Wall Street Journal Praises MCAS

Wall Street Journal Praises MCAS

Sen. Kennedy Caves to Teacher Unions on National Level

January 2002

Sen. Kennedy Caves to Teacher Unions on National Level

The Wall Street Journal praised the MCAS in Massachusetts in an editorial last month and bemoaned the fact that Sen. Kennedy had stopped a similar action in Congress because of pressure from the teacher unions. It wrote:

“Word is that Congress will get around to passing something called an ‘education bill’ yet this year, but by now what’s the point? Since July the poor thing has been strapped to a conference committee gurney and subjected to repeated injections of ‘bipartisanship.’ This means that any meaningful testing provisions are long gone, thanks to the teachers unions and their chief negotiator, Ted Kennedy.

“Old Teddy has been in the Beltway so long he hasn’t even noticed a success story in his own home state. In 1993 Massachusetts made the Comprehensive Assessment System exam, or MCAS, the cornerstone of its $7 billion Education Reform Act. In exchange for that new money, state officials demanded mandatory new standards and higher levels of student achievement. “And, lo, that’s what the state is now getting.

“The MCAS tests fourth, eighth and 10th graders in English, math and science. Beginning with the Class of 2003 all students must pass the 10th-grade English and math tests as a requirement for graduation. Last year’s 10th-graders, for whom the test did not count as a graduation requirement, performed poorly, prompting concern even among some MCAS backers. Now the 2001 test scores – the ones that count – are in, and the turnaround has stunned everyone.

“’Now we’ve seen what happens when the test counts,’ said David Driscoll, the state’s education commissioner. ‘It’s a compelling factor.’ What happens is that students and teachers take the test more seriously. Eighty-two% of sophomores passed the English portion of the exam this go round (up from 66% last year), and 72% passed the math portion (up from 55%). Moreover, 73% passed both, a remarkable increase from the 51% who did so in 2000.

“But it gets better. Most of those who failed didn’t fail by much, and all who failed will be given intensive, specialized tutoring along with at least four more chances to pass. The Boston Globe put it this way: ‘Add in the 60% who failed English by 4 points or less and the 64% who fell just shy in math – students who will almost certainly succeed with a bit more work – and one can confidently say that nearly 91% passed or are poised to pass English, while 91% passed or are on the cusp of passing math.’

“It’s also satisfying to note that much of the improvement was driven by black and Hispanic teens, who more than doubled their pass rates to 42% and 37%, respectively. Again, when accounting for those students who failed on their first try but came within a few questions of passing, the likely success rates jump to 79% for blacks and 75% for Hispanics.

“All of this good news still hasn’t moved such testing opponents as the teachers unions, who understand that these exams also indirectly evaluate teachers and principals and school superintendents. The one thing they fear above even competition is accountability. So the unions spent more than $600,000 last year trying to convince the public that Massachusetts’s young people couldn’t handle a high-stakes test. But as Commissioner Driscoll told reporters recently that ‘the numbers are the numbers,’ and their position is more untenable today than ever.

“Credit here begins with former GOP Governor Paul Cellucci, who made testing a major campaign issue in 1998. His victory impressed enough Democrats in the legislature as well as the state board of education to show an unwavering political will to implement the tests and hold the education establishment accountable. That’s ‘bipartisanship’ in the best sense. It’s the school lesson Washington has yet to learn.”