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Achievement
The second goal - really the major
goal of this effort - was to bring up student achievement
so that all students would meet high standards. The
additional money was supposed to buy better results.
This means students in the suburbs and students in the
cities would all perform at high levels.
The class of 2003 will be the first
group of students who must pass the MCAS. Passing is
defined as scoring one point above failing in English
Language Arts and Math. The science curriculum frameworks
is being re-developed so the class of 2003 will not
have to pass a science MCAS test in order to earn a
state diploma.
Let us take a look at the latest set
of MCAS scores for eighth graders - the class of 2003,
the first class that must pass MCAS. This can help us
understand where we are in terms of student achievement.
Statewide- that is all eighth graders
who took the 1999 MCAS test from all of our communities
- 13% of students failed the English language Arts MCAS
test. That's good. On the Math test, 40% failed, not
as good.
Those general averages don't tell the
entire story, however. When you look at test results
in terms of different kinds of communities, we can begin
to appreciate the true dimension of the challenge for
Massachusetts education reformers.
This chart breaks down performance
on the 1999 MCAS 8th grade test in terms of performance
by school district demography (see Footnote 2). Students
in advantaged systems did much better than did students
in less advantaged systems. That is no surprise. What
is surprising to many observers is the very large differences
in the student pass rates of different kinds of communities
in Massachusetts.
Kids will have to pass both math and
English MCAS tests to graduate with a state diploma
in 2003. The limiting factor for success here is Math;
Math is a much tougher test for Massachusetts students
to pass than is English. So, since students of the Class
of 2003 must pass both English and Math, the Math fail
rate is the key determinant of who passes MCAS tests.
Statewide 40% of 8th graders failed
Math. For the Very Advantaged communities, Weston and
such, the fail rate was 12%. For the Very Challenged
communities - primarily the cities - the fail rate was
65%. While the Very Challenged communities only number
25, they are home to about 30% of out students.
MCAS Progress1998-1999
In the seven years since passage of
the Education Reform Act of 1993 we have only had two
administrations of the MCAS assessments. I say "only"
because I, like many others, assumed that there would
be four or five MCAS tests given during the first phase
of education reform. But, at day's end, we have two
administrations of MCAS upon which to evaluate reform
progress since 1993.
The key variable with which we are
concerned is progress - how did we do this year as compared
to last year? In a perfect world, students would make
solid progress each year towards meeting achievement
goals. This chart illustrates what happened between
1998 and 1999 in terms of MCAS scores.
Between 1998 and 1999, MCAS scores
went up about 13 scaled score for 4th graders points
(all three subjects combined), went down about 13 scaled
score points for 10th graders, and stayed about the
same for 8th graders.
Hancock v.
Board of Education
There clearly is more work to be done
to move all children up the achievement ladder. There
is a new lawsuit on the books, Hancock v. Board of Education,
which is asking the court to reconsider education reform
after seven years. Brockton again is home to the lead
plaintiff. This time the suit alleges that, even after
equalizing spending, some systems simply do not provide
the same quality education that others do and that this
difference is unconstitutional. I will be doing more
work on Hancock v. the Board down the road, but it is
likely to shape much of the education reform discussion
for the next few years.
For more information, please contact
the UMass Donahue Institute, (617) 287-7055 or contact
Robert Gaudet, (617) 469-6843; rgaudet@rnc.com
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