Race to the Top puts future of MCAS in question

MCAS tests have been the target of frequent criticism, often by candidates running for office.But now some educators are worried that the once maligned, Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System tests will be placed by Race to the Top, the Obama administration’s educational reform initiative aimed at closing the academic achievement gap by bolstering under-performing schools. The Race to the Top initiative is plowing $4.3 billion in stimulus money into school districts, including Lynn, which will receive $4 million for teacher training and curriculum materials.But Part of Race to the Top initiative includes a new set of national core curriculum standards and a new national assessment test.Meanwhile, teachers and educators are waiting to see what a new national assessment test might look like. And some feel it could offer some significant benefits.”I think the idea is not to throw out MCAS, but to improve it,” said Lynn Schools Superintendent Catherine Latham, who feels a national test would offer a better comparison of student performance on national standards.”I don’t think I’m alone in believing that a national test would offer more validity and reliability than the regional test we now have,” she said.Deputy Superintendent Jaye Warry acknowledges that MCAS has been the force behind some significant strides made by Bay State students, but she doesn’t think progress needs to stop.”I think a national test is the way to go,” said Warry.She added that the national or common core standards that are the foundation for the Race to the Top initiative, also offer some improvements over MCAS and the Massachusetts frameworks.”The common core standards are easier to interpret,” she said. “It’s a step-by-step unpacking of the material.”Swampscott School Superintendent Lynne Celli said Massachusetts school officials need to see more details and specific information about a national assessment test before they can judge whether it will be an improvement over MCAS.”Massachusetts has one of the most rigorous sets of standards in place,” said Celli. “As long as the national standards are high, I don’t think going in the direction of a national assessment test is going to compromise the progress the state has made.”Nahant Superintendent Phillip Deveax said that change is not new to MCAS or Massachusetts Education Reform and the MCAS tests have been evolving since they were first handed out to student more than 10 years ago.”If you operate on the assumption that we’ve been revising all along, the only real concern is how close a new set of standards will be to the Massachusetts standards,” said Deveax. “Until they can show me the national standards one-by-one, I can’t say for sure what impact the new system and test will have.”Still, Deveax, who has decades of experience in school administration, said from what he’s seen so far roughly 85 percent of the Race to the Top standards are comparable to Massachusetts frameworks.The job of creating a national assessment test has fallen to a coalition of educators from 11 states headed up by Michell Chester, the Massachusetts Commissioner of Elementary and Secondary Education.The group has $170 million and four years to design something that will beat MCAS.Although details are still scarce, the coalition has said the national test will be computer based and may be taken in installments throughout the school year, closer to the time when students learn the material. According to the coalition, staggering portions of the test will allow teachers and administrators to gauge the progress students are making and to identify kids that need additional support.And there have been some suggestions that assessment may include other things that some educators have long been clamoring for, such as portfolios of school work and research papers.Celli, who is a specialist in individual student learning styles, said that a holistic assessment of students would dramatically increase grades and scores.But Latham poin