Citizens for Public Schools

CPS is proud to have co-sponsored a week of action to Say No to MCAS with three webinars on why and how to opt out of MCAS. Along with a powerful panel of students, parents and advocates, we debuted a new video on how to opt out of MCAS. Watch it here. Mira el video en español, aqui.

Sign our opt out petition, below, to send a powerful message to Governor Baker and Commissioner Riley!

Click here to read and download CPS’s updated fact sheet on opting out. And see a model opt-out letter here.

Click here to send a letter urging your school committee to pass a Suspend MCAS resolution. (Here’s the list of school committees that have passed such resolutions.)

Click here to read CPS’s letter to legislators signed by 17 other organizations calling on Massachusetts officials to seek and obtain a testing waiver from the U.S.   → Read More

January 2021

Jeffrey C. Riley, the Massachusetts Commissioner of Education, has proposed several changes to the MCAS this year, in light of the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic. Here are the changes and what they mean for Massachusetts students and educators. 

• In a January 5 memo, Commissioner Riley said he will recommend to the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education that this year’s seniors be allowed to earn their high school diplomas by passing their required courses and not have to pass the MCAS. 
  
• He said, “The [Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE)] will significantly reduce testing time for students in grades 3-8 through a session sampling approach, in which each student will take only a portion of each MCAS assessment in each subject.”
  
• The Commissioner will not “recommend to the Board any new underperforming or chronically underperforming districts or schools in the upcoming school year.” Those are labels the state assigns based on MCAS scores.

Citizens for Public Schools congratulates state education officials on beginning to acknowledge the harsh realities of education in a time of pandemic by proposing to reduce the scope and the stakes of MCAS and ACCESS testing this school year.

We urge them to take another giant leap toward the real world and do what Citizens for Public Schools, the Massachusetts Association of School Committees and the state’s teachers unions have been asking them to do for months: Cancel this spring’s MCAS and let educators focus on the enormous task of educating students, not pointless test prep.   → Read More

The Massachusetts Education Reform Act of 1993 (MERA) substantially increased state financial contributions to public education in exchange for increased state control. It brought a narrow student assessment system based upon a single set of standardized tests. The tests were used as the foundation of an accountability system for evaluating students, schools and districts.

In the years since, the Massachusetts’ accountability system has been hailed a success. But are the claims valid? Our comprehensive review of a wide array of evidence shows that the MCAS has failed to advance equity and racial justice in our public schools, and instead has been associated with several major disadvantages for historically underserved groups. This issue has particular urgency because of the potential of the COVID-19 pandemic to further exacerbate inequities that already exist in our state’s public education system.

Our conclusions and the evidence for them can be found in our new report, MCAS is the Wrong Answer: Six Ways High-Stakes Testing Has Failed Students and What to Do Now.   → Read More

Food for families during the school shutdown

• Project Bread and the Department of Early and Secondary Education have partnered to map and share information on what different school districts are doing in terms of meal options for students. Read more here.

General education and distance learning links

• MA Department of Elementary and Secondary Education Remote Learning Guidance, released March 26, 2020 and supported by teachers unions, administrators, school committees and charter schools. Read more here.
• The MA Department of elementary and Secondary Education has compiled links to educational resources for families to continue learning while schools are closed. They include resources on English, math, science, social studies, arts, as well as links geared to English language learners and students with disabilities. Read more here.
• WGBH distance learning center offers information for educators and families aligned with the PBS LearningMedia resources: Read more here.
• Also from PBS, distance learning tips from one teacher to another.