By Sumin Lee ’31 and Evan Yu ’31
The Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System (MCAS), created by state lawmakers in 1993, is a controversial aptitude test which,according to the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, was originally created to prepare students K-12 for success after highschool. The MCAS test was first created to help students improve in school, however it seems to be negatively impacting the students more recently.
To see what the students themselves think about the MCAS test, we took a survey of an advisory of House S, Room 329. Students weren’t totally in favor of the MCAS, however, they agree that school gives enough time to prepare for it.
When asked if the MCAS was beneficial or detrimental to students, there were mixed answers.
“I think it is not beneficial because it gives so much stress,” said one student in the class.
In a poll, 60 percent of the students believed that the MCAS was stressful. A similar two thirds believed that school gave enough time for stress-free test preparation.
Others said MCAS was beneficial due to its ability to show a students’ aptitude. This indicates that there are mixed thoughts about the MCAS; it may be positive or negative in different ways.
We interviewed Ms. Tara Dufour, the House S counselor in the middle school, to see what she had to say about the MCAS.
In Dufour’s opinion, the MCAS is a great tool to measure a student’s aptitude, however, there are also many other factors to do so. For instance, Dufour lists that a student’s “attendance, behaviour, social-emotional health, extracurricular activities, and report cards” are also things to keep in mind when it comes to measuring a students’ academic capability. Despite MCAS being a major academic aptitude test for students, there are many other measures for academic ability.
One acceptable factor about the MCAS is that according to Dufour, the majority of students seem to apprehend that the MCAS is for the good cause of the public school system. Dufour also states that due to the fact that Massachusetts students have been taking the test since third grade, it has become a conventional test in their lives, making students more comfortable with the test.
However, recently, in a survey in which MCAS asked whether or not to keep the test as a requirement for a high school diploma, many people chose to eliminate it. According to the University of Massachusetts, “53% are in favor (of eliminating the graduation requirement), 36% opposed, and 11% not sure,” meaning that most people think that the test is not very significant.
On a final note, MCAS generally has a negative impact on students; with some students listing how it is not beneficial or helpful in any way. Additionally, data showed that students were mostly in favor of eliminating the graduation requirement of the MCAS. Overall, the MCAS generally had an opposing impact on students than the intention that it was created for.
