some of these counties are going bankrupt. . .

A parent may not know what this means.

This means that the school committee has no control over their schools; The state appoints a bankruptcy trustee to take control.

Districts are placed into receivership based on MCAS scores. If you could hear the teachers who are leaving these districts talking about the students they are leaving behind, but they can't function in a district that's all about teaching to probation because they're trying to avoid receivership escape.

All MCAS measures is a zip code. It's just heartbreaking: the student who is denied a diploma, and especially the newcomers. Can you imagine learning a second or third language, and you were an A student, and now the exam is given to you in a language that you're currently trying to learn, and you've got a year under your belt here? ? These are the students we are harming.

What is the solution? The biggest criticism I hear is that without MCAS, there is no consistent measurement. No cohesion. What other academic standards are there that are easily accessible to parents? What can we see without MCAS?

A one-time metric is just a one-time metric. You look at what's going on at school. You have the framework; You have the choice of course. Nowadays, parents can go directly to the portal and view the lesson plan. You can receive grades to be posted within a week. There is so much responsibility.

I think that's the thing: where is the responsibility?

Everything is fine there. But I will say it. As I left the classroom, I couldn't believe how much hate some parents have, especially toward educators.

Everyone believes that I am competent enough to be the first line of defense if there is an intruder in the building. No one questioned my competence when it came to teaching in a classroom with mold. No one questioned whether I was professional or competent enough to return to a building in the middle of a pandemic when we didn't have proper ventilation systems in place.

But when I join 117,000 other educators in saying that we know better and must do better for all learners, for some reason we are presented with a challenge.

It's also emotional. What do you think about the fact that Massachusetts is one of the few states that do not require any special coursework for graduation? We are an outlier. Why is MassCore not required?

So many districts require it. In the districts that don't have MassCore, it's an equity issue. You can't afford the foreign language teacher. I've listened to school leaders say they don't have it in their budget, so it's an unfunded mandate, and it's the students in underfunded communities who are being denied.

Once this is passed, or when it actually passes on November 5th, hopefully people will begin to address this unfunded mandate and provide equal rigor course opportunities to all learners.

Kara Baskin can be reached at [email protected]. Follow her @kcbaskin.