MCAS

The results of the first MCAS tests since 2019 showed a dramatic drop in scores. The TEN looks at what can be learned from the results, what it means for kids and parents, and what needs to be done to address the issue going forward.

Massachusetts has released the results of the MCAS tests from this spring.

The Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education is expected to publicly release results of spring 2021 MCAS tests Tuesday morning. Experts say the test results could help determine where students need more instruction after more than a year of remote learning.

The Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education released the results of spring 2021 MCAS tests Tuesday morning. Results show that many more students had gaps in their knowledge of math and, to a lesser extent, English language arts, compared to students in the same grades before the COVID-19 pandemic, and fewer students met or exceeded grade level expectations.  “The…

Massachusetts lawmakers are considering a bill that would eliminate the standardized test as a prerequisite for a high school diploma.

More than 50,000 students have faced similar circumstances the last nearly 20 years, a point that a chorus of lawmakers and education reform advocates hammered on Monday as they called for the legislature to eliminate the state’s MCAS graduation requirements or pause the tests altogether.

A bill that would scrap the MCAS test as a graduation requirement in Massachusetts is the subject of a virtual public hearing at the Statehouse on Monday. The bill would replace the standardized test with what supporters describe as “a broader and democratically determined framework to measure school quality, along with more authentic forms of demonstrating student achievement.” The bill…

Deb McCarthy was back inside her fifth grade classroom Tuesday after serving a two-day suspension — she said she’d been told to go home Friday and stay there Monday when she refused to administer the MCAS exam. McCarthy is being called a conscientious objector, one of at least 55 teachers, most of them in the Cambridge school system, who say…

A Hull teacher says she was suspended from her job because she refused to proctor the MCAS exam, which she and other teachers say shouldn’t be administered because of the COVID pandemic.

The MCAS exam was waived as a graduation requirement for current Massachusetts juniors.

The Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education is due to vote Tuesday on whether or not to eliminate MCAS graduation requirements for the class of 2022.

The Massachusetts Board of Elementary and Secondary Education voted Tuesday to eliminate MCAS graduation requirements for the class of 2022.

A federal judge has upheld a temporary admissions policy at Boston’s elite exam high schools, ruling against a parents group that said in a lawsuit it discriminated against white and Asian students. “This court finds and rules that the plan is race-neutral, and that neither the factors used nor the goal of greater diversity qualify as a racial classification,”...

A federal judge has just ruled in favor of the Boston School Committee’s plan governing admission to the city’s three exam schools.

This year’s 11th graders would not be required to take the state’s MCAS assessment under a plan Education Commissioner Jeff Riley expects to present to the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education for approval. Riley announced Thursday that he intends to recommend changes to the graduation requirements for the class of 2022 that would modify the competency determination for...

Massachusetts education officials on Friday updated their planned MCAS testing schedule, pushing back exam dates for students in grades three through eight. An email the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education sent to superintendents shortly before noon informed them of a May 10 to June 11 testing window for students in grades three through five, with dates to be determined…

Boston Public Schools’ new admissions plan that changes the way its top exam schools will accept students this year is receiving a challenge in court from a parent group. The one-year plan, passed unanimously by the Boston School Committee on Oct. 22 in response to challenges presented by the coronavirus pandemic, removes the requirement for applicants to complete an admissions…

A collection of education and civil rights groups wrote to state lawmakers on Wednesday, saying they are “absolutely convinced” the state should not administer its MCAS exams this year. Citizens for Public Schools and 17 other organizations urged legislators and state education officials to seek a federal waiver that would allow them to cancel the tests this spring, as Massachusetts…

The MCAS may not be a productive use of time during the pandemic, possibly causing more harm than good, according to critics.

This year’s MCAS exams will feature “significantly” reduced testing time for third through eighth graders, and no schools will be newly named underperforming in the upcoming school year, Elementary and Secondary Education Commissioner Jeff Riley told superintendents in a memo Tuesday. “The sudden shift to remote learning last spring, and the continuation of hybrid/remote learning this school year has...