One of the core commitments of the Massachusetts 1993 Education Reform Act (MERA) is to ensure that all students graduating from any high school in the Commonwealth can demonstrate the basic knowledge and skills they need to succeed in college or career by achieving a minimum score on MCAS, the state’s widely respected assessment system.  The Massachusetts Teachers Association is sponsoring a ballot initiative for this November’s election (Question 2) that would repeal the use of MCAS for purposes of high school graduation, leaving the state without any meaningful graduation standard, on par with states like Mississippi and Alabama.

Without a baseline graduation standard and a valid and reliable way to measure student achievement, we can’t fulfill MERA’s most basic promise. And if we back away from MCAS as the statewide yardstick, it will lead to every district establishing its own standards, or none at all, which is exactly why Massachusetts enacted education reform in the first place.

Importantly, it also opens the door to formally or informally applying different standards to different students within the same school system, which can and has led to many students of color, English learners, and students with disabilities receiving a low-expectations curriculum and fewer resources.

The impact will not just be felt in high schools. It will reverberate across K-12 education, since standards and expectations at all grade levels are ultimately designed to cumulatively articulate what students need to know and the skills they need to develop.  It is no secret that this is exactly what the teachers union is aiming for: to undermine and dismantle the entire architecture of standards-based school reform, which it has opposed for decades.

The state’s minimum graduation standard is designed to be fair and reasonable.  It’s based on a 10th grade curriculum to make sure students who are behind when they get to high school or are new to Massachusetts have time to meet the standard.  The test is untimed, meaning that students can take as much time as they need to finish.  Students who don’t pass on the first try have multiple opportunities to retake the test and they can even appeal their scores based on an analysis of their classroom grades.  Students with disabilities can access accommodations and supports to let them show what they’re capable of, and some special needs students can request a so-called “portfolio review” to directly assess their classroom work.

Finally, students who don’t fully meet the MCAS standard can earn their diploma by successfully completing a personalized “educational proficiency plan” (EPP) developed by their teachers, which ensures they are given the courses and extra help they need and deserve during their junior and senior years.

Ultimately, about 700 students do not receive their diploma on time because of failing to get over this threshold by the end of their senior year.  Students performing below this level are just not ready for post-secondary education or a life-sustaining job.  We are doing them no favor by pretending otherwise.  These students need our help, not benign neglect and a meaningless diploma.

In the past, too many of these students – as well as those who performed somewhat better, albeit still well below grade-level – were written off and given a watered-down curriculum.  Today, thanks to our common graduation standard, they get more resources and more targeted attention to accelerate their learning.  This is the very definition of equity: making sure the students who have the greatest challenges get the most support.

Most importantly, this isn’t just a meaningless test to comply with some arbitrary bureaucratic requirement.  MCAS is widely seen as one of the country’s highest quality assessments, aligned to some of the best academic standards.  And as has been repeatedly demonstrated through rigorous research, MCAS results are highly correlated to college graduation and higher earnings.  In other words, MCAS measures authentic student learning that is critical to success, whether in a career or higher education.

Over the past 30 years, education reform in Massachusetts, including the common high school graduation standard, has made our students the highest achievers in the country.  Let’s not gamble with our children’s future.  Vote NO on Question 2.

James A. Peyser was the Massachusetts Secretary of Education from 2015-2022 and is a former Chair of the Massachusetts Board of Elementary and Secondary Education.