(Bloomberg) -- Massachusetts voters backed the elimination of the state’s standardized test as a high school graduation requirement, despite warnings from business leaders and Governor Maura Healey that the move would undermine its top-tier education system.
Students in Massachusetts are currently required to pass an exam in math, English and science — known as the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System, or MCAS — in order to receive a diploma. They will still need to sit for the test under federal guidelines, but the vote means that passing the exit exam will no longer be a prerequisite for graduation.
The ballot question, one of five in Massachusetts this election, had emerged as one of the more divisive contests in a solidly Democratic state for which the vote in the presidential contest and this year’s one statewide election was never much in doubt.
Public figures and elected officials lined up on both sides of the standardized testing issue. Actor Matt Damon, a Massachusetts native, and US Senator Elizabeth Warren, a Democrat who sailed to reelection over Republican challenger John Deaton this week, were among those who backed a push by the powerful Massachusetts Teachers Association union to eliminate the exit exam.
Healey was joined in her opposition to the ballot measure by the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce and high-profile donors, including Michael Bloomberg and New Balance Chairman Jim Davis. Bloomberg, the founder and majority owner of Bloomberg News’ parent Bloomberg LP, donated $2.5 million to the campaign against the ballot measure.
The teachers union also spent heavily on its push to remove the testing requirement, which it says is an overly simplistic barometer for academic success that disadvantages students with disabilities and those for whom English is a second language.
“It’s a statement about skepticism about giving this much power to high-stakes tests,” Max Page, the head of the teachers union, said in an interview after the results were announced. “Filling in little bubbles on a test — why is that the thing that should decide who gets a diploma and where we should focus our energies?
Competitive Advantage
Healey and Massachusetts Secretary of Education Patrick Tutwiler had argued that the test is a proven tool for assessing student performance and helps to hold the state’s education system to a high standard. Massachusetts’ schools are consistently ranked among the best in the nation, a key selling point for the state at a time when high housing costs and unreliable public transportation infrastructure are pushing some younger residents to move elsewhere.
“We’ve long maintained that our workforce and our talent is our competitive advantage, and that includes our own children who matriculate through our school systems,” James Rooney, the head of the Boston chamber, said in an interview. “If our rankings in the education space begin to dip, that’s certainly something that companies will look at.”
Even with voter backing, the final wording on the overturn of the testing requirement and the timeline for implementation may be subject to changes. Massachusetts state law gives the legislature the power to tweak or repeal ballot measures, and the leaders of the state’s House of Representatives and Senate had indicated ahead of the vote that they would be willing to consider action to forestall the removal of the high school exit exam should the proposal pass.
While Massachusetts encourages high schools to follow a recommended curriculum, the only other official statewide criteria for graduation are instruction in American history and civics and four years of physical education.
Eliminating the MCAS exam without a replacement or state-mandated curriculum will result in a “wild west” of graduation requirements across the state, Edward Lambert Jr., executive director for the Massachusetts Business Alliance for Education, said in an interview before the vote.
Most other states require certain coursework for high school diplomas. Still, high school exit exams are increasingly rare: Massachusetts is one of only eight states that mandate one as a graduation requirement, according to data compiled by FairTest. New York has also been reconsidering its Regents exam with the state’s Education Department this week proposing to phase out the testing requirement.
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