High time to end high-stakes test

Historically, school districts grant only one kind of diploma to their high school graduates. The Board of Education's demand that school committees use MCAS as the single determinant to deny a diploma to a qualified student flies in the face of all the mandates given to school committees by law, violates all the oaths of office taken by school committee members, and directly opposes our basic goal of furthering the "best interest of the child."

As the state faces its biggest budget crisis in decades, it's time to face the fact that MCAS has more costs than benefits for our students. Learning to pass MCAS is not synonymous with quality learning. To the contrary, a focus on MCAS precludes the inquiry and engagement that makes learning valuable in the real world our high school graduates face. Using MCAS doesn't mean we have smarter, more capable kids.

Schools need to be held accountable for teaching every single child in their charge to use his or her mind well. High stakes testing like MCAS make this goal elusive. The one-size-fits-all MCAS reinforces the myth that there is only one kind of smart. Maine and Rhode Island have set up comprehensive systems that rely on a combination of local and state assessments - without the high stakes.

It is time to put MCAS aside and focus the money and effort on children's need to learn in authentic ways and to persist in school through graduation.

The State Board of Education's insistence that we "stay the testing course," at a time when resources to support the basic infrastructure of schooling are scarce, serves an ideological purpose that has little to do with real learning. DOE threats to school committees that act according to their communities' own standards of fairness epitomize educator Alfie Kohn's quip about the thrust of high stakes tests: "Learn - or I will hurt you."

Two years ago many members of this community placed a signature ad in the Gazette stating that passing the MCAS should not be a graduation requirement. Hundreds of local citizens signed a statewide petition to our elected officials supporting the same request.

Many have attended Northampton "Stop the MCAS" rallies at City Hall. Nearly 100 people came to the MCAS forum held by the School Committee earlier this winter. They spoke in unanimous support of granting diplomas regardless of MCAS scores. At Northampton High School, 92 percent of teachers presented the School Committee with a petition asking it to send all their graduates off with real diplomas.

A majority of the Northampton School Committee has affirmed the belief that we should do as we have always done: award our students the diplomas they have earned by completing the requirements we as a community deem necessary to be competent, capable lifelong learners.

But our community's visible support is still needed. At its meeting Thursday at 7 p.m. in the JFK Middle School Community Room, the Northampton School Committee will vote on a proposal to award full diplomas to all qualifying seniors regardless of MCAS scores. If you support this decision, let the school committee know you stand behind it.