WILMINGTON, MA – Wilmington School Superintendent Mary DeLai published her weekly blog post on Saturday, offering a great explanation of the educational changes at the state level (“next-generation” MCAS replacing the current MCAS and PARCC exams) and federal level (“Every Student Succeeds Act” to likely replace the “No Child Left Behind Act”) that will soon cause significant changes to Wilmington Public Schools. Read her post HERE or below:
As I travel through the corridors of our schools and visit our classrooms, I see students excited to learn and I wonder if they realize how quickly the education landscape is shifting. In the last few weeks, the stage has been set for some rather significant changes in the way we do business. From the impending change to our state assessment system to the likely passage of new federal legislation that will replace the No Child Left Behind Act and perhaps end the federal accountability system under which we have been operating for over a decade, we are facing some tumultuous times ahead.
On November 17th, the Massachusetts Board of Elementary and Secondary Education (BESE) voted 8-3 to transition to a “next-generation MCAS” to be administered for the first time in spring 2017. Based on the recommendations submitted by Education Commissioner Mitchell D. Chester, the new test will use elements of both MCAS and PARCC (Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers). And that’s really about as much as we know right now. I should add that we do also know that the BESE amended the Commissioners recommendation to make one key change – all districts will be “held harmless” for any adverse changes in their school and district accountability ratings on the basis of the 2017 test scores. That decision seems to underscore the perspective that the 2017 administration will be akin to a “field test” of the so-called MCAS 2.0.
So why was it necessary to adopt a new assessment system? The current MCAS was established as a requirement of the 1993 Massachusetts Education Reform Act and was first administered to students in fourth, eighth and tenth grade in ELA, math, and science in 1998. The test was designed to measure student proficiency in relationship to the Massachusetts Curriculum Frameworks which were significantly revised in 2000-01. The test was and continues to be mostly multiple choice and is untimed. In 2001, President George W. Bush signed the No Child Left Behind Act into law which mandated that students nationwide take standardized tests in third through eighth grade and imposed harsh consequences for those with low test scores. By the spring of 2006, all students in grades 3 through 8 were taking MCAS in ELA and math with students in grades 5 and 8 taking the science MCAS. As a requirement of graduation, all students in grade 10 also had to take and pass the ELA, math, and science MCAS.
By 2007, DESE began the process of reviewing and revising the state’s Curriculum Frameworks. Just as this process began here in Massachusetts, a similar process began at the national level with the goal of establishing common national standards and an assessment system aligned to those new standards. In time, Massachusetts shifted its efforts to this multi-state initiative that resulted in what we now know as the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) currently used by 43 states and the District of Columbia. In 2010, Massachusetts adopted its new Curriculum Frameworks that incorporated the CCSS but also included a number of Massachusetts-specific standards. Subsequent to its adoption of CCSS, Massachusetts received a $250 million federal Race To The Top grant to help implement the new standards. Shortly thereafter, Massachusetts education commissioner Mitchell Chester, along with officials from Florida and Louisiana, applied for and won a $186 million Race To The Top grant to create a test aligned with Common Core standards. This consortium of states began to develop a test now known as PARCC. At the outset, 25 states and the District of Columbia were committed to the PARCC consortium. That number is now down to 7 states and the District of Columbia.
Over the course of the next several years, MCAS was aligned to the new Curriculum Frameworks and by spring 2014, the test was determined to be an appropriate measure of students’ mastery of the 2010 standards. What is important to recognize is that the Common Core standards focused on college and career readiness rather than proficiency in the content standards. The developers of PARCC contend that it most appropriately measures the college and career readiness that the CCSS is intended to promote and whether a student is on track to meet those readiness standards by the time they reach high school. If the goal is to assess college and career readiness, the argument was that PARCC was the better assessment tool. And if the Massachusetts Curriculum Frameworks were aligned to the CCSS, then it only made sense that the state should consider a shift away from MCAS to PARCC – a decision that ultimately would be made by the BESE. It’s also important to note that just prior to 2009, the state was already thinking about a change in our assessment system. The state had begun an effort to modernize and computerize MCAS but the fiscal constraints imposed by the Great Recession of 2009 halted that initiative.
