Massachusetts sued over graduation tests
Education Week
John Gehring
October 2, 2002
In the first legal challenge to Massachusetts' high-stakes tests, lawyers representing students who have failed the state graduation exam have filed suit in federal court claiming that the state has not adequately prepared students for the assessments, and that the tests discriminate against minority students.
A group of lawyers filed the complaint Sept. 19 in U.S. District Court in Springfield, Mass., on behalf of six unidentified students attending public schools in Holyoke, Northhampton, and Springfield who have not passed the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System exams in mathematics and English.
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Lawyers are seeking class-action status for the case and are challenging the use of the MCAS tests as a graduation requirement.
The suit lists six subgroups of students that it says have been disproportionately affected by the exams: African-Americans; Hispanics; students with limited English proficiency; students with disabilities; students attending vocational and technical education schools; and students attending schools in the Holyoke school district.
The suit contends that while a major education reform act adopted by the Massachusetts legislature in 1993 called for state assessments as a tool to evaluate schools and districts, state education officials "exceeded their authority" when, in 2000, they required students to pass MCAS exams to graduate.
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Tom Frongillo, a lawyer with the Boston-based firm of Testa, Hurwitz, & Thibeault, one of the law firms representing plaintiffs in the case, said that while state education leaders have used the exams to identify some 250 low-performing schools, it's students who are punished by a high-stakes tests.
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Heidi Perlman, a spokeswoman for the Massachusetts Department of Education, said the legal challenge would not deter the state's efforts to improve student achievement.
"We stand by education reform, we stand by the [state] curriculum frameworks, and we stand by the MCAS exam," she said.
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On the 2002 exams, a record 86 percent of 10th graders passed the English test and 75 percent the math test on their first attempts.
But some 12,000 students in the 64,000-member class of 2003, a large number of them African- American or Hispanic, have still not passed the exam.
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Regardless of how the case turns out, some MCAS advocates think it will help clarify the goals of the state's accountability system and help advance a much-needed conversation about ways to improve student learning and teacher preparation.
"Everyone knew [the lawsuit] was coming, and it will provide some helpful clarification on some key issues," said S. Paul Reville, a Harvard professor who helped shape the MCAS system and now chairs the Massachusetts Education Reform Review Commission, which monitors the state's implementation of the state's 1993 Education Reform Act.
Mr. Reville views most of the arguments in the lawsuit as weak, but he agrees that the state needs to do more to train teachers and make sure all students are given an opportunity to learn. "It's a very significant case," he said, adding that "the question will revolve around what the remedy will be."
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In Texas, a federal judge ruled two years ago that a mandatory state graduation exam did "adversely affect minorities in significant numbers. The ruling added, however, that the test was not discriminatory and helped identify struggling students for extra attention. ("Federal Judge Rules That Texas Exit Exam Is Constitutional," Jan.19, 2000.)
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