With regard to high-stakes testing, Massachusetts is often offered as a barometer of success. But when the Bay State implemented its oft-cited education reform law in 1993, it also invested $2 billion new dollars into its system. And even in spite of the new funds, education activists say the 20-year-old graduation requirement has one of the widest achievement gaps in the nation.
“The evidence we have gathered strongly suggests that two of the three major ‘reforms’ launched in the wake of the 1993 law — high-stakes testing and Commonwealth charter schools — have failed to deliver on their promises,” according Citizens for Public Education, a Mass.-based group that put together this must-read report for anyone interested in the highly-charged political issue of using the NECAP as a graduation requirement. “On the other hand, the third major component of the law, providing an influx of more than $2 billion in state funding for our schools, had a powerfully positive impact on our classrooms.”
While education reformers often note that Mass has the highest test scores in the nation, they don’t often add that the achievement gap is among the worst in the nation.
Here are some of the highlights from the report:
- On the National Assessment of Educational Progress, though our average results place us at the top of all states, Massachusetts ranks in the bottom tier of states in progress toward closing the achievement gap for Black, Hispanic, and low-income students. Massachusetts has some of the widest gaps in the nation between White and Hispanic students, a sign that the English immersion policy created by the Unz initiative has failed.
- Massachusetts ranks 31st of 49 states for the gap between Black and White student graduation rates (with 1st meaning that the gap is the smallest) and 39th of 47 states for the size of the gap between Hispanic and White student graduation rates. For students with disabilities, Massachusetts’ four-year graduation rate is only 64.9 percent, which ranks the state at 28th out of the 45 states with available data in 2009.2 A significant reason for this low figure is the impact of the MCAS graduation requirement on this subgroup.
- National research and surveys of Massachusetts teachers found the focus on preparing students for high-stakes MCAS tests has contributed to a narrowing of school curricula, most severely in districts serving low-income students. Nationally, the Center on Education Policy (CEP) reported in 20073 that time spent on subjects other than math and reading had been cut by nearly a third since 2002, because, as CEP President and CEO Jack Jennings put it, “What gets tested gets taught.”
Rhode Island’s achievement gap continues to get wider, and for Latino students is one of the widest in the nation. Education officials have said addressing the achievement gap is among the state’s highest priorities.
Sam Zurier, a Providence City Councilor and education attorney, said the state’s failure to implement a fair funding formula is one of the reasons using the NECAP test as a graduation requirement targets poor and minority students for failure. Zurier is representing the school districts of Pawtucket and Woonsocket, who say the new education funding formula is unfair to their communities.
“RIDE’s current message is that Massachusetts demonstrates that high stakes testing causes student achievement to improve,” he said. “This has it exactly backwards. You have to invest the resources to improve the system before you impose high stakes testing.”
He continued:
Before instituting the NECAP, Massachusetts approved the Education Reform Act of 1993. The Act included a significant increase of State aid so that it would amount to 48% of the total budget, versus around 35% in RI. (In recent years, the Mass. state share has been reduced to 40%-45%, but they are still reaping the benefits of several decades of higher investments.) The Massachusetts funding formula is superior to RI’s in a number of ways, including funding the entire education program, not just the “market basket” of selected services. The 1993 Act also increased the resources the State Department of Education had to provide technical support to local school districts that needed help.
It is all too often that I encounter the jaded political soul. Every day I hear a variation on the theme of distrust of all politicians.
“They’re all liars,” “I hate all politicians” and “None of them care about anyone but themselves.”
It is easy to think that way and, I must admit, I have become callous about many candidates and elected officials through my work with and for them in varying capacities. So when I was granted the privilege of meeting US Senate candidate from Massachusetts, Elizabeth Warren, I was awestruck.
This woman is the truth.
Fall River is where I met her. This past Friday night, she was in town at the Kuss Middle School with Joe Kennedy III and Representative Bill Keating. Both men gave their own brand of well crafted rhetoric and warmed the crowd of locals before Elizabeth Warren took the stage.
