State ed data raises questions about claims by teachers union that MCAS is unfair to ESL students
First appeared in Contrarian Boston 10.16.24
By David Mancuso
As election day draws near, the Massachusetts Teachers Association is going all-out in its multimillion-dollar campaign to pass Question 2, which would put an end to MCAS as a graduation requirement.
However, the latest data from the state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) undercuts the most recent in a series of questionable claims made by the Massachusetts Teachers Association.
The latest MTA claim to be debunked by DESE data? Just how unfair the MCAS is to English language learners.
Some may recall, the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education’s treasure trove of data established the fact that only about 700 kids don’t pass the MCAS to graduate each year, not the 50,000 the MTA once claimed.
DESE’s data helped the MTA see the light.
“We used data from another group that made a mistake,” said MTA president Max Page when Globe columnist Scot Lehigh rightly probed if the MTA did anything to validate their 50,000 students claim, which came from one of the union’s well-funded proxy groups, Citizens for Public Schools.
It’s hardly shocking that Page didn’t answer Lehigh’s question, just as he didn’t respond to Contrarian Boston’s questions about something else that DESE’s data shows.
Concerning English Language Learners (ELs), the MTA said in a reported statement that they are among “… the children most disadvantaged by the narrow focus of MCAS and standardized tests…”.
Really?
That annoying DESE data tells us that just 60 EL students, roughly 8.5 percent of the 700 students who don’t earn a diploma because they cannot pass all three MCAS (Math, English Language Arts and Science), fail only in part because they fail English Language Arts.
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Only 28 of these 60 EL students don't graduate solely because they fail the English Language Arts section (that’s 0.8% of more than 3,600 total EL students).
Matt Hills, Vice Chair of the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education, told Contrarian Boston, “The fact that less than 1% of EL students are apparently impacted by a language barrier in passing the MCAS requirement puts to rest the wrong and harmful accusation that a language barrier is preventing our EL students from passing. We need facts and not falsehoods in our discussion of the MCAS graduation requirement.”
With the state on the brink of having the heart of its assessment and accountability system ripped out by Question 2, one might ask why it takes so long for DESE data to bubble up to the surface of public discourse to dispel misinformation like that spread by the MTA.
While DESE is not and should not be a political organization, it keeps the flame of data-driven truth essential to driving sound decisions about education, from practice to policy. Making sure the Department helps the public separate myth from fact in a timely way is essential to the integrity of the system.
For now, voters can rest easy as they head to the polls in November. The MCAS graduation requirement is NOT a problem for the overwhelming majority of students with English as a second language, just as it isn’t for almost every other student in the Commonwealth.
As Hills puts it, “The results are a testament to the drive, motivation and capabilities of our EL students and to the strength of our school districts and DESE in effectively working with all of our students.”
Amen.
EVP - Associated Industries of Massachusetts (Retired)
1moKeep shining the light on how important testing to student achievement!
Retired project engineer
2moGood points by you, Dave, as always. The MTA has been automatically and uncritically opposed to the MCAS (or any other impartial measurement method) since its beginning (Education Reform Act of 1993 - yes, it has been that long).. As some teachers have commented privately, at least the MCAS provides one set of metrics and a way (imperfect or not) to measure student progress. The anti-MCAS camp talks about "fairness," when what actually bothers them is the potential to compare the performance results of teachers and schools, not students. The union policy is to oppose anything (including awards) that distinguishes one teacher from another. Their presumption is that anything less than a solid, unified block of teachers is necessary for effective collective bargaining and power politics. While many teachers do retain their idealism and do advocate for students, their organization focuses on bargaining positions for teachers and ignores student benefit Thus opposition to the MCAS or any other metric that might recognize excellence or maybe even to highlight areas where improvements are most needed. What would it take to re-think how teachers are incentivized, recognized, and supported? Just asking ...