Last spring’s backlash against standardized public school testing by parents in the Southern Berkshire and Berkshire Hills regional school districts has resulted in the state downgrading both districts.
In the release on Monday evening (September 26) of the results of the Spring, 2016 MCAS (Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System) and newer PARCC (Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Career) tests, the Massachusetts Department of Education (DOE) downgraded Berkshire Hills Regional School District’s Muddy Brook Elementary School from Level 1 to Level 3, due not to academic declines but to a lower-than-required testing participation rate. The district as a whole is Level 2. (For a summary of Berkshire Hills assessment, click here.)
Similarly, Southern Berkshire Regional School District has been penalized with a district-wide downgrade to Level 3, along with its Undermountain Elementary School, also for its lower than required testing participation rate among two student sub-groups. (For a summary of Southern Berkshire assessment, click here.)
In Berkshire Hills, trying to look on the bright side, Superintendent Peter Dillon noted “some nice growth at Muddy Brook [Elementary School], especially in math.” (There was a 7 percent overall improvement in math scores in grades 3-8.) Regardless of the scores themselves, however, the school was dropped from Level 2 to Level 3 because the percentages of students taking the PARCC English and math tests in two subgroupings (Students with Disabilities, 88 percent and 91 percent, and High Needs, 91 percent) were under the state mandated threshold of 95 percent. A total of 13 students at Muddy Brook opted out of taking the tests, and the level decrease came down to, in the first instance, 2-3 students, and, in the second, 4 students. (The state assigns Levels from 1 to 5 to each school in the Commonwealth, with Level 3 possibly, and Level 4 schools definitely, receiving intervention from the state. Level 5 schools enter into state receivership.)
Dillon has sent out a letter to parents of Muddy Brook students that includes this assurance: “This year’s Level 3 rating was not the result of a major drop in performance. In fact, our overall growth on the State test looks relatively similar to our results during our last year, when we were commended [and rated Level 1]. Although we saw slight drops in the area of ‘narrowing proficiency gaps’, we were rated ‘On Target’ for growth in mathematics for both all students and high needs students, and we were rated ‘Above Target’ for growth in ELA for both groups. However, despite this, we had less than 90 percent participation in certain subgroups of students. The State has clearly stated that this is the reason for our Level 3 rating. We appealed this Level 3 designation, and have been denied.” (The full text of Dillon’s letter to parents is published at the end of this story.)
In Southern Berkshire, due to lower than 90 percent participation rates in two student sub-groupings (Economically Disadvantaged was at 86 percent and High Needs at 88 percent) for the Science test, Undermountain School is now at Level 3. (There will be a special SBRSD School Committee meeting on Thursday, September 29th, at 7 p.m., to discuss the test results.) Although the New Marlborough School clocked the lowest participation rates in the district, in the 56-60 percent range for each test, the class sizes there are too small — fewer than 20 students — to count as far as the state is concerned.
The rule is, and has been for the past fifteen years, according to Commissioner Mitchell Chester, that if fewer than 95 percent of students in a given cohort take a test, a school cannot be designated as Level 1, and if fewer than 90 percent take it, it cannot be designated as higher than Level 3. Across Massachusetts, there were 41 schools this fall that will have lower accountability levels than they would have had if they reached the 95 percent threshold.
In SBRSD’s case, Superintendent David Hastings does not know why the district got a Level 3 status, and says this is one of the questions he has for the state. He also intends to send a letter of appeal, as the level drop was due to such a small number of students; three children opting out of one Science test pushed the participation rate below the threshold.
Overall, Hastings said, “Our kids are doing OK. It’s not good enough, but we are doing a bit better than last year.” As for the specific ramifications for the district now that it’s at Level 3, Hastings says that generally that translates to “a great deal of scrutiny and ‘free help’ from the state; they [staff from the District and School Assistance Center] are in the school all the time.”
However, since the district is not struggling and was penalized purely for participation numbers, Hastings does not believe this is going to happen. “DSAC has their hands full and they’re strapped for time. We just don’t know; it’s all new territory, but we do not expect the state to offer help or intervention.” As far as the students who choose to opt out, he recognizes that some families make the “loving decision” to refuse the tests for their child, and that others hope their boycott will push the state to stop testing. “We’re held hostage by people for whom this is a political statement, a campaign.”
