Overall MCAS performance in 1998,1999,and 2000 was relatively flat.While there was slight overall gain,and some districts made solid gains,on average scores did not vary too much from year to year in most districts.That changed with the 2001 MCAS.Scores for Grade 10 were up across the board.The rate of Fail was reduced 16%and 20%in ELA and Math respectively.The gains in Grade 4 Math and Grade 8 English and Math were less robust.

MCAS Scaled Scores 1998-2001

1998 1999 2000 2001 G4E 232 233 233 241 G4M 236 237 238 237 G8E 239 240 242 244 G8M 230 229 232 235 G10E 235 233 234 242 G10M 226 226 232 240

Change 98-99 Change 99-00 Change 00-01 G4E 1 0 8 G4M 1 1 -1 G8E 1 2 2 G8M -1 3 3 G10E -2 1 8 G10M 0 6 8

Some of the gain in Grade 10 scores was the result of students taking the test seriously since the test finally counted as a graduation requirement.But after seven years of education improvement activities and billions of dollars in new funding, some of the gain is probably the result of sound reforms that districts have implemented.Next year's results will provide valuable information about how much of the dramatic improvement on the Grade 10 MCAS in 2001 was attributable to more focused students and how much could be attributed to more effective teaching practices.

Looking Beyond the Overall Averages

Working with overall averages can sometimes be helpful in increasing our understanding of data,but it is more helpful in education reform analysis to break down aggregates into smaller data sets.For example,when assessing the progress of Massachusetts education reform,it is better to look at how different kinds of school districts are doing in teaching all students the basic skills needed to be successful in life.As is obvious after 8 years of education reform and 4 years of MCAS,most students in many,if not most,Massachusetts districts have already passed MCAS.The challenge now is to figure out what needs to be done at the policy level and the school level to help those students who have not yet demonstrated a mastery of basic skills.

Statewide Grade 10 scores went up about 8 scaled score points in Math and ELA between 2000 and 2001 in the data set used for this report.In order to understand the efficacy of education reform,it is helpful to evaluate that gain in terms of the demography of school districts.It might be that the districts making the most gain were the districts whose students were already successful at MCAS.That would be troubling in that the districts most in need of reform are those with substantial numbers of students who have not yet passed MCAS.

Fortunately,the gains in the 2001 Grade 10 MCAS were distributed relatively evenly across different kinds of districts.In fact,schools in Challenged Massachusetts and the 15 Cities,the districts with the largest number of students in Fail (or Warning )had slightly greater gains on scaled scores than did the schools in Mid Mass or Advantaged Mass,districts with far fewer students not passing MCAS.In the critical Math MCAS,Challenged Mass gained 9.4 scaled score points a and the 15 Cities gained 10 points between 2000 and 2001,above the statewide average of 8.1.This indicates that even in communities that face serious demographic challenges,education reform is working.

2000-2001 Grade 10 MCAS Scaled Score Change by Demography

Grade 10 MCAS Performance in Moving Students Out of Fail

While analyzing scaled scores gives us an overall understanding of the progress of education improvement efforts,the immediate goal of Massachusetts education reform is to move students up to passing MCAS.While great gains were made between 2000 and 2001,in many districts many students still must demonstrate competence in basic skills as measured by MCAS.Again,looking at progress in different kinds of communities in moving students out of Fail is helpful in understanding the progress of education reform.

The following chart breaks out how well different kinds of communities are doing in moving students out of Fail.As always,the chart looks at progress in the four basic demographic clusters of communities of Massachusetts (Advantaged,Middle Mass,Challenged and the 15 Cities).The chart sets out the absolute change in moving students out of Fail between 2000 and 2001.For example,in 2000 in Challenged Massachusetts,45%of students failed Math.In 2001,24%failed,a change of 21.(2000-2001 figures are in the right-hand column.)

Please note that a negative figure in the ELA FAIL CHANGE or MATH FAIL CHANGE is good;a negative sign indicates that fewer students were in Fail from the current year to the previous year.

CHART KEY:

ELA FAIL % is the percentage of students failing the ELA Grade 10 MCAS

MATH FAIL % is the percentage of students failing the Math Grade 10 MCAS

ELA FAIL CHANGE is the difference in the percentage of students in ELA Fail from one year to the next year.A negative number is good since it indicates that fewer students were in the Fail category from one year compared to the previous year.

MATH FAIL CHANGE is the difference in the percentage of students in Math Fail from one year to the next year.A negative number is good since it indicates that fewer students were in the Fail category from one year compared to the previous year

Chane in Percentage of Students in Fail by Demography, 1998-2001

What is interesting about this chart is that districts in all four kind-of-community clusters made solid progress in moving students out of Fail between 2000 and 2001, although Challenged Mass and the 15 Cities made the greatest progress in reducing the fail rate.This is not surprising in that districts in these clusters had a much higher percentage of students in Fail than did districts in Advantaged Mass and Mid Mass.

