In the news this week:
- Suffolk Superior Court Judge Margot Botsford says students' pay a heavy price, but turns down students' motion to reject the use of MCAS to determine graduation for the class of 2003;
- With an appeal pending, 14 additional students from around the state join the federal lawsuit citing unequal opportunities to learn in a challenge to MCAS;
- A state report that suggests a state takeover may lie ahead for Holyoke schools.
- Some urban districts -- Boston, Fitchburg, Holyoke, Lowell, Lynn, New Bedford, and Brockton,  - fail to win federal phonics-oriented reading grants, while some districts where all students have passed MCAS are awarded funding;
- In Ware, anxious 3rd graders express relief after four days devoted to MCAS testing;
- The professional association of vocational educators continue to challenge MCAS in the legislature and in court;
- On one page, a Boston Globe editorial says the state needs more high-salaried workers colleges produce;
- On another page, the Globe reports that given a more limited supply of students with diplomas and eligible for college seats, a Boston post-secondary technical school will remake itself as a private high school to meet a new demand from those not passing MCAS.
-  School report cards, due out this week, will include MCAS scores and calculate "Adequate Yearly Progress" based on those scores;
- The MCAS graduation requirement continues to be a major issue in Brookline's school committee race and in a school committee discussion about diplomas in North Adams and Milford;
- And in Wenham (2000 median household income $90,524), high real estate prices correspond with high MCAS scores.


AP wire/New Bedford Standard Times, 4/5:  Motion denied to halt MCAS graduation requirement
http://www.s-t.com/daily/04-03/04-05-03/a09sr064.htm
        BOSTON -- A Superior Court judge yesterday denied a request for a preliminary injunction to halt the state from using the MCAS test as a graduation requirement....
.... "We're disappointed, but we are prepared to go forward in pressing this case," said Kathleen Boundy. "We will seek an expedited appeal of this decision and are optimistic about the outcome."
        Education Commissioner David P. Driscoll hailed the ruling, saying he was "very pleased that the judge found that our regulation is valid and legal. ....
..... Although she ruled in favor of the state, Botsford criticized education officials for long delays in coming up with guidelines or "frameworks" for school subjects like English and math -- delays she said have made it more difficult for teachers to teach and students to learn.
        "There is force in the plaintiffs' contention that under a statutory scheme for educational reform that is designed to hold education officials, schools and teachers responsible for providing a meaningful education to students, it is the students who are paying the price at present for the system's failure to meet its educational obligation," Botsford wrote.
        Botsford also said alternative routes to a high school diploma available through performance appeals or alternative assessments "as a practical matter are closed to almost all students, particularly those with significant learning disabilities."
        Of 632 students in the class of 2003 who have pursued an alternative assessment, only one has passed both the English and math tests, she said....
...... "It's really the last important hurdle we needed to keep the progress we've already made," said William Guenther, president of Mass Insight Education, a business backed pro-MCAS group. "This allows us to focus on those remaining students who still need to build their skills."
        This story appeared on Page A9 of The Standard-Times on April 5, 2003.


Boston Globe, 4/5:  Judge denies an injunction in MCAS case; Students to appeal to SJC on diplomas
http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/095/metro/Judge_denies_an_injunction_in_MCAS_case-.shtml
.....  A state education official welcomed the decision. ''I personally think this is good news for the kids, because I think that this is an indication that we are doing the right thing in setting a standard,'' said Education Commissioner David P. Driscoll. ''And our focus continues to be those kids who haven't made it over the bar.''
        Lawyers for the plaintiffs said they would file an expedited appeal to the Supreme Judicial Court by early next week......      'It is our full intention to press forward on all of our claims, state and federal, on behalf of our public school student clients,'' said attorney Thomas C. Frongillo, who originally filed suit in federal court. .....
..... The judge acknowledged that the plaintiffs ''may suffer very serious harm without'' the injunction, but said they will have more opportunities to pass MCAS and eventually receive a diploma. .....
....  Mark Roosevelt, a former state representative and an architect of the 1993 Education Reform Act, praised the judge's ruling.
        ''She recognized that the Class of 2003 passers would be damaged by setting aside the MCAS graduation requirement,'' he said, ''and that in this economy and this world the attainment of a reasonable level of skills was even more necessary to succeeding in the job market than a high school diploma.''
        ..........      This story ran on page B3 of the Boston Globe on 4/5/2003.


