YOU DON’T EXACTLY need to ace reading comprehension on the MCAS to understand where a new education coalition is going with the report it issued this week on the state’s standardized testing system. 

Start with its title: “Toward a better MCAS.” 

Or the press release promoting it. “New report highlights changes needed in MCAS,” reads its headline. 

“The report does not shy away from highlighting a number of shortcomings of MCAS,” the release goes on to say, listing five problems with the current testing system before outlining more than half a dozen recommendations for improving it. 

The message that MCAS needs some change comes through loud and clear. 

But this is coming from groups that have been – and continue to be – stalwart supporters of the state’s standardized testing and accountability system for K-12 schools. The report was issued by a new coalition dubbed Voices for Academic Equity, which includes Democrats for Education Reform, Massachusetts Business Alliance for Education, Teach for America Massachusetts, and several other groups. 

Opponents of high-stakes testing, meanwhile, don’t have their sights set mainly on “a better MCAS.” Their focus is on ending its use as a graduation test that 10th graders must pass to get a high school diploma and revoking the power given to state officials in 2010 law to take over chronically underperforming school districts – a judgment largely made based on MCAS scores. 

“Lessons Learned: After 25 years of test-and-punish accountability, it’s time to end the misuse of tests and help all our students to thrive,” reads the headline on a report issued by Citizens for Public Schools and the National Center for Fair and Open Testing.  

Thirty years after the state’s 1993 Education Reform Act ushered in a huge increase in funding to poorer school districts and a new accountability system to measure student and school performance, the battle rages on over the testing system the law introduced. 

But supporters of the system are taking a decidedly new tack. Rather than holding the line against any criticism of the testing regime, they are trying to get out in front on the issue and embrace changes that have formed some of the basis of criticism. While families support a uniform assessment of student achievement, “public sentiment supporting MCAS has diminished,” says the report from Voices for Academic Equity.  

Their report says the MCAS test, given to students in grades 3-8 and to all 10th graders as a graduation requirement, plays “an essential role” by giving a clear picture of where students stand and holding schools accountable for academic performance. But it also acknowledges shortcomings of the system and calls for the state to make several changes. 

Among them, it urges the state to mount a campaign to help families better understand their child’s scores and what should be done to address issues raised by the results. It also calls for more involvement of educators of color in crafting the test to prevent the “cultural bias that has historically plagued standardized tests,” and for including an assessment of “life and career readiness skills” not captured by the current test. 

That said, the testing system remains “a tool for equity,” said Mary Tamer, Massachusetts state director of Democrats for Education Reform. “There are some really hard facts that we see when we look at how kids are doing across schools and across districts, and we need to have this kind of information to not only see where disparities exist, but also to address them.” 

Testing of students in grades 3-8 is required by federal law. But the report from Citizens for Public Schools urges the state to abandon the 10th grade graduation test, which it says has “harmed students who have been denied diplomas and has failed to address inequities in academic outcomes by race, income, language, and disability.” It also wants to scrap the law allowing for state receivership for districts like Lawrence, which has been run by the state education department for more than a decade. 

Those changes are part of legislation filed on Beacon Hill being pushed hard by teachers unions, which are closely allied with Citizens for Public Schools. Whether it gets traction will be a sign of how broad the support is for abandoning what have been key elements of state education policy. 

Whether there is an appetite for the MCAS changes proposed by the new Voices for Academic Equity coalition will be up to the state education department, which could take those steps on its own.