Its future as a graduation requirement may be the subject of much back and forth, but the MCAS test is still in line for a refresh. Amid critiques that the standardized assessment can tend to further marginalize some students, the Healey administration seems to want to emphasize cultural sensitivity in designing the new test.
A request for proposals quietly went out earlier this year, seeking a vendor to support the development, production, administration, scoring, and reporting of an updated statewide MCAS test starting in 2025. According to the state Executive Office of Education, the request has been closed and a selection committee is reviewing bids.
“The RFR sought proposals to expand accessibility for English learners, add innovative science and eighth grade civics assessments, reduce testing and score turnover time, and craft test items reflective of students and their experiences,” said an administration spokesperson in a statement.
Massachusetts is required by federal law to annually test all students in grades 3-8, and the state puts out a request for proposals every eight years to retool its exam. The recurring bid process, therefore, says nothing about Gov. Maura Healey’s views on the 10th grade test students currently must pass to graduate from high school.
The state and its largest teachers union have been at loggerheads for years over the use of MCAS as a graduation requirement, as well as its use to determine levels of state oversight and intervention in low-performing schools and districts.
The Massachusetts Teachers Association has put forth a ballot measure that would remove the MCAS as a requirement for graduating high school, and is backing legislation that would do the same. But for the foreseeable future, MTA president Max Page acknowledges, the MCAS will stay in the picture.
“Given that, we should fix what can be fixed about it,” he said in a statement. “There is broad agreement – from both ends of the political spectrum – about the need for immediate fixes.”
The changes proposed by the teachers seem to align neatly with the Healey administration’s proposed alterations for the test vendors.
Page said the tests should take less time to take and return to districts, be made available in multiple languages, and “incorporate culturally relevant material that reflects the increasing diversity of our state’s student population.” He added, “we have seen how the test can harm systemically marginalized students, and we insist that as we develop better assessment tools, we are also analyzing our student population and determining the best methods of instruction and assessment.”
Cultural responsiveness has caused issues with past MCAS tests. In 2019, state education officials removed a question from the exam, about a year into its use, after blowback within some Boston schools. The question, according to the MTA and advocacy groups, asked students to write a journal entry from the perspective of a character in Colson Whitehead’s novel The Underground Railroad “who is openly racist and betrays slaves trying to escape.”
Directions in the last MCAS bid request largely stayed away from cultural sensitivities, with “race” used only once in the detailed bid description attachment when calling for a diverse range of authors included in English assessment reading passages. It did make mention of the need to avoid bias, stereotyping, or insensitive language through a “bias and sensitivity committee” process. This year, specific guiding questions for the bias and sensitivity committee are included in an appendix.
According to the appendix, test reviewers should consider whether assessments use offensive or negative framing when portraying racial or ethnic groups, people across the LGBTQ+ spectrum, religions or religious people, and people of different ages and different income brackets.
During the test’s last refresh in 2016 – the much touted “next generation” MCAS – discussion focused on its transition to a computer-based test. The new test redesign process is beginning while the state wrestles with results from the most recent MCAS.
Though the pandemic slide in scores has leveled out, statewide just 50 and 58 percent of sophomores “met or exceeded expectations” in math and English language arts, respectively, slightly up from the year before.
The new test would create writing rubrics that would require less writing for children in grades 3-8. There would also be a pivot from reliance on “high-quality works of literature and respected sources” to passages written specifically for the MCAS.
The science and technology/engineering test for grades 5 and 8 will get a new look in 2026, with the STE section including a storyline-based scenario where students can design experiments, collect and analyze data, develop models, and/or make observations. The 8th grade civics section would also be restructured to include a new “end of course” test covering the breadth of the civics standards.
JENNIFER SMITH
FROM COMMONWEALTH
A deal on tax cuts: Legislative leaders announced Thursday night that they’ve reached an agreement “in principle” on a tax cut bill. No details were given, but a short statement from Speaker Ron Mariano, Senate President Karen Spilka and the chairs of the two chambers’ budget committees said they expect votes on the tax deal in the House and Senate next week. Read more.
Another union push for legislative staffers: A year after a union drive by Beacon Hill staffers was rebuffed by Senate President Karen Spilka, legislative staff and supportive lawmakers made another run at the issue, testifying on Wednesday in favor of a bill that would make clear their right to form a union.
