Campaign to remove MCAS as graduation requirement launches

The campaign to remove the state’s standardized MCAS test as a high school graduation requirement officially launched Thursday.

Organizers announced a canvassing date for later this month and released internal polling indicating a majority of voters already support their initiative. 

The Massachusetts Teachers Association-backed ballot question will go to the voters in less than 90 days. The “Yes on 2” campaign — from the Committee for High Standards Not High Stakes — comes a week after the business-backed opposition rolled out their $250,000 advertising campaign.

Question 2 is one of five ballot questions coming to the ballot in Massachusetts this November. It would eliminate the requirement to pass the English, math, and science MCAS exams to earn a high school diploma. The MTA and other advocates say the requirement disproportionately harms low-income and English-learning students, while state officials say it maintains a state standard.

The campaign launched social media accounts Thursday, and the union set Aug. 17 as their canvassing kickoff.

Jeron Mariani, the general consultant foe the campaign, announced their “early lead” in a campaign email, according to a survey of 700 voters conducted by research firm Lake Research Partners in July.  

The poll showed that 55 percent of voters already support replacing the MCAS graduation requirement without any background information.

MTA Vice President Deb McCarthy said the ballot question would replace the graduation requirement with “multiple forms of assessment like GPA, coursework, and teacher feedback.”

“This way, we can ensure schools and teachers are accountable to all students and communities, not just test scores,” McCarthy said in a statement. If the ballot question passes, students will still be required to take the MCAS in tenth grade, but their graduation would not be contingent on it.

The group’s polling also showed that 48 percent of voters are unfavorable towards the test, and half of voters are “not confident in the ability of standardized tests to measure students’ preparedness for success after graduation,” Mariani said. 

“As further confirmation of this finding, we need only look to the opposition campaign’s latest spot: not once do they mention the MCAS or say ‘standardized testing,’” Mariani said.

The opposition’s ads highlight “higher standards”

The “Yes on 2” campaign announcement marks the beginning of a costly campaign for both sides of standardized testing in Massachusetts, one of the few states that still requires an exit exam.

The group Protect Our Kids’ Future: Vote No on 2 posted two 30-second spots to YouTube last month with the message that higher standards lead to more success, part of a $250,000 advertising campaign. The campaign against the ballot question is funded in part by wealthy businessmen like Raymond Stat and Paul Sagan, the former chair of the state’s Board of Elementary and Secondary Education.

The MTA has reportedly put $1 million into their campaigning efforts so far.

Michelle Willis, a mother of a student at New Bedford High School, said in a statement from the campaign that her son should graduate with “more than just a test score.”

“There’s no way that a standardized test can fully measure my child’s, or any other student’s, full learning and ability to succeed,” Willis said. “Giving this test so much more power over a student’s future than their coursework, GPA and teacher evaluations just doesn’t sit right with me.”