Springfield Republican, 4/5: MCAS: Judge supports state, but scolds school officials
http://www.masslive.com/news/republican/index.ssf?/base/news-1/1049531442180110.xml
        BOSTON - A Suffolk Superior Court judge ruled yesterday that the state can require students to pass the MCAS tests to get a high school diploma.
        But Judge Margot G. Botsford criticized the state for delays in devising the curriculum guidelines for the subjects covered in the test. She said the state Board of Education shifted its approach to curriculum frameworks and revised major ones a number of times before the tests were first administered in May, 1998, causing confusion among students and teachers.
        "This situation has made it more difficult for teachers to teach what they need to teach and students to learn what they need to learn in order to succeed as competent students," Botsford wrote in a 31-page decision. ........
.......         The students' lawyer, cheered the judge for citing the state for dragging out curriculum frameworks. "We agree with the court's conclusion that the Board of Education's failure to timely perform its statutory duties has hampered teaching in the classroom and student learning," Frongillo said.
        Frongillo is also seeking an injunction against the graduation requirement in U.S. District Court, Springfield. He is suing Holyoke schools, saying they violated students' constitutional right to due process by failing to teach material needed to pass the MCAS. A hearing on that lawsuit is set for 10 a.m. Friday. ....


Boston Globe, 4/2/03:  14 who failed MCAS seek to join suit
http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/092/metro/Man_s_body_found_in_Mystic_River_in_Medford+.shtml
        Fourteen high school seniors who failed the MCAS test are trying to join a federal lawsuit challenging the exam's graduation requirement, their lawyers said yesterday. The suit alleges that thousands of students were not taught the material on the high-stakes exam, which students must eventually pass to get a high school diploma. The 14 students are from Adams, Auburn, Boston, Cambridge, Chelsea, Gloucester, Holyoke, and Springfield, said Roger Rice, one of the lawyers who filed the federal suit in September.
                This story ran on page A2 of the Boston Globe on 4/2/2003.


Boston Globe, 4/4:  Holyoke school system found lacking
http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/094/metro/Holyoke_school_system_found_lacking-.shtml
...... Reviews by a state team found that the Holyoke district has widespread deficiencies, including poor academic performance, a failure to use data in making decisions, and the lack of a plan for helping students denied diplomas for failing MCAS - findings that were the basis for yesterday's vote by the state Education Management Audit Council. .....
..... State officials previously have designated several schools ''underperforming,'' but some leaders of education changes have argued that more needs to be done to hold districts accountable for poor student performance and other failures.
        The Board of Education will hear from district officials and review the council's findings before deciding whether to designate Holyoke as under-performing. If the board does so, the state will send a fact-finding team to the district to identify areas that need help, and Holyoke must then develop improvement plans. If, over time, a district doesn't improve enough, the board could ultimately label it ''chronically under-performing'' and appoint someone to run the school system. ......
.....   Officials found that, despite a ''marginal'' decrease in the number of students failing the MCAS between 2001 and 2002, Holyoke's student achievement was among the lowest of the state's urban districts, according to a March report by the office.
        They also found that the district had not developed a significant plan to help seniors who won't be graduating in June because they didn't pass MCAS. [Supt. Edward] Carballo says about 19 percent have not passed....
.....The reviewers also noted that Holyoke teachers and students have high absentee rates. In 2000-01, for example, the district budgeted about $710,000 for substitutes but spent nearly $1.2 million on them, according to the report. ....
.... The council also had been scheduled to vote on the Fall River school district, but officials there asked for a new review, based on the fact that their review was conducted while the state was making changes to its evaluation process, Perlman said. ....
.... In the past, the state has taken over districts mainly when they have had glaring mismanagement and were in deep financial disarray.
                        This story ran on page B1 of the Boston Globe on 4/4/2003.


