MCAS testing will be delayed this spring
ing — a move teachers unions and some lawmakers want to see repeated this year in light of the continued disruption to education — education officials had already announced changes to this year’s exams, including shorter tests for third through eighth graders.
The Baker administration supports the tests as an important way to diagnose pandemic-era learning loss.
In written comments to the board Friday, Massachusetts Teachers Association President Merrie Najimy questioned the timing of the vote to let Riley bring kids back into classrooms, asking if the
“planned launch of MCAS testing on April 5” was “the real motivation” behind the administration’s “haste” to have the regulatory changes approved.
Later on Friday, Najimy released another statement urging cancellation of the testing. “We are strongly opposed to MCAS tests being administered this spring in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic,” she wrote. “We believe the state should be pressing the federal government for a waiver from having to administer these tests — not simply postponing them. High-stakes standardized tests are problematic in the best of times, and they would be especially damaging right now.
“They would add stress to an unbelievably stressful year and won’t provide results that are valid, reliable or useful,” she said. “They would simply tell us what we already know: that low-income students and students of color have been impacted the most by the disruptions. If state officials want to know what students need in order to recover from the pandemic, they should ask students, teachers and parents themselves — not rely on a test that can’t possibly assess their most important needs for human connection, creativity, friendship and emotional support.”