Dear Neighbor,
In November, Massachusetts voters passedQuestion 2 to eliminate MCAS scores as a high school graduation requirement. The vote was 59%-41%
There's a lot of data showing the MCAS requirement didn't improve national test scores, and hurt students. I wrote about that datalast fall.
Now there’s a drive to create new graduation requirements, rather than leaving it to local decision-makers. This newsletter is about how you can participate in that process.
Last fall, Senator Jason Lewis of Winchester, co-chair of the Education Committee, said if the measure passed, he would propose legislation to require students to pass MassCore recommended courses. His bill would establish an advisory council to advise the Department of Education on establishing "a program of study intended to align high school coursework with college and career expectations and promote civic engagement."
Gov. Healey established a Graduation Councilto do similar work.
Many teachers, parents, and students opposed the MCAS graduation requirement. But officials who make education policy were determined to keep it. That’s why it took a ballot question to end it.
Before coming up with new requirements, we need to listen to and respect the views of the people most affected by our high schools.
At 6 pm next Wednesday, April 30, you can join a state-wide effort to ask students, parents, teachers, and community members three basic questions:
1. What should students know and be able to do by the time they graduate from high school?
2. How should students demonstrate their readiness to graduate?
3. What should high school look like to prepare students for your recommended graduation requirements?
Citizens for Public Schools and many other organizations are organizing these gatherings to encourage deeper discussions in small groups about what we really want students to learn, and how to make sure that they do. Please read this fuller explanation! I am excited to endorse and attend this conversation! Register here.
The organizers will report what people say, and our state leaders should pay attention.
The process is modeled on one used inNew York, where a Blue Ribbon Commission undertook a multiyear process with 86 community forums across the state. More than 3,300 people participated; another 2,700 sent in comments.
Based on public input, the New York commission identified 7 areas in which students must show proficiency, including academic knowledge but also 21st century skills like critical thinking and problem solving.
"New York students will be able to demonstrate competency in a variety of ways, many of which reflect the real world they are about to enter as young adults, including performance assessments, capstone projects, experiential and work-based opportunities." (from the New York report)
"You can't manage what you can't measure."
The argument for MCAS as a measure of student performance and school quality is that it gives usdata. And that data is used to judge success and make policy.
But do standardized tests measure what we think students need to learn, in order to be successful in life, as well as in college and/or career? Since measurement drives policy and funding, we need to figure out what we value before we decide on what to measure!
It's like looking for your keys under the streetlamp because you can see there, instead of looking where you may have lost them. Except in this case, there are worse consequences than being locked out of your car.
What do young people want to learn?
A recent graduate told me the most important skills she uses every day in work and life were those she learned as a volunteer peer mediator in Somerville's mediation program.
Another recent graduate says she wishes she'd learned to be confident enough to explore new things, and to work with adults, for example in internships.
The Globe reported on the push forfinancial literacyas a goal. Parents and students from our district are advocating for bills that would describe and prioritize that in schools.
I hope students will come to the forum share more ideas.
What do parents, teachers, and community members want?
10 years ago, school leaders and teacher union members - with the leadership of Prof. Jack Schneider (now at UMass Amherst) and Dan French (former director ofThe Center for Collaborative Education)- formed theMass. Consortium for Innovative Assessment. They "sought input from stakeholders in each consortium district to build aschool quality framework that reflects what the public wants to knowabout school performance. The framework has been built around multiple measures, which include academic,social-emotional, and school culture indicators,in order to piece together a fairer and more comprehensive picture of school performance."
Winchester and Somerville are members of the Consortium, but the performance assessment and school quality survey tools are free to any district, and are being used by many.
You can see what parents, teachers and students in the consortium districts thinkabout how their schools are doing on issues like safety, critical thinking, and resourceshere.
What do employers really want students to learn?
The Mass. Business Alliance for Education (MBAE), represented on the governor's Graduation Council, strongly opposed Question 2. Governor Healey and legislative leaders also opposed it.
But when MBAE surveyed its members, they prioritized "higher-order skills" above test-taking and specific technical skills. The graph to the right is from their2019 survey. Below is another graph from their2013 survey. MBAE seems to have been out of synch with its own members. In recent years, MBAE has not asked leaders these questions.
As an employer, when I think about hiring staff, I certainly want good writing and communication skills. But I also strongly value curiosity and eagerness to go beyond their assigned tasks.
Solutions have to address root causes
There is a lot of reasonable concern that, especially since the pandemic, more students are chronically absent. Absenteeismcan certainly help explain why scores on national and state tests have gone down or stagnated. The traditional approach was to send truant officers to homes. I think (hope) this isn't happening much now. Some interventions include telling parents it's important to be in school or sending students certificates of attendance. Butthis reportshows there are many more effective solutions, including recess and free meals for all.
Kudos to Sen. Sal DiDomenico who helped lead the campaign forfree universal school breakfast and lunch! Rep. Marjorie Decker of Cambridge hasa bill to require 30 consecutive minutes of free play recess every day in elementary and middle school, and to prevent using loss of recess as a punishment.
Salem found that less than a quarter of middle school students said they loved school "most of the time," and only 12% said they got to learn things they were interested in. Salem's pilot program for middle schoolers reduced chronic absenteeism by halfbymaking school a place students could love,including weekly off-site engagement with the community and hands-on learning.
Song of the week:
"What did you learn in school today?" by Tom Paxton. Reminds me of Trump's vision for education.
Stay in touch, stay active!
Pat Jehlen