SPRINGFIELD, Mass. (WGGB/AP) — A group of Massachusetts professors and researchers are taking a stand against standardized testing.
They sent a letter to the state’s top education officials urging them to stop relaying on tests like the MCAS to measure both teacher and student success.
The Massachusetts Statement Against High-Stakes Standardized testing includes more than 130 professors who say tests like the MCAS create an environment of intimidation, fear, anxiety and stress for teachers and students.
Students like Leslie Melendez of Springfield. She completed all four years at Springfield’s High School of Commerce in 2008, but has not officially graduated because she failed the math section of the MCAS by two points.
“I took all the tutoring I had to and I just couldn’t pass it. I’ve already taken it like seven times,” said Melendez.
Melendez dreams of working with computers and art some day.
“I wanna just go to college, do good,” said Melendez.
She plans to take the test an eighth time this spring.
Chicopee School Committee Member David Barsalou taught Melendez before he retired. He doesn’t think they should throw out the test, but he also doesn’t think it should be a requirement to graduate. He also believes it changes how educators teach.
“It’s so important their students pass MCAS okay that they are foregoing everything else we don’t have any creative thinkers anymore,” said Barsalou.
Chicopee Assistant Superintendent Deborah Durgan oversees MCAS testing for the school department. She says the district is careful how they use the test, but believes it raises the bar for the quality of learning.
“It’s a very rigorous test and it demands the best for our teachers and our students,” said Durgan.
Monty Neill, executive director of FairTest, a research organization critical of standardized testing, says schools are becoming “test prep programs.”
The letter includes recommendations, including ensuring that any new assessment system goes beyond paper-and-pencil tests in judging student performance.
The Massachusetts Department of Elementary Education stand by the MCAS.
“The Commonwealth’s assessment and accountability systems are widely regarded as among the strongest in the nation. The best education in the country today is happening in Massachusetts, and the investment we are making in public K-12 education is paying huge dividends,” said JC Considine, Director of Board & Media Relations MA Dept. of Elementary and Secondary Education.
To read the full letter from the educators CLICK HERE.
Finally
Agreed…because teachers are pressured to teach students to pass the test, most of the curriculum is based around it…and they are pressured because administration is pressured…a bunch of trickle down anxiety and…STRESS. Fine to use as ONE tool to gauge students/teachers, but, certainly shouldn’t be the foremost determining factor, which is what it is now….
One year I asked my son’s teacher why they never used ANY of the textbooks they had. She told me all her teaching time was pretty much devoted to MCAS! She told me she would be JUDGED by how well her class did on the tests. And that even years later from then that she could be blamed for poor performance.
I have always said that the MCAS test was a complete waste of time. I am sick and tired of people always trying to reinvent the wheel. Enough already, get rid of the god damn tests. Let the teachers teach for Christ sake. Isn’t that why they spent a stupid amount o money to get a piece of paper that says they can teach. I mean really liberals stop wasting people’s Time & Money.
ty , the republicans signed that bill into law , bush jr. in fact sign the no child left behind . so get off your liberal trip you biased american
Eight times though? :/
Agree!! She should know all of the questions by heart now, LOL!!
No child left behind had nothing to do with MCAS Chris, I am not biased I just disagree with liberal handouts that get taken advantage of.
liberal handouts ? lmao . but conservative handouts are ok ? big banks under bush , auto makers under bush . or how about an illegal war under bush , reagan . i think that parents should raise and teach their kids , not the government . i also think the government should not be favoring one side or the other . but they do . the side that is in power . turn off fux news biased **** . and btw the standardized test that they have today , was bush and no child left behind , i remember it clearly because fux news had it in all over the place .
Repubs in this state chris are what is referred to as rino’s. This state is generally liberal regardless of power.