To the editor:
Ballots are in the mail (coming and going), and November 5 is rapidly approaching. The Massachusetts Teachers Association (MTA) (with its 117,000 members) is asking folks to vote “Yes” on Question 2. Throughout the summer and into the fall, members have been at doors, events, on the phone, and generally talking to and hearing from families about their experiences with the MCAS test. Invariably, there are stories about how much precious time and resources are devoted to the overlording MCAS test. Unfortunately, some parents feel compelled to take their talented but MCAS-distressed student out of the public school in favor of private schools not under the rule of MCAS, while some less wealthy suffer the total withdrawal of their student from public education to face a difficult future without a diploma. Of course, the data shows that those most severely impacted are those from marginalized communities—seems a perverse system to those who stand to gain the most from public education.
The MTA believes that we all want and set high standards for our students. Our academic and performance standards are among the highest in the nation, translated into our curriculum frameworks with supporting strands filtered into daily lessons. The crux of Question 2 is that we know and have experienced students’ varying learning styles, remarkable performance abilities, inspiring creativity, reassuring cooperative group endeavors, previously undisplayed talents and mechanical skills, the shear joy of inquiry and sharing of discovery among other aspects of authentic education which are not captured by the MCAS test. We don’t want our students to be sacrificed on the alter of the multi-million-dollar test industry nor reduced to a one-size-fits-all evaluation. People are more than a score and deserve the opportunity to demonstrate what they can do rather than being held captive by a standardized test.
Voting “Yes” on Question 2 allows for a more complete picture of student abilities since the test will still be administered but used diagnostically to help students rather than punitively to be the one part of that picture that disallows receiving a diploma. Results on MCAS can still be used to compare districts, but it won’t be the cudgel that punishes those who have different styles. Overwhelmingly, your educator neighbors, friends, and families, as well as students across all of our varying communities in the Commonwealth, are asking voters to vote “Yes” on Question 2.
Neil Clarke
Lee
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