IN LEGISLATIVE TESTIMONY,

FORMER BOARD OF EDUCATION CHAIR RIPS MCAS

Former Board of Education Chairman Martin Kaplan ripped the MCAS test and the conservative ideologues who have made it a "high stakes" exam during testimony to the legislature's Committee on Education. Mr. Kaplan served on the Board of Education from 1992 to 1996, when the board was disbanded by Gov. William Weld and reconstituted as a conservative-dominated board chaired by Boston University President John Silber.

Below is Mr. Kaplan's testimony delivered at the State House June 5, 2007, during a hearing on MCAS related legislation

Good afternoon. My name is Martin Kaplan, and I served as Chair of the Massachusetts Board of Education 1992-1996. During that period, the Education Reform Act of 1993 (""Ed Reform Act"") was being negotiated, and I presided over the Board during the initial years of its implementation. The Massachusetts Legislature can take great pride in many successes of ed reform, and the effectiveness of much of its implementation.

However, I believe we have gone way off track, failing to follow the mandate of the Ed Reform Act, which required authentic assessment ""to measure outcomes and results regarding student performance, and to improve the effectiveness of curriculum and instruction……The system shall employ a variety of assessment instruments."" Subsequent Boards of Education and the Department of Education have instead adopted MCAS as a unitary evaluation system for all students. This reflects an unfortunate trend throughout the country, emphasizing testing rather than education. There is a difference, as I pointed out in a 1997 Boston Globe op-ed.

While one can be pleased with improving test scores year-to-year, it would certainly be surprising if test scores didn''t improve given the iron-clad requirements on schools and teachers that test scores must improve, predictably leading to ""teaching to the test"". What a failure it would be if test scores didn''t improve, given the centrality of ""teaching to the test"" as part of our education system today.

But what do those improved test scores really mean? They certainly mean increased ability to answer the type of multiple choice questions posed in MCAS. But we have lost the ability of schools and teachers to make courses more imaginative and compelling, from science to history, all for the purpose of increasing the importance of high-stakes testing, as if that will prove that students are receiving a better education. I think the theory is ""we''re going to test until their scores go up"". This is a nation-wide conservative ideologically-driven standard bearing no relation to meaningful education.

Ed reform provided the framework for authentic school and student evaluation, calling for ""a variety of assessment instruments……assessing whether students are meeting the academic standards...as much as practical, such instruments shall include consideration of work samples, projects and portfolios, and shall facilitate authentic and direct gauges of student performance."" Such assessment would give teachers the authority to evaluate their students based upon participation in class, written and other work throughout the year, traditional testing formats, as well as MCAS or other standardized multi-choice tests.

This bill directs the Board of Education to create a High School Graduation Requirements Committee to develop multiple assessment systems to determine student competence. That was a major goal of ed reform, and it has not been carried out.

The education reform movement nationally was led by business leaders throughout the country, such as Jack Rennie in Massachusetts. They believed American schools had to accomplish more than teach students how to take tests. You might recall that literally thousands of Massachusetts residents participated in the development of the Common Core of Learning, required by the Ed Reform Act. Dr. Madelaine Marquez and I served as Co-Chairs of that Commission, charged with developing standards of what students should know and be able to do when they graduate high school. We heard from people throughout the Commonwealth, especially business leaders, that those standards must require students to understand the importance of developing habits of perseverance, reliability, cooperation, teamwork and other values essential to success in any factory, any law firm, and any job that is of value to our economy today.

None of those important values are tested by MCAS or any other standardized system. But teachers can evaluate and assess those values, and I think they should. For those who don''t trust teachers to do that, I would argue that there are easier and better paying jobs in our society than teaching in the schools of Massachusetts, and we should provide more respect and trust for our educators. I respect our teachers for their professionalism, dedication and ability, far more than I respect a system that requires ""teaching to the test""!

The emphasis on one high-stakes standardized test eliminates the emphasis on the values and abilities of students that in fact were at the core of the business community''s support for ed reform, and we have short-changed them and minimized the results of ed reform. Testing isn''t education, and well-tested students haven''t learned those essential values that our businesses need for the workplace, and which our students need for successful careers.

I believe this bill provides Massachusetts the opportunity to complete the education reform agenda through authentic and fair assessment of all students.

I urge the Massachusetts Legislature to support this bill. Thank you very much for the opportunity to appear before you today.