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MCAS Testing Is Seen More Positively

A few years ago when The Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System, better known as MCAS, was first instituted, few, if any, of the students and educators believed that the standardized test for Massachusetts students was beneficial and worthwhile. Now, however, more students take it seriously and the ones that have taken it before encourage the young sophomore students to prepare well for it. “I tell them that if they pass it the first time they don’t have to keep taking it over and over again,” says a two time senior who has taken it for the past three years. “I have to take it this year again, but I’ll pass it this time. It’s my last shot and I want to do well.”

Most seniors are taking upon their shoulders the task of counseling younger students. “It really shows that they care about us,” says Jorge Martinez who is one of the students expected to score advanced on this week’s English MCAS despite having failed the test before. “I want to make my senior friends proud.”

The younger students appear to look up to the older students who have taken the test before and actually listen to their advice and prepare in advance for the test. They even go to the MCAS prep classes that the school hosts once a week after school before the actual testing takes place. “You would think that they wouldn’t take the advice of the seniors and the juniors who have taken the test before since most have had to retake it more than once,” says the principal of a school that is about to be taken over by the government. “But they do and it’s really improving scores. I mean, at the rate the score are going up we might be able to keep running the show ourselves.”

However, 9th and 10th grade teachers are not optimistic. “Scores are not improving significantly, and the students are still not taking the test seriously for the right reasons. They still don’t get that if they fail it they might never get their high school diploma,” commented an MCAS prep teacher. “I still think it is a waste of time because we are still not getting the scores that we should be getting and it makes us teachers look bad. I mean it’s not as if I’m doing something wrong. So I let my MCAS prep students doodle all they want, what’s the point of trying if they’re failing anyway.”