MCAS can help address the post-pandemic education crisis in our schools

Since the passage of the Education Reform Act of 1993, Massachusetts has gained a reputation for having the best public schools in America. This success is the result of many factors: a substantial and progressive funding system, a steady supply of dedicated and well-prepared teachers, sustained bipartisan consensus and leadership, and adherence to rigorous academic standards and expectations for all Massachusetts children.

The annual MCAS testing is a thermometer for these standards. Proponents of question two would like you to think differentlybut the purpose of MCAS and similar statewide assessments is to better understand student progress and meet their needs. Like any good teacher, I viewed MCAS data as information that I could use to help my students and my instruction. As a teacher and principal, I receive preliminary MCAS scores each summer, and I spend August with my colleagues rereading the standards, creating new lessons and activities, developing tutoring schedules, and more.

Many teachers did the same and it showed. Before disruptions caused by new tests and the pandemic, the system was working as intended. Over time, from class to class, following the children, they became better writers, better readers, and better mathematicians. In Boston and throughout Massachusetts, proficiency levels have increased, although sometimes only slightly.

This has not happened since 2019. In Years 3 to 8, literacy and numeracy levels are falling.

They have been hearing alarm bells continuously since 2020. There is no shortage of good ideas to implement, from evidence-based reading instruction to tutoring to increased mental health support. And for a change, there is no shortage of resources. Just last month, districts and states had to spend their last remaining dollars $190 billion federal government provided to schools and school districts to address pandemic disruptions and learning loss.

However, research led by Harvard professor Thomas Kane indicates that it is very little progress in student achievement from 2021 Curriculum Associates, based on assessment results from over 10 million American childrensummarizes academic progress as “minimal.”

Why isn’t anything changing?

For a very practical reason: it doesn’t matter how good a class is if there’s no student in it.

Absenteeism rates skyrocketed — not during the height of the pandemic — when most students were attending school remotely — but in later years as they returned to classrooms. Despite overall improvement since last year, the average child misses significantly more school than five years ago.

This is most evident in “chronic absenteeism” rates, when a student misses 18 or more days of the school year. This troublesome trend is community agnostic, extending from cities like Autumn riverto wealthy suburbs like Waylandfor western communities such as Northampton.

Unfortunately, attendance interventions often devolve into what might more mildly be described as an “initiative,” but is much more like a marketing gimmick: door-knocking, public relations campaigns, or, in a particularly regressive example, students in Springfield with good attendance they will have the opportunity to watch their families play at MGM.

AND the latest RAND study came to a clear conclusion: there is no single way to improve school attendance. When you read case studies of communities—like Richmond, Virginia, and Rhode Island—that have dramatically improved turnout, you won’t find innovative ideas, programs, or interventions. You find data and goals, often at school level. And you find focus, constant reach, and the attention of families, teachers, school administrators and school secretaries to ensure that children get to school.

Without access to accurate and reliable data, no gap can be detected and no intervention can be effectively implemented. In Massachusetts, this includes not only attendance but also grade data. This is why undermining MCAS by removing it as a graduation requirement – ​​as Question 2 would do – would be a mistake.

We tend to rely on ideas to solve our problems in education. Success in Richmond, Virginia and Rhode Island reflects not the quality or ingenuity of the idea, but the quality of the process. Setting clear goals, public leadership, creating monitoring systems, strengthening culture, celebrating success, and empowering individual schools do not fit on a bumper sticker. But this is how you drive change.

Attendance has improved slightly in Boston and across the country, but returning to pre-pandemic levels will require resources and coaching at the school level. Thanks to close relationships and the ability to act, it will be schools and educators who bring students back, not initiatives.

The pandemic fundamentally disrupted school attendance norms, which still have not been restored. Any intervention in response to the latest MCAS scores will only be effective if students do not attend classes frequently, which is also true why keeping it as a graduation requirement is so important. In some ways, just getting kids back in the classroom — and even back on track academically — is the long-term, post-pandemic task of schools.