She stuck to her message of growing the American economy from the middle class out and ensuring that women had a defender in Washington. She gave a summary of facts about the shortcomings of her opponent’s voting record on the same issues. I’m sure the readership of this site is well versed in Mrs. Warren’s platform vs. that of her opponent, Scott Brown’s, so I won’t rehash the details. Suffice it to say, her words hit home with the audience and the enthusiasm was electric.
However, It was after she spoke that I was most impressed with Mrs. Warren. Anyone who has followed her campaign for Senate knows the white hot spotlight that has been shined upon her by the media and by her opponent. This, of course, is part of the price one pays for running for such an important and strongly contested office. Of this Mrs. Warren is aware and spoke about it at the end of her speech, saying that in spite of the physical and emotional drain, each day she will work and fight from before the sun comes up until long after it sets.
I assumed following the raucous applause that she would spend a few minutes for photo ops with a select group of people chosen strategically to demonstrate her commitment to the young, the old, the working class, the students, etc. Then she would be whisked away through a back exit to rest or prepare or possibly meet in a quieter setting with other politicians or important benefactors. But she didn’t. Instead, she stayed and posed for every snapshot requested by her fans. She shook every hand in the room. She met everyone’s eye and listened – truly listened – to every single bit of praise or concern brought to her attention.
And after that, she stayed even longer.
I was there with my wife and eight-month-old daughter and an enthusiastic group of labor organization members. As soon as Mrs. Warren finished speaking, we pushed our way to the center of the flood of people and managed to get a group photo. Then the tide rose, tossing us to the outskirts where I was grabbed for an interview with a local newspaper and various sales pitches from other local pols.
Then I collected my family and we began to make our way to the exits. But as we said some final goodbyes, a nearby friend saw an opening and handed me a smart phone to try and snap a last minute photo with Mrs Warren. I agreed and took the snapshot. It was then that she walked over to us and hunched down to eye level with my daughter, Audrey, held by my wife, Michele. She hunched because she is taller than one would expect. She took Audrey’s feet in her hands and talked to her, then to Michele. She said mothers and daughters were why she was fighting so hard and why she would never stop fighting.
I saw tears in her eyes and in my wife’s eyes as well.
This was a moment I will never forget. This woman took the time to speak with strangers after the cameras stopped flashing. She put in the voluntary overtime to speak with a working family, rather than rest or fundraise or strategize against the onslaught of personal attacks launched by her opponent. Furthermore, she spoke with a family of Rhode Islanders who can’t even vote for her.
My job, as of late, has placed me in Fall River for most of my working hours. I travel the streets and speak with residents and I can say with confidence that the city has fallen on some extremely difficult economic times. In fact, Fall River fell into recession long before the rest of the country and sunk even deeper when the nation’s economy tanked. And, while I see a few Scott Brown signs tied to fences and tacked to businesses, the overwhelming sentiment is positive for Warren. But the commonwealth as a whole is a very different story.
Elizabeth Warren has a fight ahead of her. She is on a tear through Massachusetts in a final stretch attempt to rally as many supporters as possible for her November 6th showdown with Republican incumbent, Scott Brown. Mrs. Warren is using a grassroots approach to counter Senator Brown’s negative mailed literature, sponsored by super PAC America 360. The super political action committee funded the attack ad flier to the tune of $200,000 and I suspect many dark and stormy television ads with the same grim, grainy, anti-Warren message are to follow. Like many in his party, Brown seems to relish in truth avoidance when it comes to his own record, his party’s platform and his opponent in general.
But to see and hear Elizabeth Warren is to understand that she is more than just words. She is warm. She is honest. She is committed to her message in a way that instills hope in those like myself who understand too well the loud and greasy engine that powers the sleek and shining sports car of politics. In spite of her opponent’s portrayal of her as the elite, distant, wealthy professor, she came to Fall River and took the time to touch everyone who showed up.
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