Education Board seeking input on two paths to graduation
BOSTON (SHNS) – The Board of Elementary and Secondary Education voted unanimously Tuesday to put its proposed competency determination regulations out for public comment, and to solicit comment about a second potential pathway to graduation that could still feature use of the MCAS exams.
Having already rolled out draft regulations in response to a voter-approved law that removed the requirement that students to pass the MCAS exam to graduate high school, the board discussed a proposal Tuesday brought forward by Vice Chair Matt Hills that would enable the use of the MCAS more broadly as a pathway for students to meet the so-called competency determination (CD) to get state approval to earn a diploma.
Hills suggested a second path to graduation could quell concerns that the board's existing proposal 'runs the risk of collapsing under its own weight.' He told the board that his proposal could be considered a 'backup plan for circumstances we haven't been able to capture yet.'
'If you've satisfied the curriculum and grades, no problem. But that other path is, you're sitting there taking the 10th grade MCAS anyway. So if you get a certain minimum score on that, you will be deemed to have satisfied the state requirement for the competency determination,' Hills said. If the already-proposed regulatory path is met with success in the coming years, he said the MCAS path could then be moot.
Board members voted to put Hills' idea before the public alongside their draft regulations, with the hopes of soliciting commentary both about the regulations and what could be a potential secondary pathway to CD.
Following the meeting Tuesday, the Massachusetts Teachers Association released a statement warning the board and department against including MCAS measurements as graduation determinants.
'BESE and DESE are considering policies and practices that will continue the outsized influence that MCAS has had on classroom instruction. This runs counter to what families are demanding from public education,' MTA President Max Page and Vice President Deb McCarthy wrote.
'Comparing MCAS scores with competency determinations based on satisfactory completion of coursework continues to draw a false analogy and could allow districts to put more focus on test preparation than on diversified, high-quality teaching,' the MTA said.
Per the board's proposal, each local district's governing board would need to approve a new CD policy, make it available to the public online and submit it to the department. The Department of Elementary and Secondary Education also plans to audit the quality of district policies. Some districts are considering still utilizing the MCAS as a locally-approved graduation requirement.
The proposed CD regulations include regulatory language like 'showing mastery' and 'satisfactorily completing coursework' to determine whether a student meets graduation requirements. Regulations would begin for the class of 2026, and propose that for English language arts, a student must 'satisfactorily complete coursework' in the equivalent of two years of high school English courses.
Students must complete either Algebra I and geometry courses, or Integrated Math I and Integrated Math II to fulfill math requirements, and finish coursework in one year of biology, physics, chemistry, or a technology or engineering course as a science requirement. The proposal would add United States history to the requirements beginning with the graduating class of 2027.
The regulations would serve as a way to amend existing DESE guidelines while a governor-formed council works on creating a new permanent statewide graduation standard — 'a step' until something more robust materializes, Acting Commissioner Russell Johnston said.
Discussing whether to vote in favor of moving the proposal to public comment Tuesday, board members measured a sense of urgency with concerns about case-specific road bumps potentially ahead for the interim regulations.
Rob Curtin, chief officer of data, assessment and accountability for BESE, suggested that as students continue to graduate through the system, it's important for the board to put some form of regulations in place.
'We are not talking about an interim period of one year here. This is going to be multiple years before the first full graduating class is impacted by the work of the commission established by the executive order,' Curtin said. 'We've never had course requirements for our ninth and tenth grade students in Massachusetts at the state level. This would allow us for the first time to … establish that baseline while the committee does that work.'
The public comment process for CD regulations ends April 4. The board plans to vote on final approval on May 20.
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