This week, we are diving into ballot questions voters in Massachusetts will be voting on in this year’s election. Question 2 is about the MCAS exam. Groups want to abandon the graduation requirement for passing the test. 

Starting in the third grade the MCAS exam is administered to every public-school student in the state. The results are for analytics and don't determine if a student moves on. Only in the 10^th grade, the final year of the test does a student have to pass to graduate high school. And it’s something the Massachusetts Teachers Association (MTA) wants to change.

“There is a big disconnect between intent and impact. And far too many of our students are denied a high school diploma based upon a one-time metric,” said Deb McCarthy, vice president of the MTA. 

It’s been about 20 years since the first students had to pass the MCAS exam to graduate. Since then, less than 1% of students, according to the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, can’t graduate after subsequent re-take exams. 

“Since this reform went into place we have had graduation rates increase, dropout rates decrease, and student achievement has gone up,” said Ed Lambert, the executive director of the Business Alliance for Education.

Question 2 wouldn’t do away with the MCAS test, but it would do away with the graduation requirement for the test. The metrics and data the state gets from the exam would still matter. But for those students who simply aren’t good test takers or have test anxiety, it won’t impact their futures. 

This is something the MTA has been bringing to the forefront. Just how many of their students struggle to succeed on standardized tests and how stressful it is for them. 

“The MCAS was never designed to put an accountability system on the back of our students,” said McCarthy. “They'll still be given the MCAS. We'll still have the data. But this data is being used to create an opportunity chasm. And we are hurting a certain learning profile every single year.”

For those who are pushing for a no vote, like Gov. Maura Healey, there is concern that without a state-mandated standard, students from different school districts won’t have the same educations. 

“We're very much concerned that a no vote, will eliminate the only state graduation standard we have in Massachusetts and return us, to a time 30-plus years ago when we had 330 different graduation standards across the Commonwealth,” said Lambert. “A lot of students, particularly in places like Fall River and New Bedford and Brockton and Worcester, were getting a much lesser quality education because we had lower expectations for those students.”

A yes vote would eliminate the MCAS from the graduation requirement for Massachusetts public school students and keep the test as a data collection device. 

A no vote would keep the test as is.