The Board of Elementary and Secondary Education voted 8-3 Tuesday in favor of what is being called the “next-generation MCAS,” which will use the MCAS framework and advance it with PARCC ideologies and other items that have been developed specifically for Massachusetts state tests. The vote largely reflected the recommendation Education Commissioner Mitchell Chester made last week.
“Their vote paves the way to a next-generation assessment that will be a better reflection of student achievement and, at the high school level, of readiness for college and a career,” Mr. Chester said Tuesday in a press release.
At the Up-Island school committee meeting Monday, Superintendent of Schools Matthew D’Andrea said the next-generation MCAS would be an exam that more closely reflects the PARCC.
“From what I’ve seen, it’s a challenging test, but it’s a good test,” he said. “It asks students to do things that we would expect them to learn at school.” He added that it’s time for an online assessment.
“It will be something that they continue to tweak through the years, as with MCAS, and make better,” he said. “It will serve the purpose that it was set out to do, which was make sure students are learning what they need to learn in order to move forward in their educational careers.”
The next-generation Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System (MCAS) will be given for the first time in spring 2017. For spring 2016, districts that administered the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) in 2015 will do so again, and those that did not will continue with MCAS unless they opt to administer PARCC instead. Any districts that administer PARCC in spring 2016 will not be held accountable for any negative changes in scores, which was also the protocol for PARCC administration in spring 2015. Tenth graders will continue to take the regular MCAS through the class of 2019.
Martha’s Vineyard schools opted to participate in the PARCC pilot program, and administered the test to all Island elementary school students in third through eighth grade in spring 2015. In general, students performed strongly across the board — largely outscoring the state average.
The board’s vote also reflected a commitment to a computer-based state assessment, with a goal to be implemented statewide by spring 2019. Massachusetts will remain a member of the PARCC consortium in order to maintain access to assessment development, cost-share with other states, and compare the next-generation MCAS with other states’ assessments.