AP wire/New Bedford Standard Times, 4/4: Some city schools lose out on reading money
http://www.s-t.com/daily/04-03/04-04-03/a06sr045.htm
        BOSTON -- It's been a while since Brockton superintendent Joe Bage has seen grown-ups cry.
        That's what happened to his grant-writing team when they tried to explain that Brockton, like other urban districts, was rejected for a "Reading First" grant, while some small towns, including three in which every third-grader passed the MCAS reading test, were successful.....
..... Boston, Fitchburg, Holyoke, Lowell, Lynn, New Bedford and Cambridge were also rejected.
        Meanwhile, several small towns, including Brewster, Chatham, Shutesbury, and Tisbury, along with five charter schools, were successful.
        Reading First, part of President Bush's No Child Left Behind law, is designed to implement science-based reading programs in kindergarten through third-grade classrooms so that all students are proficient readers by the end of the third grade.
        Massachusetts this year has received $15 million -- and is in line for $100 million over six years. The state Department of Education awarded 38 grants after examining 64 proposals. Districts were evaluated on their poverty rates, MCAS performance, and number of underperfoming schools. The state Board of Education gave final approval of recipients.
        Critics of the program say the federal guidelines are too strict. Boston Superintendent Thomas Payzant told his school board that if he pledged to abandon his literacy programs in favor of phonics, Boston likely would have received a grant.
        "It didn't get distributed on the basis of need," said Paul Schlichtman, president-elect of the Massachusetts Association of School Committees. "It got distributed on the basis of who was going to do exactly what the feds and state wanted them to do. It's a further erosion of local control."....
.... The towns of Shutesbury, in western Massachusetts, Tisbury, on Martha's Vineyard, and Ayer, in north-central Massachusetts, saw 100 percent of their third-graders pass the reading portion of the 2002 MCAS test, according to DOE statistics.
        In other words, their kids can read, but they still got the grants. .....
.....  Nearly as many Lowell third-graders (141) failed the 2002 MCAS reading test as the total number (156) of third-graders who took the test in Ayer, Shutesbury and Tisbury combined, according to DOE stats.  
        Although some cities were shut out, others were successful. Worcester, Springfield, Chelsea, Fall River and Lawrence received a combined $3.4 million.
        Grants ranged from $110,450 (Tisbury) to $840,000 (Springfield).....
..... "Most of the districts that we funded got priority points for poverty," [state DOE program director Barbara] Gardner said.
        Grant recipient Boston Renaissance Charter School ($220,000), for example, has a higher poverty rate than the Boston Public Schools, she said, even though there's only a few hundred kids in grades K-3, compared to 15,000 in Boston's public schools.
        On the 2002 MCAS reading test, 822 Boston third-graders failed, compared with 21 third-graders at Renaissance. The five charter schools that won grants will receive a combined $933,000 this year. .....
..... The guidelines also mandate that states "seek to fund only those proposals that show real promise for successful implementation, particularly at the classroom level, and for raising student achievement," a U.S. DOE memo stated.
        In the second year, districts with more than one elementary school must expand the program to a second school and likewise, a charter school must partner with another charter school.
        The DOE will use $3 million of the total to hold seminars to train teachers in "proven methodologies," including phonics, phonemic awareness -- the ability to hear, identify and manipulate the individual sounds in spoken words -- and vocabulary development.
                This story appeared on Page A6 of The Standard-Times on April 4, 2003.


