VOTER APPROVAL last November of Question 2, which immediately removes the requirement that high school students pass their 10th grade MCAS exams in math, English, and science to graduate, has left current students and families, educators, and state policymakers with pressing questions.
Effective for this year’s 2025 graduating class, students will still take the MCAS in 10th grade, but the score they receive will have no impact on their ability to receive a high school diploma. Instead, students will graduate as long as they meet varying local requirements, in many cases simply for attending classes.
This will mark the first time in more than two decades that MCAS scores have not “counted” as a graduation requirement. For most of that time, the vast majority (90 percent) of high school students passed their MCAS exams on the first try. Showing that one could pass MCAS before receiving a diploma ensured equity – that everyone received a minimum level of knowledge and skills. Passing scores were intended to create a safeguard so students, families, colleges, and employers knew students were prepared.
What remains to be seen is how much the requirement to pass MCAS was a motivator for students – providing an incentive for them to take the test seriously and do their best.
Post-Question 2, the only remaining incentive is a $1,400-$1,700 annual John and Abigail Adams Scholarship aimed at top-scoring students. To be eligible, students must score at the exceeding expectations level and earn a combined score on all three MCAS exams that places them in the top 25 percent in their district. Typically, just 16 percent of Massachusetts students receive these scholarships for use at a public higher education institution in the state. When it’s time to take the tests this spring, will all students continue to try their best? Or, will they blow off the test?
To date, MCAS has served as a critical outcome measure in our public education system that provides objective information across classrooms, schools, and districts for students, families, educators, and policymakers – the one measure that was consistent and comparable year after year. Making the test a consequence-free exercise that students are less likely to take seriously will also make it harder to know the extent to which test scores are accurately conveying students’ actual knowledge and skills.
This could not be playing out at a worse time. MCAS scores from 2024 are trending downward – only 48 percent of test takers in grade 10 math earned at or above grade level expectations, compared to 50 percent of students in 2023 and 60 percent of students in 2019.
Even more concerning is that while some groups of students are approaching pre-pandemic achievement outcomes, our most vulnerable students are not. If state leaders are to track and target funding to improve students’ recovery from pandemic-era learning losses, they need more accurate data, not less.
Making matters worse, during the pandemic, and since, students’ grades have been out of sync with their test scores. According to a recent report from Brown University, “the share of students earning an A in their high school courses has close to doubled since 2011,” but test scores have not. With less reliable MCAS scores, inflated grades, and the potential for diminished emphasis on building all students’ academic skills, it seems likely that gaps between groups of students will persist, or even worsen.
Finally, vast inequities exist in our current statewide high school policies. Right now, the state sets almost no requirements and collects no district or school data on the courses high schoolers take. Each district sets its own graduation requirements and today, only 50 percent of high schools are aligned to admissions requirements for Massachusetts’s public universities.
We strongly encourage state leaders to get to work developing policies that promote academic equity and improve outcomes for all students. They must keep in mind the students who we know are the most likely to be “passed along” and receive a diploma without attaining the basic level of education that the MCAS assured.
One further note of caution: creating new policies that focus on learning inputs – like students’ access to high school courses – will be important. But requiring all high schoolers to take certain courses is not a fair replacement for a policy focused on learning outcomes. We encourage state leaders to be bold and creative as they consider new requirements for learning outcomes that protect our systemically marginalized students’ right to a high-quality education that helps them achieve at high levels.
Kevin Cormier and Chris Marino are leaders at Teach Plus Massachusetts, writing on behalf of the Voices for Academic Equity coalition of which Teach Plus is a founding member.
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