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Date: 9/20/2022
CHICOPEE – Ward 7 School Committee member Donald Lamothe called for a letter to be sent to the Massachusetts Board of Elementary and Secondary Education showcasing Chicopee’s stance against rising MCAS testing standards during the committee’s Sept. 7 meeting.
New standards were approved by the state education board on Aug. 15. The new requirements will be in place starting with the class of 2026, or students who just entered freshman year. The new requirements raise the score students must reach to pass to 486 on the English and math exams and 470 for science and technology MCAS tests. Originally, the threshold for passing the exams was 472 for English and 469 for math.
The state still requires passing MCAS scores for students to receive their high school diplomas.
Ward 2 School Committee member David Barsalou expressed his opposition with the state’s decision during the opening minutes of the committee’s Aug. 17 meeting. In his plea, Barsalou declared that the timing for the decision was “horrible” as students are recovering from learning loss stemming from the coronavirus pandemic.
“I don’t know if these people are totally clueless about what happened the last two and a half years, but our students were not in the classroom … many of them have fallen behind academically. To raise the standards on MCAS scores now is just boneheaded,” said Barsalou.
During the Sept. 7 meeting, Lamothe noted similar concerns.
“I do not believe we should be raising MCAS requirements after the last three years we’ve been in. We should get the kids back up to speed before we start pushing them further up the scale,” said Lamothe.
Lamothe stressed that the increase is unnecessarily raising difficulty for the state mandated test.
“They’re looking to go up 14 and 15 points on English language learners. Those are the students who struggle the most in our system and we’re just going to keep piling on them … I just don’t see that as the right thing to do at this time,” said Lamothe.
Ward 1 School Committee member Timothy Wagner said he and several of his peers would not have graduated with the rising standards.
“If I were taking this test and I got the same score in a few years, I wouldn’t have passed. This is just not good for our community,” said Wagner.
Interim Superintendent Alvin Morton also expressed his opposition.
“To me, coming out of COVID[-19], I don’t think it’s the best thing for students … I think one of the things, to keep moving the target isn’t doing them any good,” said Morton.
Morton shared that many students are at least two years behind in academic learning due to impacts from the coronavirus pandemic. He stressed that the state decision inequitably impacts Chicopee’s student population.
“Students have already had those learning gaps, from our homeless students to a lot of the refugee students that are coming into the district … now we’re moving the target again,” said Morton. He also shared that his leadership team will analyze past MCAS data to see how the new standards would impact Chicopee Public Schools.
Ultimately, the School Committee voted unanimously to approve Lamothe’s letter request.