Springfield Republican, 4/5:  Week of MCAS testing ends with a cheer
http://www.masslive.com/springfield/republican/index.ssf?/base/news-1/1049531704180110.xml
        WARE - Anyone who stopped by Stanley M. Koziol Elementary School yesterday afternoon would have thought the third-graders had taken over the school.
        They had in a way, as they marched through the halls blowing noisemakers and waving their hands in the air. That was their way of celebrating the end of a hard week spent taking the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System test.
        "I feel much better," 9-year-old John S. Messier said.
        That was the sentiment of most third-graders. Monday, they took a practice test. Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday, they took the real test, which focused on reading and writing skills. It was the first time the students had been exposed to the state-mandated test.
        The anxiety and relief were followed by a party organized by guidance counselor Kathleen M. Barrett, third-grade staff and the Parent Teacher Organization. Before the noisy parade through the school, the 100 third-graders were treated to pizza, soda and ice cream.......  
....... "What a week it has been," Barrett said. "I cannot believe the level of anxiety these children experienced. I've had parents call me with children who have been having difficulty sleeping." .....


Billerica Minuteman, 4/2: MAVA challenges MCAS
http://www.townonline.com/billerica/news/local_regional/bil_newbimcassuit04022003.htm
                The Massachusetts Association of Vocational Administrators wants to change the MCAS graduation requirement through both the legislature and the court system.
        "We're fighting for our students, and that's what we're paid to do," said Charles Lyons, superintendent-director of the Shawsheen Valley Regional Technical Vocational High School and an association member.
        The group, also known by its acronym MAVA, enlisted the support of state legislators to sponsor a bill that would allow vocational students to graduate if they showed proficiency in their respective skills but did not pass the MCAS......
......  In addition, the association's attorney, David Mandel has filed a legal document in Suffolk Superior Court on the association's behalf to show support for a lawsuit against the Department of Education......
......Directors and superintendents of roughly 46 vocational schools, both regional and independent, across the state are members of MAVA. ....
..... In addition, bills on file in both bodies of the state legislature would also, if passed, allow vocational schools to recognize students' vocational achievements during graduation exercises if they meet all school graduation criteria but do not pass the MCAS.
        State Rep. William Greene, D-Billerica co-sponsored the bill in the general court. Greene said many vocational school students are tactile learners, meaning they learn by touching instead of by seeing and hearing.....
.... The legislation charges the Board of Education to work with MAVA to develop separate standards for students to meet with each trade or skill. A student's attainment of this certificate would be recognized as a basis for high school graduation.
        "It's not automatic," Greene said, adding that students would have to meet the set standards to receive the certificate. "It does recognize that not everybody is an academic."


Boston Globe, 4/5:  Franklin Institute to become urban prep school
http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/095/metro/Franklin_Institute_to_become_urban_prep_school+.shtml
        Bowing to economic pressures, the Benjamin Franklin Institute, a 95-year-old technical college with 400 students, will stop functioning as a college next year, trustees announced yesterday.
        They said they will transform the commuter school into an ''urban prepatory academy'' for students who need an extra year of study before college......
..... The institute has offered college-preparatory classes to high school graduates for 15 years. Blair Brown, chairman of the Franklin Foundation's board of directors, said she expects demand to grow as the state's MCAS requirement presents an obstacle to many Boston students.
        Increasing competition among small colleges has led to several area closings in recent years. Aquinas College closed its two-year campuses in Milton and Newton in 1999 and 2000 because of declining enrollments. Haverhill's Bradford College closed in 2000, after 197 years.
                This story ran on page B2 of the Boston Globe on 4/5/2003.


Boston Globe editorial, 4/5:  The value of attainment
http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/095/editorials/The_value_of_attainment+.shtml
        HOW MUCH is this piece of paper worth? That's the question to ask about the certificate of attainment that will be given to high school students who meet graduation requirements but won't get a diploma because they failed the MCAS tests.....
..... Linking the certificate to financial aid is a smart idea. Students who fail the MCAS but do meet local requirements should have as many options to advance as possible. That means paving many different roads to college. Federal grants and loans can prevent students from giving up on higher education because they think they can't afford it.
        The state should maximize the options available to students who have shown their educational potential by earning the certificates, including completed course work, good attendance, participation in tutoring programs, and three attempts to pass the MCAS.
        This would be no mere act of kindness. The state needs the skilled workers and higher-salaried taxpayers that colleges produce......
                ..... This story ran on page A14 of the Boston Globe on 4/5/2003.