-State law makes clear the right of executive and judicial branch employees to join a union, but has no such provision for employees of the Legislature. A bill filed by Sen. John Keenan and Rep. Patrick Kearney would add legislative staffers to the groups of state workers authorized to seek union representation.
-State Auditor Diana DiZoglio, already involved in a high-profile showdown with legislative leaders over her quest to audit the Legislature, was among those who testified for the bill. Read more.
OPINION
A climate change ‘superfund’: Sen. Jamie Eldridge and Rep. Steven Owens say it will cost billions in the coming years to address climate change, and they want the state to establish a “superfund” that would assess polluters who contribute to carbon emissions to help pay. Read more.
FROM AROUND THE WEB
BEACON HILL
MassLive reviews a selection of Gov. Maura Healey’s inaugural promises, checking in on their status nine months into the gubernatorial term.
MUNICIPAL MATTERS
Neighbors are objecting to a proposed overlay district in Marlborough that would allow for the construction of up to 300 apartments and up to 10,000 square feet of commercial space as part of a mixed-use development. (MetroWest Daily News)
Richmond town leaders are looking for ways to alert truck drivers following GPS instructions into small residential areas, after a misguided 18-wheeler brought down utility wires on a narrow, dead-end road and nearly set a house on fire. (Berkshire Eagle)
HEALTH/HEALTH CARE
The state is pausing its process of redetermining eligibility for Medicaid after the federal government said an error mistakenly deprived half a million people across the country of the cover benefits. Massachusetts officials said the error affected 4,800 people here, all of whom would regain coverage. (Boston Globe)
ELECTIONS
The New Bedford Standard-Times collected platform statements from each of the six New Bedford mayoral candidates set to face off in the October 3 preliminary election.
BUSINESS/ECONOMY
Drivers and union organizers are still working to push a bill allowing app-based drivers to unionize, arguing at a State House rally this week that the bill is a necessary measure to bring app-based workers up to the same standard of protection as other Massachusetts employees. (Worcester Telegram)
EDUCATION
The Daily Free Press, Boston University’s independent student-run newspaper, has a detailed deep-dive on the charges of mismanagement, retaliation, and discrimination that have rocked the university’s Center for Antiracist Research in the wake of last week’s announcement of mass layoffs at the center. The center’s director, Ibram X. Kendi, defends his management to the Globe.
Cambridge public schools, which have among the highest per pupil spending levels in the state, are one of the only districts whose students have fully returned to pre-pandemic achievement levels, according to the latest MCAS results. (Boston Globe)
An initiative started last year by METCO, the program that buses students from Boston and Springfield to suburban school districts, is geared at helping the 33 participating districts identify policies and practices to improve racial equity and anti-racism programming within their suburban schools. (Bay State Banner)
Saugus teachers and administrators have agreed on a new contract that boosts pay for current teachers and raises the starting pay for future educators. (The Daily Item)
TRANSPORTATION
The MBTA put a 48-hour hold on all contractor work on tracks in order to establish “more rigorous levels of protection” for workers after two near-miss incidents of trains blowing past workers near tracks. (Boston Herald)
In the wake of a new state law allowing unauthorized immigrants to obtain driver’s licenses, a memo from the state agency overseeing criminal records warns police chiefs and other law enforcement officials not to release driving records to immigration officials unless they have a warrant. (Boston Herald)
A 6.3-mile stretch of Route 110 connecting Methuen, Dracut and Lowell is set for a series of short-term resurfacing and reconstruction closures starting in the summer of 2024 and continuing in phases over the next two years and change. (Eagle-Tribune)
ENERGY/ENVIRONMENT
Members of the Barnstable Conservation Commission signal they are prepared to approve Avangrid Renewables’ proposal to bring power cables from its Park City Wind project ashore and run them under the Centerville River. (Cape Cod Times)
MEDIA
In an unusual – and welcome – example of media fraternity, the Boston Globe has a lengthy editorial today based entirely on, and with full credit to, an investigation by WBUR and ProPublica reporting that some 2,300 public housing units in the state sat vacant despite a crushing shortage of affordable housing.