This is the latest in a series of articles examining the five ballot questions facing voters on Nov. 5.
Marblehead High School senior Jared Kaplowitch will cast his first votes on Nov. 5. And he’s looking forward to voting “yes” on Question 2 to eliminate the MCAS graduation requirement.
“I’m all for getting rid of MCAS,” said Kaplowitch, who is MHS senior class president.
“It’s not a good measure,” he added. “It doesn’t tell you anything about how good a student someone is. They might be a terrible standardized test taker.”
Kaplowitch shared other concerns about MCAS.
“Especially for younger kids, you have to take this massive test and just the thought of having to pass it puts a lot of pressure on kids,” he said. “Also, teachers end up teaching to the test.”
The Marblehead Education Association (the district’s teachers union) also supports Question 2. “Tests alone can’t fully measure whether a student is ready to graduate from high school,” MEA Co-president Jonathan Heller wrote in an email. “Right now, regardless of their GPA or teacher evaluations, a student can be denied their diploma if they do poorly on a test. This stressful assessment doesn’t accurately test students’ knowledge — it only shows which students are better at taking standardized tests.”
Heller continued, “Most teachers in our public schools want to replace the MCAS test as a graduation requirement because it only measures a portion of what their students need to be successful. Removing this as a graduation requirement will give teachers the freedom to educate the whole child and truly prepare them for success, rather than teaching to the test.”
Heller pointed out that Question 2 does not eliminate the MCAS test but replaces it as a graduation requirement with “other measures that more accurately evaluate a student’s mastery of their coursework and state education standards.”
He added that students will still take the MCAS test, and their scores will be used to identify who is progressing and who needs help.
“Without the burden of a high-stakes, make-or-break test, our students will be better prepared to graduate and succeed after high school,” Heller said.
Students who don’t score high enough to earn a “competency determination” on MCAS may qualify for an Educational Proficiency Plan or file an appeal, according to the state’s Department of Elementary and Secondary Education.
The Current asked interim Superintendent John Robiudoux how many Marblehead students failed to earn a competency determination in 2024, and he did not respond.
Robidoux believes the MCAS graduation requirement should stay, even if the tests aren’t perfect.
“MCAS is certainly not the only measure of achievement in determining student success and outcomes, but it has become a tool that assists in determining appropriate strategies for teaching and learning,” he said. “It is my understanding that if the state votes to get rid of MCAS as a graduation requirement, that does not mean the assessment goes away and that students do not need to take it. Accountability and achievement data will still be a part of our DESE reporting, and I wonder how accurate the outcomes will be if the assessments are no longer tied to graduation.”
Robidoux added, “Getting rid of the MCAS as a graduation requirement will mean that each town would need to determine what evaluation tool should be implemented in place of the MCAS so that there is a standard for attaining a high school diploma. In my opinion, this will create further inequities between towns as the current assessment rigor will be compromised if it is left up to each town to decide what the benchmark is for attaining a diploma.”
School Committee Chair Jenn Schaeffner said since the MCAS requirement is decided at the state level, it was not within the committee’s purview to discuss.