Brookline TAB, 4/2:  Candidates for SC weigh budget, MCAS
http://www.townonline.com/brookline/news/local_regional/bt_covbrschoolcommms04022003.htm
        Although they all have pet interests - from food quality to teachers' contracts - the four candidates vying for a seat on the School Committee say their paramount concerns are budget shortfalls and the MCAS exam.....
..... [Susan] Allen believes that the MCAS, the way it is implemented by the state Department of Education, does not jibe with the 1993 Education Reform Act which, she learned through her research, calls for multiple assessments instead of one test to determine if a student graduates from high school.....
.... "I do not trust the state Department of Education to decide who should be a high school graduate in Brookline," said [Ruth] Kaplan, an Eliot Street resident whose children attend the Heath School.....
..... [Ira] Chan said he has been following discussions in recent School Committee meetings about whether BHS should grant diplomas to a handful of students who have not passed the MCAS.
        "This is a very big issue," he said.
        The one incumbent in the race, Judy Meyers, said she feels strongly that the five Brookline students who boycotted the test should not be overlooked by the high school when it weighs whether to grant diplomas to other students who did not pass the test. .....
        "We have to take care of them as closely as those in danger of not graduating," she said......


North Adams Transcript, 4/2:  Diplomas weighed for four students
http://www.thetranscript.com/Stories/0,1413,103~9054~1291473,00.html
        NORTH ADAMS -- The four Drury High School seniors who haven't yet passed the MCAS exam may receive a high school diploma if the city's school committee approves the measure next month.....
.....While the state Department of Education has come up with the certificate for high school students who meet graduation requirements but fail to pass their MCAS exams, school committee chairman Mayor John Barrett III is hesitant to confer it upon city students.
        He said the state-endorsed certificate would not be enough to get students into state colleges or allow them to apply for some jobs which require high school diplomas.
        Barrett said the school committee could vote to grant Drury High School diplomas to students who have given it their all, but could not pass the MCAS.....
...... According to Drury Principal John Solari, only four members of this year's senior class have yet to pass the MCAS exams. Of those four, three are special education students.
        "There have been kids like this in the past who have gone on to junior college or community college and taken a couple of courses to try to obtain a college degree of some sort," Barrett said. "These kids will not be able to go to any state school, or any other school" without a diploma.....


Milford Daily News, 4/4:  Milford won't challenge MCAS rule
http://www.milforddailynews.com/news/local_regional/milf_mcas04042003.htm
        MILFORD - The School Committee stopped short of challenging the state MCAS graduation requirement for three students with special needs, but said last night it may draw up its own diploma in the future to recognize academic achievements.
        "They do everything we ask and yet we deny them a diploma," said School Committee Chairman John Fernandes of three students.
        The students, who attend the high school's Scarlet Bistro program, have learning disabilities that prevent them from ever passing the MCAS, said school officials. Instead they are given a "hands-on" type of education in an alternative learning environment where they learn academics and also life skills.....
..... Although the students chose not to give up their rights to be educated until the age of 22, Fernandes said the issue remains for the future. ....
....[Fernandes] has also asked Town Counsel Gerry Moody to draft legislation to address the issue of special education students who will never be able to pass the MCAS.


