BOSTON (SHNS) – Students with cognitive disabilities and English language learners could stand to benefit the most from a ballot initiative that would “greatly diminish the state’s role as a gatekeeper to high school graduation,” and lower the stakes of statewide standardized testing, according to a new report from Tufts Center of State Policy Analysis.
The report published on Thursday morning , one of a series analyzing the five questions going before Massachusetts voters this fall, says Question 2 to eliminate the MCAS graduation requirement would shift power from the state to local school districts and classroom teachers to determine if a student can graduate.
Currently, all Massachusetts high school students must pass their curriculum requirements to get a high school diploma, plus a standardized exam first given in 10th grade. They’re given several opportunities to pass, and alternative assessments are available for students with different learning needs.
Still, about 700 students — or 1 percent of the roughly 70,000 annual class size — who otherwise completed their graduation requirements do not pass this test every year.