In the spring of 2014, the PARCC assessment was “field tested” in school districts across the Commonwealth. In the spring of 2015, in the second year of the PARCC “trial run”, districts were given the option of administering MCAS or PARCC (Massachusetts was the only PARCC consortium member to take this rather non-traditional approach of offering the choice of assessments to districts). Districts who chose PARCC would have their accountability levels “held harmless” meaning they could increase or stay the same, but not decline. In the spring of 2015, 53% of students in grades 3-8 took the PARCC test while the reaminig 47% took the MCAS test. All 10th grade students were required to take the MCAS test and all 5th, 8th, and 10th grade students took the science MCAS.
Since the spring of 2015, districts have eagerly waited for any sign as to which way the BESE was likely to vote. To its credit, the Board engaged in a lengthy evaluation process which included tapping into researchers and experts in the field of assessment and gathering public input at a number of forums across the state. As of September of 2015, we truly had no indication of which way the vote would go. Then, in October of 2015, in a presentation to the BESE, the Commissioner revealed a “door number 3” alternative to the PARCC – MCAS decision, namely, a next generation MCAS or MCAS 2.0. In the end, the Board supported that recommendation and we sit here today still wondering what that assessment might look like. Many are speculating that it may be PARCC cloaked in MCAS garb. That remains to be seen.
What we know is that the DESE intends to award a new MCAS contract for a next-generation assessment in the next year; the state is committed to a fully computerized asssessment by spring 2019; we will remain members of the PARCC consortium; and the state will convene educators and assessment experts to advise DESE on the content, length, and scheduling of the tests as well as testing policies for students with disabilities and English language learners, and determine what the future graduation requirements will be. There will also be discussion of a timeline for reinstating a history and social science test.
While we sit and wait to see what will happen to our assessment system, we will also wait to see what happens with the ballot initiative that has been launched to “repeal” the Common Core standards in Massachusetts. If enough signatures are certified, voters could have their say on this issue as early as November 2016.
Meanwhile, significant movement is afoot at the federal level. It seems highly likely that the No Child Left Behind Act will soon be left behind, replaced by a bill called the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) touted as a bipartisan, bicameral proposal to reauthorize the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) that reconciles the very different House and Senate proposals that had been voted on this summer. The House passed the measure this past Wednesday and the Senate could vote on this proposal as early as Monday. The President is expected to sign the measure into law. The agreement would essentially end the federal accountability system as we know it and shift authority for academic standards and school accountability back to states. The requirement for regular testing of students to assess proficiency in math, reading and science would continue with emphasis on disaggregating the data to identify subgroups of students that might be persistently underachieving. However, it prohibits the federal Education Department from setting national academic standards or imposing conditions on states or districts in exchange for federal grants. It also calls for a significant down-sizing of the federal Department of Education.
So what does this mean for our students here in Wilmington Public Schools? What do we do to prepare ourselves for these changes? Our plan is to do the same thing we ask of our students – demonstrate resilience by maintaining the focus on what is most important – supporting students in their academic and social emotional development. We will take things one step at a time. The first step is to decide what assessment we will administer in the spring of 2016, as DESE is once again leaving that decision up to districts – a measure of flexibility that we appreciate. In my opinion, this decision is highly dependent upon context. Given where we are currently and the uncertainty around where we are headed, my recommendation to the School Committee will be that we administer MCAS this spring. It is a tried and true test that has been in place for eighteen years and we spend a great deal of time evaluating these assessment results and using them to adjust our curriculum and instructional practice, set goals, and establish a focus for professional growth and development activities. The School Committee will vote on my recommendation on December 9th at its regularly scheduled meeting.
We will also continue to aggressively pursue the strategic objectives and priorities that we worked hard to develop as a school community last year. We believe that this Strategy for Improvement of Student Outcomes focuses our work in the right areas and will bring us closer to achieving our mission and vision. And we will continue to advocate for the resources necessary to fund the work to be done and to ensure that our resources are allocated in a way that supports our goals while also promoting efficient and sustainable spending. We continue to be grateful to the Wilmington Community for their support of and faith in the work that we do to support the growth and development of our children each and every day.
Like Wilmington Apple on Facebook! Follow Wilmington Apple on Twitter! Subscribe to Wilmington Apple’s daily email newsletter HERE! Got a comment, question, photo, press release, or news tip? Email wilmingtonapple@gmail.com!
Wilmington Apple 