Standardized Testing Assailed at Meeting of Cambridge Public School Committee

As the Cambridge Public School Committee discussed the district’s emphasis on standardized tests during a roundtable meeting between school officials and community members last night, one committee member warned that overemphasizing test data could turn the school system into a “test prep factory.”

The roundtable, held to discuss possible changes to curriculum to improve student achievement, focused on the district’s Composite Performance Index. The index is calculated from the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System (MCAS) tests and indicates how close the district is to proficiency in all studies on a 100-point scale. Results were released for the English language arts, mathematics, and science exams.

From 2005 to 2006, the district boasted gains in all of these test areas except the 7th-grade English language arts exam, where the district lost 2.9 points, bringing the index to 79.8. Despite the overall improvement, some schools have failed to meet progress benchmarks for several consecutive years and remain designated for “corrective action” and “restructuring” under the No Child Left Behind Act.

After discussing several packets of testing data, some committee members questioned the validity of using MCAS tests to determine curricular changes for the schools.

“I don’t mean to undermine the reality of federal and state mandates that we have to live with,” said School Committee member Luc Schuster. “But how often in our lives are we asked questions with very definite, discrete answers?”

School Committee member Patricia M. Nolan ’80 said that the district’s focus should be on improving teacher quality and not simply improving test scores.

“We don’t want to be a test prep factory,” she said. “The whole dream is to get to a point where teachers say, ‘I don’t worry about the MCAS. I just get the kids engaged and excited and—oh, by the way—they pass.’”

But Deputy Superintendent Carolyn Turk said that the district was not concerned only with MCAS performance.

“We have a universal focus on achievement,” she said. “We now have a much clearer curriculum and we have opportunities for students to show their improvement, and that’s life beyond MCAS.”

—Staff writer Laura A. Moore can be reached at lamoore@fas.harvard.edu.