Comments on: Labs and oral presentations to be added to MCAS

By: Laura

Laura — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 18:33:05 +0000

I wish our government could see these comments. I wish they could know what MCAS is like.

By: idk

idk — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 18:43:04 +0000

why dont we use the money on snowboarding club?

By: This guy

This guy — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 14:59:01 +0000

Ahhh…. how about no? I can’t stand MA and its push for more testing on top of the MCAS itself. I feel like making a petition hahaha… .:wall:.

By: Dan

Dan — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 13:23:27 +0000

I completely agree with Laura, this is outrageous. We were the first to do the MCAS in 3rd grade and we were told that we would only do it 4th 10th and 12th. That was a lie! From what I can remember we have done it every year since. 10th grade we are about to , 9th grade we took a science, 8th grade we took one, 7th grade we took english, 6th grade we took one, 5th grade we took one, 4th grade we took one 3rd grade we took one. And it really doesn’t help me in my education at all. They should not be wasting money on a test, but instead give the schools that money so we can enrich our arts program or help fix the buildings. Its just out right outrageous.

By: Anon/gif/

Anon/gif/ — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 04:14:46 +0000

I agree with ‘Mimz the Sophmore’ on the topic that the MCAS is a waste of time, and it is fairly easy. Adding a few labs to the MCAS will be nothing– it just shows more dynamic thinking on the part of the student, rather then just answering bubble questions, and short answer/open response. I say bring it on Massachusetts DOE. The orals are also a large benefit to measure how students are able to think on their toes, and how well they can formulate ideas, and display it. Although it will be kind of hard, it is worth it.

By: anonymous

anonymous — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 02:08:25 +0000

lets take the money spent on mcas and use it to…well… actually get educated instead of taking the handfulls of useless standardized tests. the 4, 8, 12 split seems reasonable.

imagine how costly it must be to administer.

By: Mimz the Sophomore

Mimz the Sophomore — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 17:36:31 +0000

Personally? I think MCAS is a waste of my time. Midterms and finals show more of what we learned and I think that MCAS is too easy. Also, I see why some grades should take MCAS, but freshmen etc? Nah.

By: Laura

Laura — Sun, 14 Dec 2008 20:48:47 +0000

All of this testing is completely useless. We should just have to pass one big test senior year, like the NY Regents Exam or the French Bac. It’s getting to the point where we’re being tested every single year from 3rd grade to 11th grade. When I was in 4th grade, it was supposed to be just 4th, 8th, and 10th grades, but they’ve added so many new tests in the past 8 years…

MCAS should not happen every year. If the government feels that it is completely necessary to keep MCAS, they should have the schools like ours who CONSISTENTLY place at least 90% of their students in the Proficient and Advanced categories take the test less often than other schools.

NCLB is hurting education much more than it’s helping

Also, if the state would give us some funding, maybe we’d be able to educate ourselves better.