Cambridge City Council Declines to Endorse Eliminating MCAS Requirement

The Cambridge City Council rejected a policy order to endorse a ballot question to remove the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System standardized test as a graduation requirement for high schoolers at a meeting Monday evening.

The policy order failed to pass by a 4-4-1 vote, with Mayor E. Denise Simmons voting present. The measure, sponsored by Councilors Jivan Sobrinho-Wheeler, Sumbul Siddiqui, and Ayesha M. Wilson, supported a yes vote on ballot question two — which would allow school districts to establish their own graduation requirements in place of MCAS.

Simmons, who chairs the Cambridge School Committee, did not say at the meeting why she voted present. Councilors opposing the policy order argued that a standardized testing graduation requirement was needed to maintain rigor in the school system.

“We shouldn’t be letting kids graduate from our high schools without being able to demonstrate that they can meet these basic requirements,” Councilor Paul F. Toner said. “Even the kids who in the past didn’t pass it, they can come back and work with the school system to meet those requirements,” he added.

Councilor Patty M. Nolan ’80, who also voted against the policy order, said an alternative to the MCAS requirement should be proposed before it is removed.

“I would love to see a comprehensive, holistic assessment that’s been vetted to replace MCAS,” Nolan said. “If Massachusetts does not have any statewide requirement, we would join the lowest performing states in the entire country who don’t have any statewide requirements.”

The ballot question was originally introduced by the Massachusetts Teachers Association and is backed by Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Rep. Ayanna S. Pressley (D-Mass.). Massachusetts Secretary of Education Patrick A. Tutwiler and Governor Maura T. Healey ’92 have both indicated that they oppose the measure.

The measure is aimed at supporting students with Individualized Education Plans, ESL learners, and students of color who are “historically marginalized” in the education system, according to the MTA’s website,

In the 2023-24 academic year, test scores of Cambridge Public Schools students revealed a widening achievement gap, which has long existed along both racial and socioeconomic lines. In grades three to eight, 27 percent of Black students met or exceeded expectations on both the English Language Arts test and Math test, compared to 72 percent of white students on the English Language Arts Test and 70 percent of white students on the math test.

At the meeting, Siddiqui said the ballot proposal would help students of color in Cambridge.

“I believe that by eliminating this graduation requirement, it will help eliminate the amount of stress and strain that many of our young people experience, especially our Black and brown students,” Siddiqui said.

If passed, the ballot initiative would remove the MCAS as a graduation requirement, but Massachusetts students would still take the test as a measure of aptitude.

Andrew King, an alum of Cambridge Rindge Latin School, said at the meeting that the measure would help alleviate stress surrounding the MCAS.

“I saw severe psychological impacts of this test firsthand when I was at Rindge and students who were perpetually stressed, failed the test multiple times, and were just held back,” King said.

Massachusetts voters will decide the fate of the measure at the polls on November 5. The measure requires a simple majority to pass.

Nolan said during the meeting that the measure is “going backwards for all of us.”

“Let’s go forward,” she said.