Campaign to eliminate MCAS at the start of graduation requirement

Policy

The “Yes on 2” campaign – by the Committee for High Standards, Not High Stakes – comes a week after the opposition launched its advertising campaign.

The campaign to remove the state’s MCAS standardized test as a high school graduation requirement officially launched Thursday.

Organizers announced a campaign date for later this month and released an internal poll indicating that a majority of voters already support their initiative.

The Massachusetts Teachers Association proposal is up for a vote in less than 90 days. The “Yes on 2” campaign — from the Committee for High Standards, Not High Risks — comes a week after the corporate-backed opposition launched its $250,000 ad campaign.

Question 2 is one of five questions on the ballot in Massachusetts this November. It would eliminate the requirement to pass MCAS exams in English, math and science to earn a high school diploma. The MTA and other advocates say the requirement disproportionately harms low-income students and English language learners, while state officials say it upholds a statewide standard.

The campaign launched social media accounts on Thursday and the union has set August 17 as the start of its campaign.

Jeron Mariani, the campaign’s general counsel, announced his “early lead” in a campaign email, according to a survey of 700 voters conducted by research firm Lake Research Partners in July.

The poll showed that 55 percent of voters already support replacing the MCAS graduation requirement without any background information.

MTA Vice President Deb McCarthy said the ballot question would replace the graduation requirement with “multiple forms of assessment such as GPA, coursework and teacher feedback.”

“This way, we can ensure that schools and teachers are accountable to all students and communities, not just to test scores,” McCarthy said in a statement. If the ballot measure passes, students would still be required to take the MCAS in 10th grade, but their graduation would not depend on it.

The group’s survey also showed that 48 percent of voters do not favor the test and half of voters “do not have confidence in the ability of standardized tests to measure students’ readiness for success after graduation,” Mariani said.

“As further confirmation of this finding, we only have to look at the opposition campaign’s latest ad: not once do they mention MCAS or say ‘standardized testing,’” Mariani said.

Opposition ads highlight “higher standards”

The “Yes on 2” campaign announcement marks the start of a costly campaign for both sides over standardized testing in Massachusetts, one of the few states that still requires an exit exam.

The group Protect Our Kids’ Future: Vote No on 2 last month ran two 30-second ads on YouTube with the message that higher standards lead to greater success, as part of a $250,000 advertising campaign. The campaign against the ballot question is being funded in part by wealthy businessmen like Raymond Stat and Paul Sagan, the former president of the state’s Board of Elementary and Secondary Education.

The MTA has reportedly invested $1 million in its campaign efforts so far.

Michelle Willis, a mother of a New Bedford High School student, said in a campaign statement that her son should graduate with “more than just a grade on a test.”

“There is no way a standardized test can fully measure my child’s or any other student’s learning and ability to succeed,” Willis said. “I don’t feel right that this test has so much more power over a student’s future than their academic work, their grade point average and teacher evaluations.”