A suddenly uncertain path to a diploma for some high school students has education officials scrambling to provide guidance to school districts in the aftermath of a ballot question that tossed the state’s MCAS test as a graduation requirement.
“Following the election, we quickly have tried to get to work to try to think about what the next phase here looks like, in terms of the competency determination and helping our school districts navigate the waters as they exist now,” said DESE Chief Officer for Data Assessment and Accountability Rob Curtin at a meeting of the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education on Tuesday.
Question 2, which passed in the November election, overturned the statewide graduation requirement mandating students pass the MCAS standardized test. The ballot question states that the requirement is to be replaced by standards set by local school districts.
The state’s “most important thing to do right now,” Curtin said, is to help school districts understand what to do for students in the class of 2025 who have not yet earned a competency determination through the MCAS system.
The “competency determination” means a process to assess students have met a statewide standard for graduation.
Though the “overwhelming number” of students graduating this year have passed the MCAS through the 10th grade test or retests, Curtin said, but some will still need to meet a competency determination meeting the requirements of the new law.
“We think it’s really important that there actually be still two processes here, one for local graduation requirements and one for the competency determination aligned to the language that’s in the new law,” Curtin said.
Local school committees will be responsible for determining those competency determination standards in time for graduation.
“The recommendations that we put forth to school districts is they need to develop a process aligned with the language of the new statute, language that I showed you around having a district certification relative to coursework align to the 10th grade standards in the subjects that the MCAS was administered,” Curtin said.
DESE recommends the new standards are developed through “a public process that is vetted and approved by the governing board of the district” and shared publicly with the district and families in multiple languages.
DESE said in guidance to districts that they may use the MCAS test for local graduation requirements.
For any student who has already passed the test, the competency determination cannot be taken away from them, and they will not need to meet new standards, Curtin specified.
In the longer term future, Curtin said, “there’s a stream of work to be done to think about what the next version of the competency determination looks like for those students that have yet to get into high school.” That work may include looking at new regulations to adopt within the new law and acknowledging the possibility of more new legislation.
Committee on Education co-Chair Sen. Jason Lewis has said he plans to file a bill requiring all students to complete the statewide recommended courses included in MassCore. Education officials said supporting the move may be a “worthwhile conversation” but some voiced reservations.
Board members generally expressed frustration with the new ballot question language, which they said is short and disempowers state education officials.
“This language is a mess, and I think you’re doing a great job,” said board member Martin West. “But I want to go on the record as saying, we need to get to work.”