Education Reform in Massachusetts

The Massachusetts Education Reform Act of 1993 has moved on from one century to another.Since passage,the legislature and three governors have kept their side of the bargain in providing substantial additional school funding each year.The state Department of Education has seen to the development of a battery of assessments,the MCAS,which measure the effectiveness of education reform in every district every year.The schools have implemented changes and reforms designed to boost the effectiveness of teachers and the learning of students.

Given the initial results of MCAS,the persistent resistance to the reforms by some, and the general difficulty in reforming any societal institution as basic as public education,it is fair to say that much progress has been made since June of 1993 when the reform act was signed into law by Governor William Weld.

Many certainly deserve praise for their efforts making Massachusetts public education more effective educating all of our children.Yet,after eight years of reform and four years of assessment of that reform,several clear challenges lie ahead:

• Special populations – Special Education,,Vocational Education,Limited English Proficient – are much more likely to not pass MCAS than Regular Education students.This pattern,clear after four years of assessment,suggests that educators,education schools,teachers unions,and policy makers must focus on finding more effective ways of helping all of these children learn.

• Urban students are also much more likely to have difficulty passing MCAS. While some observers have focused on the race of students who do not succeed passing MCAS,the problem may be as much rooted in place -urban settings -as race.Students in Fall River,a predominantly white system,have as much difficulty with MCAS as students do in predominantly minority systems.In any event more must be done to help urban schools more effective in meeting the needs of their students.

• Low Fail students – or Low Warning students to use the current term – pose a particular challenge for educators and policy makers.A substantial number of unsuccessful MCAS takers are at the lowest end of the performance spectrum. These students may have been socially promoted over the years,may have language issues,and/or may not learn in a conventional manner.Whatever the reasons,these students are far away from success on MCAS or on any other reliable measure of learning.Moving these students up to passing from Low Fail to passing is a daunting challenge.

Maintaining Progress

The most interesting question posed by the solid Grade 10 score gains between 2000 and 2001 may relate to the next act:Can the rate of improvement be repeated the next year so that even more student succeed in passing MCAS?If many of the children who did not pass MCAS have particular educational issues that have not yet been addressed under education reform,then the gains may not increase substantially over time.

Several issues that have historically been sidebars are now coming to the fore. Urban schools often have a number of students who are discipline problems and who disrupt the normal course of events in the classroom.While many systems say that they have facilities for disruptive youth,they do not have enough facilities that are designed to deal with the specific issues that underlie negative behavior. We need to develop a new kind of alternative school organized to deal with seriously disruptive young people.In a time when standards finally matter,The disruptive behavior of the few should no longer impede the learning of the many.

End Note

Last year I wrote the following words at the conclusion of the third edition of Effective School Districts in Massachusetts :

After three years of MCAS,we do see slow progress.A pace of incremental change that may be acceptable in a middle-class district,where just about everyone passes MCAS now,is not good enough for a system with high percentages of students who do not possess basic skills and who fail MCAS.

-Effective School Districts in Massachusetts ,February 2001,page 41

That observation makes even more sense now.Year 4 of MCAS demonstrated substantial score gains in Grade 10.That is good news that puts the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in a position to continue to ratchet up the effectiveness of the public schools so that more children do indeed learn.The challenge remains,however,to develop the kind of innovative education that connects to students who have not been successful in the traditional educational system.As we head towards the second decade of education reform in Massachusetts,we have identified successes and we have identified problems.The measure of our commitment to all of our children will be how willing we are to replicate what does work and change what does not work to improve teaching and learning all across Massachusetts.

6 Please note that in previous reports I set the 15 cities as a subset of the 50 Challenged Massachusetts communities.For this report,the 15 Cities are an independent cluster.Challenged Massachusetts includes the most disadvantaged 50 communities that are demographically above the 15 major urban areas that comprise the 15 Cities. 7 The data here is for Grade 10.I am using Grade 10 (Class of 2003)because these students are expected to pass MCAS in order to graduate.

7 The data here is for Grade 10.I am using Grade 10 (Class of 2003)because these students are expected to pass MCAS in order to graduate.

8 The amount of new education reform aid that is distributed as part of the Education Reform Act of 1993 is calculated in the following manner.I took the amount of Fiscal Year 1994 Chapter 70 funding (state education aid)for each district and divided it by the number of pupils in that district.I then took the amount of FY 1999 Chapter 70 district funding and divided that figure by the number of students in the district.The difference between the two produces a per-pupil figure that represents the new education reform aid.Chapter 70 data is available from the Massachusetts Department of Revenue.

9 See A New Commitment:Effective Remediation Strategies for High School Students ,Fall 2001,available at www.massinsight.com/meri/pdf_files/A%20New%20Commitment.pdf