MCAS 2020 canceled: Your voice made a difference!

MCAS has been canceled this year, and all of our voices made a difference! Thanks to all for speaking out and focusing on the real needs and priorities of our students, educators and families.

This is good news for students, families and educators, who have so many other life-and-death concerns right now. They should not have to worry about standardized tests on top of concerns about access to food, housing, mental and physical well-being. That’s why more than 6,000 Massachusetts residents contacted state leaders demanding that MCAS be canceled. (The legislature responded by canceling for one year the law that allows for MCAS.)

This was a significant vote, even though there will be no school for the rest of this year. It would be even better if the state took the next logical step and imposed a three-year moratorium on high-stakes MCAS testing going forward.

Why? Standardized exams like the MCAS are very good at measuring family wealth, access and privilege. The COVID-19 pandemic has both revealed and exacerbated cruel (and in some cases deadly) inequities in our state. Massachusetts has one of the largest income inequality gaps in the nation, a gap that will likely increase in response to the current health and economic crisis.

With students out of school for so many months this year, next year’s test results would indicate which students were safe and healthy, with access to food, housing and online resources, and which were not. They would not be a valid measure of learning or school quality. And they should certainly not be used to deny high school diplomas.

When schools reopen, students will return with enormous needs for emotional support. Some will have lost relatives and friends, even parents. Some will have had access to education and support from family at home, others will not.

The priority will be supporting them and educating them to the best of our ability, not giving them meaningless tests.