LYNN — The Lynn School Committee is petitioning for the state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education to suspend MCAS testing this school year.
The School Committee unanimously approved a resolution in support of canceling the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System (MCAS), which is scheduled for this spring, during their meeting last week.
The MCAS test was canceled last spring after schools were shut down due to the coronavirus, but is still scheduled to be administered this April and May, according to a memo from the DESE that was issued on Sept. 29.
Although all students are learning remotely in the Lynn Public Schools, the MCAS has to be administered in person, according to Superintendent Dr. Patrick Tutwiler, who said that would be a “major undertaking” during a time when schools have to adhere to social distancing and other COVID-19 prevention protocols.
“I have all sorts of issues with it,” Tutwiler said during a past meeting. “Instruction is going to come to a grinding halt to administer that.”
While Tutwiler said he agreed with concerns raised by committee members about administering the test this spring, he said, “It would be irresponsible for us not to prepare for it because it is driven by state law.”
“I have to get ready for it,” he said.
Passing the 10th grade MCAS is a graduation requirement for high school students, but school board members said that administering the test this school year would be a “misguided attempt to punish certain districts, schools and students” that have been disproportionately impacted by the pandemic, according to the resolution passed last week.
“COVID-19 has negatively and disproportionately affected our students with learning disabilities, ELL students, students of low socioeconomic status and students of color,” said School Committee member Brian Castellanos, who introduced the resolution.
“Our students and teachers have been faced with unbearable inequities. The pandemic has exposed the extreme inequalities and disparities that exist in our city, state and nation. We have working families in this city struggling to make ends meet. We need to support our students, families and teachers who are on the front lines. We have students and families who are still adjusting to remote learning,” he said.
In the resolution, which will be submitted to the DESE, along with the city’s state and federal legislative delegations, committee members wrote that administering the test would divert limited resources away from planning focused on safely bringing students back to learning in schools to delivering a high-stakes test during a time when the city is dealing with the “disproportionate impact and trauma of the pandemic.”
Furthermore, members suggested that the test cannot fairly be said to be for student learning when the district is already planning separate assessments to address learning gaps brought on by extended school closures, according to the resolution.
Committee member Lorraine Gately said last month, when suspending the MCAS was first discussed by the committee, that the test wouldn’t be measuring the district’s actual curriculum, as “the pandemic has turned curriculum on its head.”
“I just can’t understand how anyone who understands why we have an MCAS test to begin with would have us take it in the middle of a pandemic,” Gately said last Thursday.
Tutwiler said last month that he understands the anger and disappointment expressed by school board members, but explained that the decision was not entirely up to the state and DESE Commissioner Jeffrey C. Riley. The decision to waive the statute-driven test last year was made by the federal government, which then trickled down to the state level.
In their resolution, the School Committee calls on the city’s state and federal delegation to advocate for the state legislature and federal government to authorize and direct the DESE to suspend the MCAS this school year.
Committee member John Ford said two of his children teach in the school district and both of them are against holding the MCAS this year.
“We’re in a unique and difficult time right now,” said Ford. “It’s tough enough to teach remotely on Zoom. To do the MCAS as well, I think, is insurmountable for the teachers.”
