As Massachusetts voters prepare to cast their ballots on Nov. 5, they are faced with choices that could reshape classrooms and dining rooms around the state. Question two could redefine a high school diploma, while the livelihoods of restaurant workers depend on question five.
Here are some perspectives from Newton on two of the five questions at stake in this election.
Question Two: Standardized Test as a Graduation Requirement
This initiative would remove the passage of the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System (MCAS) as a requirement to graduate from state public high schools.
The MCAS tests students in grades 3–8 on English language arts and math annually. Come high school, students must pass the test at some point between sophomore and senior year in order to graduate.Ryan Normandin, a math teacher at Newton South High School, said he will be voting to remove MCAS as a requirement because he thinks the test is more valuable as a way to collect data on students’ learning rather than a graduation requirement.
“It provides the district good data,” Normandin said. “It allows people to compare different districts to each other, make sure that districts are held accountable for results. The graduation requirement is the problem.”
Since the test is a requirement to graduate, sophomore-year English and math teachers in Newton suspend their curricula in the weeks leading up to the test to drill test preparation, according to Normandin.
This test preparation—which includes topics like test-taking methods, ways to guess on multiple choice, and how to maximize points on open-response—has little educational value, Normandin said.
“This is not real learning, it’s not real education,” Normandin said. “We’re just kind of forced to do it because they need the test to graduate.”
If the test had lower stakes, teachers would not have to prepare their students as intensely, Normandin said.
“If it weren’t a graduation requirement, all that would entail is, okay, on this day we pull you out of class, you take a test, you go back to class,” Normandin said. “We move on.”
In Newton, high schoolers who fail the MCAS have to enroll in a special class that replaces an elective course until they can pass the test, according to Normandin.
“They lose a class from their schedule, so an elective, a study period, a period where they can receive actual support for actual classes,” Normandin said. “Instead, they’re just going through and doing more test prep.”
Normandin said this can be isolating for the students and harmful to learning.
“Even if they go through and do all these retakes, and then they end up passing, in the end, they have lost an enormous amount of time of their high school learning,” Normandin said.
Students also have the option to submit a portfolio of work proving they have sufficiently learned the material tested on the MCAS if they fail the exam.
Normandin said that, too, can take away from students’ time in the classroom.
“This is another class that this kid is spending working with a teacher, who’s also losing prep time, just to go through and try to put together this portfolio,” Normandin said. “It’s a really, really time-consuming thing that’s not good for teaching or learning.”
Ellie Shim, a student at Newton South High School, said she doesn’t think students would try their best on the MCAS if it were no longer required to graduate.
“I think high schoolers’ motivation to do well on MCAS has been solely just for graduation requirements,” Shim said. “So if you take that away, I think it definitely just demotivates our incentive to do well.”
If students were less motivated to succeed, MCAS would lose its value in judging the quality of public schools, Shim said.
“I don’t know if it would be an accurate data collection of our understanding of content at school,” Shim said.
Still, Shim said she would enjoy a lower-stakes testing experience.
“It would be less stressful taking MCAS if it wasn’t a graduation requirement,” Shim said. “It’s really hard for some students who have disabilities or that just don’t test well in general to have the pressure of taking MCAS.”
Question Five: Raising the Minimum Wage of Tipped Workers
This initiative would gradually increase the minimum wage of tipped workers until it reaches the state minimum wage of $15 per hour in 2029. It would also permit employers that pay all their workers the state minimum wage to pool tips from tipped employees and distribute them among all tipped and non-tipped employees.
Karl O’Hara, owner of O’Hara’s Food and Spirits, says he will be voting against the ballot measure and recommends his customers to do the same.
“We have signs in front of the restaurant, we have the servers wear buttons, and every credit card receipt gets a sticker on it that says, ‘Vote no on 5,’” O’Hara said. “We’re definitely advocating for our staff. They don’t want to cut their wage down to minimum wage—they’re not minimum wage employees. These are professionals that make a very good living.”
O’Hara said that for small businesses like his, the ballot measure could also cause some businesses to shutter.
“A lot of us are just recovering from three years of COVID—just getting back, just getting the ball rolling,” O’Hara said. “Do I think some businesses will close? Yes, absolutely I do.”
Customers may also be forced to pay more for their meals if the measure passes, O’Hara said.
“We’re going to have to put a service charge on [the bill],” O’Hara said. “A hamburger—if you walked in now—you could get a hamburger for $15, but if this passes that hamburger is now $20 easily, maybe more.”
O’Hara also said the second part of the measure, which would allow restaurants to pool tips between tipped and non-tipped employees, is unnecessary.
“That’s [the servers’] money,” O’Hara said. “They deserve that money. That’s their money, and they should do with it what they want. They divide it evenly amongst each other and it’s worked for 39 and a half years.”
Callie Ware, a server at Farmstead Table, said she is still unsure how she will vote, but that she’s leaning toward no because she’s worried about losing tips.
“I fully have a life that I want to live based on the money that I make in tips, so I have been leaning toward voting no,” Ware said. “I think [tips are] really important for servers … I think when people start to change the wage, tipping will decrease so much.”
At Farmstead Table, many of the workers have different opinions on the question, according to Ware.
“I think there’s some mixed feelings about it,” Ware said. “I definitely think there’s differentiating opinions, so I haven’t talked about it much. I think people at the top have different opinions to people at the bottom, and I just think it’s something we’re kind of tiptoeing around.”
Like O’Hara, Ware also believes customers will bear the brunt of the wage increase.
“I think prices of food will go up,” Ware said. “I think people already don’t want to be paying the prices it takes to go out to dinner, so seeing that they could potentially shed a few dollars off the tip … I think it’ll make a huge dent in my wage.”
But unlike O’Hara, Ware expressed support for the part of the measure that would allow restaurants to pool tips between servers and back-of-house workers, like cooks and dishwashers.
“The thought of being able to share my tips with the back of house is groundbreaking,” Ware said. “That is something that may sway me to vote yes because I think our restaurant stands on the back of house.”
Ware said sharing tips with back-of-house workers could help the many immigrants who find work in Newton’s restaurants.
“A lot of the people that are in the back of house come to our country, and are not really from here, especially in Boston, and they find work in our restaurants, and they are busting their asses,” Ware said. “I just really think it’s underappreciated, so that is something that may sway me to vote yes.”
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