Massachusetts: Bedeviling Democrats and bolstering Bush

That’s not a typo. At least on education policy, the recent MCAS results in Massachusetts have served to support President Bush’s belief that standardized testing will help to ensure that no child is left behind.

From yesterday’s Boston Globe: “90% of Seniors Pass MCAS”

Eclipsing even most education leaders' predictions, 90 percent of students in the class of 2003 have passed the controversial MCAS exam, clearing the way for them to earn a diploma on time.

Buoyant state officials yesterday heralded the results from a December retest that winnowed the number of seniors who failed MCAS from 10,500, or 19 percent, to 6,058, or 10 percent. The scores, they said, proved that a decade of state education reform is paying off and that when faced with tougher standards students and schools respond. ''There were a lot of doubters a few years ago,'' said State Education Commissioner David P. Driscoll, who spoke amid whistles and applause at Somerville High School, where Governor Mitt Romney announced the results. ''These kids who used to be forgotten -- lost in the shuffle -- are now getting attention and they're succeeding.''

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The requirement was intended to raise expectations and give real meaning to diplomas in districts where standards previously had varied widely. School principals and teachers attributed the gains in December to intensive remediation and a more serious attitude among students.

''You don't see kids here celebrating academics a lot. But there were kids here just dancing all over the place because they passed, and we had kids in tears,'' said Jack Leonard, chief academic officer at Dorchester High School, which told students their results last week. ''I've never seen kids as serious about their academics as they have been under the shadow of the MCAS.''

(Emphasis added.) Read that last sentence again - this is astonishing. The kids were given a goal and told simply that they must pass the test to graduate. So after years of sliding by, it would appear they woke up to the fact that they should, you know, learn something.

The MCAS requirement is bitterly opposed by the teachers union (read: Democrats) who have dragged out the race disparity in failure rates to show that the test is unfair. But, as the Boston Globe article notes, the students that failed don’t go to class:

Of the 6,058 who haven't passed, officials estimated roughly half of them do not attend school regularly and many would not meet local graduation requirements. Driscoll said students in the class of 2003 who have not passed MCAS missed an average of 20 days of school in 11th grade compared with 11 days of school missed by students who had passed.

No matter, declares Springfield mayor Michael Albano. We’ll hand out our own pieces of paper.

Opponents of the requirement yesterday vowed to push onward with their protests and already there were signs of a battle heating up. Springfield Mayor Michael J. Albano said yesterday that his school committee on Thursday will consider awarding so-called ''local diplomas'' to students who fail MCAS but meet other local requirements. Springfield would be the largest community to take the step so far.

''You should not create education policy that leaves a child behind, and this policy will leave thousands of children behind,'' said Albano, whose seniors posted a 69 percent passing rate after the last retest. Six other districts have vowed to distribute local diplomas, which Driscoll has declared are illegal.

Here’s a thought: since Albano intends to hand out “local diplomas”, they should be granted on the condition that the “graduates” must work within the city limits of Springfield. That’s sure to help the local economy.