For the first time in two decades, Massachusetts sophomores took the MCAS without needing it to graduate. The result: they did much worse than last year, and some state officials and others believe students exerted less effort because the test no longer mattered so much.
Fifty-one percent of the state’s sophomores met state expectations for the English language arts exam, a 6-percentage point drop from last year, while 45 percent met expectations in the math section, a 3-percentage point decrease, according to Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System, or MCAS, scores released Monday.
Officials and others were careful to say it was difficult to pinpoint the exact cause of the drop, but every student demographic, including race, disability, and socioeconomic status, experienced a decrease in English language arts scores. Among math scores, students who identify as American Indian or Alaska Native were among the only group that experienced a 5 percentage point increase in math scores.
The decline came after a statewide battle over whether to keep the exam as a high school graduation requirement. Last year, voters struck down the state’s longstanding requirement for students to pass the 10th Grade MCAS exams to graduate. Almost 60 percent of voters rejected the graduation requirement, meaning that starting with the class of 2025, students only would need to complete coursework that their districts certify meets the state’s academic standards.
The Massachusetts Teachers Association has long pushed for the elimination of the MCAS graduation requirement, arguing that it unfairly punishes poor test takers, causes too much anxiety among students, and is potentially discriminatory. Opponents of the ballot question argued the requirement was critical to ensuring all Massachusetts graduates have a basic level of skills in English, math, and science.
The results suggest students took the test less seriously without the graduation incentive, said state data chief Rob Curtin, who added that it was impossible to fully link the results to one particular factor.
“But we do have some evidence, whether it be in terms of the amount of students that left answers blank as compared to previous years, or the amount of students who answered a topic answered question in an off topic manner,” Curtin said.
Paul Reville, former Massachusetts secretary of education, who supported the graduation requirement, found the results troubling.
“We don’t have any absolute evidence of causation, but it’s utterly predictable that when high school students become aware that the results no longer count for graduation, they’re just not going to make as much of an effort on the test,” Reville said.
He pointed to the MCAS results for the class of 2003, the first cohort that was required to pass the exam to graduate high school, as evidence that the graduation stakes mattered for results. In 2001, 82 percent of 10th-graders passed the English test and 75 percent passed the math test — increases of 16 percent and 20 percent from the previous year.
“Now we have scores that are watered down . . . because we have no stakes attending to them,” Reville said.
Max Page, president of the Massachusetts Teachers Association, which had successfully lobbied to eliminate the requirement, said MCAS results are only one data point when analyzing student outcomes.
Page said the benefits of eliminating the requirement far outweighs any concern about whether some students are taking the test seriously.
He said the requirement was harmful, particularly for students with disabilities and English language learners.
He is excited the state, after eliminating the requirement, has been having conversations about better ways to assess student learning and engagement. He said he is hopeful leaders will come up with “richer ways of assessing how a school is doing on a variety of factors, both academic, of course, but also on our students’ mental health and their sense of development as citizens.”
Last year, about 8,000 to 9,000 10th-graders failed each portion of the tenth-grade exam and would have had to retake it if not for the state ballot measure. This year, more than 10,000 scored below the former graduation cutoff on each test.
Some of the highest drops in the 10th-grade scores came from vocational high schools in Fall River, Marblehead, Pembroke, Northampton, and North Adams, as well as high schools in Auburn, Winthrop, and Pembroke.
“The district made a proactive effort to educate high school students on the importance of MCAS, which included requiring students to view this video and website page about the importance of doing well on the exam,” Dan O’Brien, chief communications officer for Worcester Public Schools, wrote in an email.
The scores of Worcester students in both math and English language arts dropped, following the state’s trend. The number of students who failed to meet expectations increased 5 percentage points in math and 3 percentage points in English language arts.
“The law change is likely a factor but not the only factor in the decline in grade 10 scores here and statewide,” O’Brien said.
Edward Lambert, executive director of the Massachusetts Business Alliance for Education, said the overall results are “unacceptable” for students, as well as for the business community that relies on a strong talent pipeline for the state to remain competitive.
Lambert, whose organization opposed the elimination of MCAS as a graduation requirement, called the scores a “wake up call” for urgent action, and said the state must focus on evidence-based strategies to improve student outcomes across all grades.
“The 10th-grade scores are not the only ones that are stagnant or going down,” he said.
John Hilliard of the Globe staff contributed to this report.
Marcela Rodrigues can be reached at marcela.rodrigues@globe.com. Katie Muchnick can be reached at katie.muchnick@globe.com. Christopher Huffaker can be reached at christopher.huffaker@globe.com. Follow him @huffakingit.
