Education board considers new testing methods
As Massachusetts overhauls its standardized student assessment program, the state education commissioner is proposing new methods of testing high schoolers, including the eventual addition of history and social science tests as a graduation requirement.
Commissioner Mitchell Chester plans to present to the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education on Tuesday a series of policy recommendations focused on MCAS tests for high school students, including potential changes in what students are tested on and when.
After the board voted Nov. 15 to develop a new standardized test -- combining elements of the existing Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System and the consortium-developed PARCC exam -- students in grades three through eight will begin taking the new "next-generation" MCAS next spring.
In order to graduate, Massachusetts students must pass their 10th grade MCAS exams in math, English and science, a system Chester said should remain in place for "the near future."
In a memo to the board, Chester acknowledged a "growing recognition that those tenth grade standards are insufficient to ensure that our graduates are well prepared for success after high school," but said it would be "too disruptive" to move competency determinations to the 11th or 12th grades.
Chester hopes to convene a stakeholder workgroup to explore assessments for high school juniors and seniors.
"There is a need for us to do a better job at assessing students' readiness for success after high school, whether in higher education, the workforce, the military or other endeavors. But the multiple paths that graduates pursue make it particularly challenging to assess preparation and readiness," Chester wrote in his memo. "The student applying to UMass-Lowell to study bioengineering and the student graduating from a vocational culinary arts program and looking for a job in the hospitality industry have very different needs and expectations. We're also cognizant of the many other scheduled activities in high school, and we've heard loudly and clearly from our stakeholders that we need to minimize additional time lost to standardized testing."
With "considerable interest" in an effort to update the state's history and social science standards underway, Chester suggested amending the board's regulations to include exams in those subjects as part of the competency determination required for a diploma. He said that if the department is granted the funding to develop and give new tests, they could become a graduation requirement beginning with the class of 2023.
He also recommended eliminating high school chemistry and technology/engineering tests, which he said were taken by only 5 percent of students last year while the "overwhelming majority" took biology and introductory physics tests to fulfill their science requirements.
The Board of Elementary and Secondary Education plans to begin discussing Chester's recommendations at a Tuesday meeting, and return to the issue in January when its members meet jointly with the Board of Higher Education.
Last year, after the decision to develop a new MCAS test, Higher Education Commissioner Carlos Santiago said the move would "drive more rigorous instruction, allow us to address persistent 'readiness gaps' in high school and most importantly, provide a pathway into entry level credit-bearing college coursework for high school graduates."
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