Christian Science Monitor, 4/1/03:  A Bay State revolt bucks high-stakes tests; In a battle over fairness and accountability, some school districts say 'No' to tying diplomas to a test
http://csmweb2.emcweb.com/2003/0401/p03s01-ussc.html
..... In a Minute Man-like revolt, entire school districts, from Cambridge to the Berkshire Mountains, are planning to defy the state, ignore the MCAS, and issue diplomas anyway. A few students have joined a class-action lawsuit against the state, and most districts have signed a resolution declaring that local school committees, and not a test, should determine who graduates.
        The high-stakes tests have been contentious elsewhere, such as in Florida and California, but nowhere are critics more vocal than in Massachusetts....
..... [M]ost of the test's opponents say it's not high standards they're against. Rather, it's the idea that a student could be punished for a school's failure - and that graduation could ride on one test.
        Take Candido Molina who, for years, has had one goal: to be the first in his family to graduate from high school. Until two weeks ago, it seemed that goal - and, by extension, his dream of becoming a police officer - was out of reach. .....
..... In a late reprieve, the state granted Candido a waiver. But his family maintains that without weeks of private tutoring, even that would have been out of reach. More important, they say, Candido was competent in his math classes.
        "We watched the intersection of the Department of Education's requirement and Candido's real-life effort to graduate high school," says Howard Fain, Candido's guardian. For the boy to be denied a diploma despite completing such work, he adds, "would have been a tragedy."......
...... Among school districts, the tiny Hampshire School Committee, in the western part of the state, was the first to take a stand. Cambridge and five other towns followed suit. In some cases, the number of students affected is so small the action seems mostly symbolic, but districts insist it's important.
        "We felt the MCAS graduation requirement was educationally unsound," says David Kotz, a University of Massachusetts economics professor and North-ampton School Committee member. He ticks off a list of reasons: It discriminates against special-ed students, low-income students, and students of color - all of whom have lower passing rates; it pressures schools to focus on English and math and "teach to the test." "Of course," he adds, "it's a step further to defy the state Board of Education."
        The state, predictably, isn't happy. If communities issue diplomas to students who failed the MCAS, says Department of Education spokeswoman Heidi Perlman, "they'll be breaking the law." The state could withhold funding, or refer them to the attorney general's office. "If students are given diplomas that they didn't earn, then those will be invalid diplomas," says Ms. Perlman, adding that the state intends to verify them this summer.......


Metrowest Daily News, 4/5:  School report cards out next week
http://www.metrowestdailynews.com/news/local_regional/reportcards04052003.htm
.......The No Child Left Behind federal law, passed last year, requires schools and districts around the country to release the report cards. The reports will include MCAS scores, the number of teachers who have certification, drop out rates and enrollment data.
        The Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System test scores will be separated by grade and into certain subsets of students, including: mainstream students, special education students, students learning English as their second tongue, gender, race and those students who qualify for the free and reduced-cost lunch program.....
...... The report will also include information about the school's Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) on the MCAS. When MCAS began, the goal was to have all students at "proficient" or "advanced" levels, the two highest, after 15 years.
        After the first two years of the test, each school got a benchmark score and an improvement goal, known as AYP. Every two years thereafter the school's score is supposed to reach or exceed this goal.
        Those schools that don't make the goal can be put on probation. If the school repeatedly fails to make the grade, students can transfer to any other district school, the principal can be removed and the school can be required to spend its federal aid money on MCAS tutoring.
        Schools must report the number of teachers and the percent of teachers who qualify for the "licensed" and "highly qualified" categories........


Boston Globe, 4/5:  Narrow tax base an issue in rural Wenham
http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/095/realestate/Narrow_tax_base_an_issue_in_rural_Wenham+.shtml
...... Horseback riding is common in Wenham, on tree-lined roads with old stone walls.....
..... This week, the MLS Property Information Network listed 33 single-family homes for sale.  Six were priced under $500,000....
.... At the midrange was an eight-room Garrison near Wenham Lake at 9 Great Pond Road, for $649,000.
        At the high end, there were nine homes, priced from $950,000 to $1.85 million.....
.... Hamilton-Wenham School district was the top-scoring regional district in last year's MCAS test, according to a Globe analysis.
                        .....This story ran on page F10 of the Boston Globe on 4/5/2003.