MCAS Scores Increase In Cambridge

As controversy continues to rage over the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System, (MCAS), the Massachusetts Department of Education released today the MCAS test scores for Cambridge.

The results showed a significant increase in scores for all grade levels tested.

“We are very pleased with the overall MCAS results,” Superintendent of Schools, Bobbie D’Alessandro wrote in a press release this afternoon. “We want to acknowledge the good work of our students, teachers and administrators. We know that we must continue to emphasize student achievement at all levels; however, today we are taking a moment to look at our gains over last year’s test results.”

Among tenth graders, who must pass the English Language Arts (ELA) and Math portions of the standardized test in order to graduate from high school, 53 percent of students passed both the ELA and Math tests. Scores on the ELA portion of the test increased 21 percent this year, while math scores increased 27 percent.

However, some claim scores increased this year because last year many students who might have been high scorers boycotted the test. Students protested last year against a system that would require graduating seniors to pass a standardized test.

“It was a different cohort,” D’Alessandro said.

But D’Alessandro maintains that scores were bound to rise anyway because of increased efforts toward student achievements.

Many opponents of the MCAS still maintain that the changed scores have come at the cost of genuine improvement since teachers might have modified their curricula and “taught to the test.”

“A lot of this could be explained by relentless coaching and students becoming better test takers,” said Karen L. Hartke, product director of the Massachusetss Coalition for Authentic Reform in Education (CARE).

No matter the explanation, however, school officials are say they are pleased with this year’s results.

Though Cambridge MCAS test scores are lower than those of the state of Massachusetts overall, the City “is doing well compared to systems with similar demographics,” said Cambridge Mayor Anthony D. Galluccio.

Cambridge school officials are especially optimistic, Galluccio said, because “over one half of the failing group was close to passing the test.”

He said many programs are in place to help failing students pass when they retake the test.

“We’ve begun to set up supports to get to that group that’s very close,” he said.

But D’Alessandro and other city officials said the MCAS test is not the only measure of a school’s success.

Instead, D’Alessandro says, it is “one form of assessment, a diagnostic tool.”

“We are not interested just in passing. We want our students to be proficient,” she said.

Opposition to the test still remains strong among both teachers and students however.

“It’s bad for education. We’ve abandoned real education for basically test prep and gate keeping,” said Larry W. Ward, father of three children in the Cambridge public school system.

Cambridge Rindge and Latin School (CRLS) history teacher, and organizer of CARE Larry S. Aaronson said he strongly opposes the MCAS.

“I believe in standards, not standardization... A high school exit test is shameful” he said.

Despite concerns about the validity of the MCAS, Aaronson feels he must prepare his students for the test in his CRLS classroom.

“As much as I oppose the test, I feel deeply that I want these kids to pass,” he said.