MCAS AND SPECIAL EDUCATION ON A COLLISION COURSE
Ruth Kaplan, member of the Brookline School Committee
 

Twenty-five years ago, Massachusetts led the way in establishing the rights of school children with a wide range of disabilities when it enacted Chapter 766, the statute that is a model of civil rights legislation providing legal protections to students with special needs. As a result, every special education (SPED) child has a team consisting of classroom teachers, special educators and parents which meets on a regular basis to determine the accommodations needed by that child to be successful in his or her studies. The goal is to develop an individualized education plan (IEP) that meets the child's particular needs and maximizes his or her potential. In the dark ages, before state and federal law recognized special education services as a civil right, these children were considered stupid, lazy or unmotivated, and were written off.

With the advent of the MCAS exam as a condition of high school graduation, Massachusetts has clearly turned back the clock on special education.  This standardized paper and pencil test tends to emphasize a student's limitations rather than building on his or her abilities. By setting rigid, arbitrary and inflexible passing scores, many talented SPED students run the risk of being held back from successful careers.

Roughly 5000 members of the class of 2003 were denied diplomas this spring because they failed MCAS; 2000 of those are youngsters with disabilities. This, despite the existence of an Alternate Assessment system for students unable to demonstrate academic competence through conventional means. The Alternate Assessment system unbelievably produced one student who passed out of 700 portfolios submitted. The most startling aspect of that statistic was the failure of the Department of Education (DOE) to admit that this result signified the failure of the Alternate Assessment system itself!

To attempt to bring the assessment process in line with the Education Reform law, the DOE created an Appeals Process designed to provide an alternative to students who for whatever reason cannot demonstrate mastery through a standardized paper and pencil test. The Appeals Process however has not been designed to respond to the unique needs of students with disabilities.

This spring, freshman state representative Alice Peisch of Wellesley made news when she offered an amendment to the House Budget that provided an exemption from the MCAS graduation requirement for children with special needs. An overwhelming majority of House members (117-37) voted to approve the measure. It was the first time the legislature has voted on any aspect of MCAS, since the dozens of bills filed to repeal the graduation requirement or modify MCAS in other ways have been left to languish in the legislature's Education Committee.

The Senate under the leadership of Senators Cynthia Creem and Robert Antonioni–and with the support of the Senate President--  unanimously passed a more limited compromise proposal that would allow a greater degree of flexibility in the current appeals process for SPED students. Sadly Governor Romney vetoed this modest proposal. Ignoring the outcries of the majority of House members and the full Senate, the Speaker of the House of Representatives did not allow it to be taken up for override consideration, a decision over which he has sole discretion.

The Romney administration defends its position on the grounds that the administration  wishes  to maintain "high standards" for special education students. But what about their special needs? And what about the barriers MCAS has created for those very students?

MCAS has failed abysmally to address the circumstances of students with disabilities. This test is destroying the aspirations of some of the Commonwealth's hardest working students. Why are we placing insurmountable obstacles in the paths of our most vulnerable public school students? "One size does not fit all," and standardization is the antithesis of Special Education. If MCAS remains the barrier it has become for these children, then 25 years of progress will be reversed, and a high school diploma will become the "impossible dream."


Ruth Kaplan, Esq.
267 Eliot Street
Brookline, MA 02467
617-566-4173

Ms. Kaplan is a member of the Brookline School Committee, and co-chairs the Alliance for High Standards NOT High Stakes, a coalition of organizations opposed to the MCAS graduation requirement.