MCAS results will spotlight academic needs after COVID year
The annual release of the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System test scores has garnered little attention in recent years — not so in 2021. When the results are made public this week, we’ll have our first look at how our students were affected by the continual interruptions in learning caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Although the MCAS results usually serve as a benchmark for school and district performance, they weren’t intended to serve that function this year. Instead, a pared-down version of the tests administered this spring sought to pinpoint the extent of K-12 students’ pandemic learning loss and how those losses disproportionately affected students by race, socio-economic status and disability. Because of the attendance issues, varying levels of inperson and virtual learning and other disruptions during the school year, this year’s results will be far from perfect. Nevertheless, the results were expected to yield a good amount of diagnostic data for teachers, schools and districts to use to develop strategies to help recover student learning losses and determine which areas require the most intervention.
In other words, MCAS scores will serve as a complement to teachers’ own assessments and observations, and help them make the most congruous adjustments to their current grade learning plans to incorporate what students missed last year. This practice should not be considered remediation, but rather “tiering” or “scaffolding” — something our teachers are adept at — which will help students transition back into the classroom and bring them up to grade level. For example, based on the data, school leaders will be able to understand if fourth-graders in a certain school need extra time on fractions, while sixth-graders in another need to brush up on their reading comprehension.
Every year, MCAS results provide vital, grade-level insights into students’ academic needs, but this year the results, regardless of actual test scores, will be invaluable in helping schools respond to students’ unfinished learning. Opponents of standardized testing have often used the occasion of low MCAS scores as an opportunity to question the validity of the test in order to scuttle it all together. But low scores — especially this year — shouldn’t be used as an excuse to discredit the test. They should be expected. Also, since there are no accountability consequences from the scores, school districts will not be penalized — and should not be criticized — for any drop in performance.
However, school districts should be held accountable for how they’re using MCAS data to help students catch up. The districts received the scores in early July, so they already know the extent of learning loss. Their having and using this data over the summer to plan curricula in the new school year should be a big victory for students and their families. Likewise, parents should know how their child is doing, not with anecdotes but with the objective information MCAS scores provide. As this school year gets under way, families should inquire how their district has used this data over the past two months to prepare teachers for the upcoming school year. This will empower parents to partner with teachers on what will best meet their child’s needs.
In addition, the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education
has an obligation to use MCAS data to inform the public understanding of the impact of the pandemic on students, and provide information and analysis that will guide how future education leaders and policymakers respond to pandemics and other significant disruptions to typical schooling. DESE should also undertake analysis to follow the cohort of students pre and post pandemic, disaggregating data by learning mode — in-person, remote and hybrid — and student demographics.
Districts across the state are receiving substantial federal COVID relief funding coupled with state aid, including through the Student Opportunity Act. Both the state and the districts have a critical role to play in guiding that funding into sustainable programs that improve student outcomes. These resources will allow districts to target their funds toward the students who need the most assistance and on the strategies proven to accelerate student learning.