Most of the 14 schools statewide with the lowest documented participation rates are in towns — Andover, Martha’s Vineyard, Ludlow, Amherst, Ware, Scituate, Bridgewater, Easthampton — as opposed to cities, the exceptions being one school in Springfield and one in New Bedford. (Many more schools were labeled as having “insufficient data” for a couple of reasons, making it difficult to ascertain if low participation numbers played a role in their Level designation.)
In a phone call with the media on Monday afternoon, Chester started out with the announcement that there’s “a lot of good news for the Commonwealth.” At the high school level, 10th graders continue to take MCAS, and over 90 percent scored proficient or higher. He was pleased to see that school “stepped up” to take on the more challenging PARCC test (72 percent of schools) over the “legacy” MCAS test (28 percent). There are 49 commendation schools — Level 1 — this year, and he singled out three schools, including Morris Elementary in Lenox, which are under “Blue Ribbon” recognition consideration at the federal level.
Regarding participation rates and the opt out movement of last spring, he reiterated several times within the hour-long call that the “opt out” numbers were “very low” statewide — 1 to 2 percent — though he acknowledged that, “They popped out in a number of schools.”
He also commented: “We’ve always had students who refused to take tests, for whatever reasons, and we have always held the schools accountable for all their students. We’ve been very clear with our schools for the last 15 years that we have expected full participation in the testing program, and we’ve made that clear as we’ve moved to PARCC. It’s very important that results reflect all students, not just some. Before this 95 percent threshold was implemented, we saw schools that were selective about who took the test. It’s also a matter of state and federal law.” (When asked for his take on how “a matter of state and federal law” differs from “illegal,” Hastings pointed out that there is no formal mechanism by which a family can formally, legally opt a child out of testing.)
When asked the following question, “Can you speak to what the specific ramifications will be for schools that were downgraded from Level 2 to Level 3 due to low test participation levels?” Chester responded, “I hope those schools will spend time with parents talking about value of getting the barometer of how their own children are doing against state expectations. I hope those schools will discuss the benefits.”
Maria Rundle, SBRSD School Committee member and mother of three children at New Marlborough School, says, “David Hastings has been doing that in spades. He’s been great, and the school followed the letter of the law. This is a rock in a hard place situation. In a successful school district, with wonderful teachers, the parents who opt their children out of a test are blamed.”
She added that, since the start of this school year, her children’s teachers have been informally and formally assessing students in all sorts of ways, communicating the results directly to families, and will revisit those assessments at the end of the school year. “But with all that, we are punished over high stakes tests that do not augment our kids’ educations but only give the state more control over local funds. This is all about power and the market forces at play with high stakes testing companies, forces that did not exist before No Child Left Behind [2001].”
Carmen Brown, the mother of one Monument Valley Middle School who opted out of the sixth grade tests last spring, and a Muddy Brook third grader whom she intends to opt out this year, is “very disappointed about the rating change in our district. We have a right under the Constitution to make choices on how our children are educated and it feels like we are being punished for executing those rights. I am not anti-tests, but test my kids on what they are being taught in class.”
Kristin Sanzone, a Southern Berkshire Regional School District parent and the founder of the Facebook group Berkshire County, MA Opt Out, is not overly concerned about punishment being rained down on the school from the state. “My understanding is we will be labeled Level 3 but the state is not going to do anything. The only impact is real estate. People who might buy a house in the area will look at the ranking level and it may or may not mean anything to them. People might be looking to move only to a Level 1 district.” Hastings concurred with this assessment, saying, “A lot of people won’t look any deeper than what the level is.” He added the possible consequence of students leaving the district to avoid the Level 3 stigma.
Going forward, it’s a wide open question what these designations will ultimately mean, if anything. At any rate, in the spring of 2017 the state will be piloting an entirely new assessment, the “Next Generation MCAS 2.0.” The new test, now in development, “will draw from the best of both PARCC and the legacy MCAS,” according to Chester. It will, among other things, “require students to think critically, compare multiple perspectives on a given topic, do research, and apply math to real world situations, so the aspirations for what students can do are in tune with what is taught in our schools.” In 2017 schools will he “held harmless” for test scores but, again, not for their participation rates.
Sanzone says no one’s really got this issue on their radar at the moment, but, “In the spring when it’s the hot topic, it will surge again.
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