Business group claims MCAS not proficient

The Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System (MCAS) does not reflect a student’s college or career readiness, while a new national test may, according to a report commissioned by a business group.The report comes as the state board of education is deciding which test to adopt, but the report notes that the new Partnership of Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) test is promising, but unproven.”The current test does not work for college and career readiness, and we are exploring one that has the potential to do that,” said Linda Noonan, executive director of the Massachusetts Business Alliance for Education (MBAE), which commissioned the report. “This is a critical issue that affects our children and our economy.”The MCAS exams are given to Massachusetts public school students annually in grades 3 through 8 (for reading/English Language Arts and math) and grade 10. Tests in science and technology subjects are also given in grades 5, 8, and 10. Students must pass the grade 10 tests in English Language Arts, math and one of the four high school science and technology tests to graduate high school. The MCAS are also the testing standard used to see if schools and districts fulfilled objectives in No Child Left Behind.But the MCAS does not align with the national Common Core Curriculum approved three years ago, having mainly been developed in the late 1990s. The PARCC test has subsequently been developed according to this national standard, and Massachusetts was one of several states to adopt PARCC tests in what Mitchell Chester, Massachusetts commissioner of elementary and secondary education, called a “two-year test drive.” The state board of education will take a vote this fall whether to replace the grades 3 to 8 math and English MCAS with PARCC.The MBAE commissioned a study by the National Center for the Improvement of Educational Assessment, Inc., to compare the MCAS and PARCC, asking three questions:Is the test rigorous enough to identify students who are college and career ready?Does the test contain appropriate content to measure college and career readiness?Does the test allow for tracking student progress over time?”For MCAS, our answer to each of the questions is a clear ?No,'” the study concluded.It cited findings including that nearly 36 percent of Massachusetts’ public high school graduates who passed MCAS and enrolled at one of the state’s public colleges or universities – including 65 percent of all community college students – had to take at least one remedial course. The study also found that a large proportion of the items in the 10th grade test measured middle-school standards.”For PARCC, our answer to each of the questions is a cautious and conditional ?Yes,'” the study concluded. Noonan explained that while there was nearly 20 years of MCAS results and data, PARCC results were from one year of field tests and the design of the test.But choosing which test is definitively better is beside the point.”I’m not necessarily a PARCC advocate, I’m an advocate for having a test that more accurately reflects college and career readiness,” said Revere Superintendent Dr. Paul Dakin. Two elementary schools and a middle school in Revere took PARCC instead of MCAS tests last spring. “I do think the PARCC test is doing that job, and probably will be more costly for the state to redo the MCAS.”He praised the MCAS with helping teachers evaluate students and teaching efficacy. He also said the MCAS was particularly beneficial for urban districts in developing standards and a more rigorous curriculum.”That’s a good thing,” Dakin said. “That being said, the Common Core is part of our curriculum, and the board of education has adopted that, and that is a higher bar. But that doesn’t bother me at all, I believe our kids deserve to be challenged academically.”Lynn Superintendent Dr. Catherine C. Latham said some schools did some practice work with the PARCC tests, but they haven’t gotten results back and so s