Credit: Alex Evangelista

WSPN’s Edge Wheeler and Alex Evangelista discuss their thoughts on the MCAS graduation requirement.

If you are a student at a Massachusetts public school, you have likely taken a Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System (MCAS) exam before. MCAS is a group of standardized tests in the English Language Arts (ELA), math and science fields that are required for all students to take at some point in high school. The Massachusetts government claims that MCAS tests students’ abilities for a “deeper understanding; knowledge application; synthesizing; and writing” within the three subjects it assesses. Passing MCAS exams is currently required to graduate from a Massachusetts public school, however, we believe the exams are an inaccurate and unfair measurement of students’ cognitive abilities.

Recently, there has been a push within the Massachusetts public school community to have MCAS removed as a graduation requirement. This topic has gained significant attention and support behind it, and this upcoming November there will be a question on the annual general election ballot to eliminate the MCAS graduation requirement.

Along with some other Wayland High School students, we do not think the MCAS should be a requirement for graduation. We believe the MCAS exams fail to adequately measure a student’s intellectual abilities in multiple manners.

In Wayland, students take their first MCAS exams in third grade, where they are introduced to the ELA and math subject exams. Through eighth grade students continue taking both of these exams, with the addition of the science-based MCAS testing in fifth and eighth grade. Then, the testing format changes significantly in the beginning of high school, as students only take the biology MCAS during freshman year and the ELA and math MCAS during sophomore year.

We believe a student’s ability to graduate should not rely on some three tests they take before the halfway mark of their high school career. Students take their MCAS exams in the second semester of 10th grade, just barely halfway through their time in high school. The ninth and 10th grade curriculum is only a fraction of what students will learn throughout their years at WHS, and contains much simpler material.

Additionally, over the course of high school, many students will do poorly on tests. However, the majority of the time, a singular test will not cause you to fail a class, and never will directly affect your ability to graduate. To us, it doesn’t make sense that three total tests can dictate whether or not you will receive your high school diploma.

Another issue with the MCAS exams is the inequality of the physical tests between different students. Not only are students given different tests that vary radically in workload and difficulty, but the test distribution is also done completely at random. This can result in a student who already struggles in the ELA field having to write considerably more than someone who both writing and reading comprehension come naturally to. Sophomore Erica Wilson was assigned to write three essays in her second session of ELA MCAS, while all of the other students in her room were only assigned one.

“I felt extremely frustrated when my peers had finished the test, while I was still only a portion of the way there,” Wilson said. “I was really confused on why I had been given so much more work than everyone else, it felt very unfair and drained my confidence until I learned that I had much more work than others after the test.”

Students learn in different ways and excel in different areas of academics. Some students have great test taking abilities which can prove helpful for the MCAS exams, while others might not have these. We think that in order to effectively respect the different learning situations of each student, students should be tested in different ways, allowing each of these methods to best represent different students’ key learning abilities.

Our biggest disagreement with the MCAS exams is the amount of weight it carries in your ability to graduate high school, despite nearly no colleges ever looking into your MCAS scores or caring what they are. Potentially failing your MCAS exams can limit the job opportunities you have later on in life, as well as the amount of money you can make. The weight that these exams carry on your future endeavors in life is drastically disproportionate to their importance. The use of these tests should change, with the first priority being to not require a passing grade in order to graduate high school.