The Newton School Committee discussed options for a new graduation standard following a state ballot initiative that removed the state standardized test, Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System (MCAS), as a requirement to graduate high school, in its meeting Monday.
“We want to do this expeditiously for our kids on the line right now, and we are totally nervous about what the future expectations are going to be,” Newton Superintendent Anna Nolin said.
To earn a high school diploma, students have to fulfill local district requirements and pass a Competency Determination (CD). Before the ballot question, that CD requirement was a passage of the MCAS.
Under the new law, Newton and all other Massachusetts public schools need new CD standards, so current seniors who have not passed the MCAS can put themselves on track to complete the new requirements by June, according to Nolin.
“They are eagerly awaiting us to make a decision about what that competency determination will be so they can rearrange their course schedules right now,“ Nolin said. “There is some urgency here.”
The district, however, must also juggle the potential of new state regulations following the removal of the MCAS requirement, according to Nolin.
“If the governor comes out in 18 months or sooner—or DESE [Massachusetts Department of Elementary & Secondary Education] with new standards—we will have talked ourselves into something about next year that we may need to talk ourselves out of,” Nolin said.
For that reason, the committee will focus on a short-term plan for Newton’s next two graduating classes, then flesh out a more definitive replacement policy over time.
“I hope you’ll join me in that exciting vision of the future for our graduates and when determining them competent, but we have to make—very quickly—some decisions about this year’s students,” Nolin said.
Committee member Anping Shen discussed keeping the MCAS as the district CD standard because although the state voted to remove the test, a majority of Newton residents voted to keep it.
“Over 60% of Newton residents supported to keep this CD requirement even though the state was otherwise,” Shen said. “So in that sense, I think this is a strong message we send to the community.”
Nolin countered that that option may not be viable because, without the test as a state graduation requirement, the state may not offer as many retake opportunities as before. Before the ballot measure passed, students could retake the test up to four times.
“If they don’t offer retakes, we may not be able to make it a graduation requirement if it is not allowed past grade 10,” Nolin said.
The new law also allows students who have been denied diplomas as a result of the graduation requirement to go back to their schools and be reevaluated under the new standards of that district.
Nolin said the district will have to tackle that problem further down the road.“We don’t know the scope of that right now,” Nolin said. “It’s not as large as some other districts, but it may be large in that we’ve been doing MCAS for a long, long time, and we don’t know who has been denied those diplomas.”
Committee member Paul Levy suggested that the district not invent a strict policy for this issue.
“I would urge you to think about our own internal bureaucratic flexibility and not spending a lot of time and effort on working on a problem that may not amount to much,” Levy said.
Newton students who don’t meet graduation requirements are typically students who speak little English and arrive in the district during high school. Even those students, however, usually meet the district’s graduation requirements, according to Nolin.
“There’s almost no students who can’t do one or the other, and it’s usually the MCAS test that is the sticking point,” Nolin said.
The committee deferred voting on a graduation requirement until its next meeting on Feb. 10. In the meantime, the members said they will review the options.
“There’s really nothing complicated or sexy about it,” Nolin said. “It’s just, like, we need a standard, and we’ll meet it.”
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