Study: State Funds Not Reaching Poor Students

A new Massachusetts scholarship program is unlikely to improve college access for minority and low-income students, according to a study released by Harvard’s Civil Rights Project.

The study criticized the state’s John and Abigail Adams Scholarship Program for determining eligibility solely on students’ performance on the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessement System (MCAS) test. As a result, the program reaches fewer students in districts with low MCAS scores such as Cambridge, and it fails to take into account large scoring gaps across ethnic and economic groups, according to the Harvard study.

Created in 2004 by Governor Mitt Romney, the Adams Scholarship Provides free tuition for four years at a Massachusetts public college for eligible students.

The study’s author, Pennsylvania State University education professor Donald E. Heller, found that 25 percent of white students qualified for the scholarship in 2005, compared with only 8 percent of African-American students and 8 percent of Hispanics. Additionally, only 10 percent of students on the National School Lunch program—who have family incomes of less than $35,000—were eligible for the scholarship, as opposed to 26 percent of higher-income students.

Heller said that the MCAS test produces broader scoring gaps for minority and low-income students than national standardized tests such as the SATs.

He called the Adams Scholarship Program “a step in the wrong direction,” and urged the program’s budget to be redirected to existing need-based aid programs. Romney’s office did not return a request for comment.

Gary Orfield, director of Harvard’s Civil Rights Project, said, “If you take the limited aid that’s available and give it to kids who don’t need it, it just increases the stratification of society.”

“We have an extremely unequal school system in Massachusetts and there’s not equal opportunity to prepare for the [MCAS],” Orfield said.

Despite the district’s low MCAS scores, the Cambridge School Committee is enthusiastic about the possible benefits from the Adams program.

In 2005, Cambridge placed 253rd out of 278 districts statewide on the MCAS English exam, and 251st on the math exam.

Alfred B. Fantini, vice chairman of the Cambridge School Committee, said the district’s new MCAS Center, which helps prepare students for the tests, will make the Adams Scholarship more accessible to Cambridge students.

“I do agree with the study, but the way I view it is that it is a challenge for Cambridge to raise all of our kids’ scores,” Fantini said.