The MCAS does not measure workforce or higher education readiness. The MCAS does not measure a student’s ability to think critically or problem solve. The MCAS does not improve a student’s individual economic opportunity.

The opponents of Question 2 will tell you an MCAS graduation requirement is necessary for all of these things; there is no evidence to support those claims. Yet, researchers have long known that social class may influence up to 84 percent of a student’s MCAS score. In many ways, the MCAS tells us more about how much wealth a student’s family or community has than it measures the quality of that student’s schools or their individual learning. 

I write this as a parent involved with the Boston Public Schools and a former classroom teacher in the Framingham Public Schools, which are two districts where the MCAS graduation requirement has had devastating effects on our students. As a high school teacher, I routinely saw students drop out of school after they did not pass the MCAS exam in 10th grade.

As a father, I hear many stories from fellow parents who have children with special needs or are language learners struggle to pass the MCAS. They have real worries about their children’s futures, if they do not receive a high school diploma.

Based on these experiences, I strongly urge all voters to vote “yes” this fall on Question 2.

First, the MCAS graduation requirement prevents the state from having a more holistic assessment of student learning. The MCAS was designed to measure basic comprehension in literacy, mathematics, and science. Students may be not only proficient, but advanced in other academic areas, such as history/social studies, world languages, art, music, theater, consumer and family sciences, computer science, vocational fields, or business, but if they do not reach an arbitrary MCAS score in only these three subject area tests, they will not receive a diploma. Moreover, the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education recently raised the MCAS score needed for graduation, which means that in the future, a larger number of students will be ineligible for a diploma.

Second, many students have been hurt by the MCAS graduation requirement. Each year, about 800 students do not receive a diploma because they cannot pass the MCAS graduation exam; 85 percent of those students have a disability or are newcomers. Some opponents of Question 2 dismiss this number as “not many.” But even one student who, having completed all graduation requirements at his or her school, does not receive a diploma is one too many. Without a diploma, a student is unable to attend college, join a labor union, or, frankly, work in many professions, which clearly has a major impact on their life opportunities. Students who do not receive a high school diploma are more likely than those who do to be unemployed or incarcerated.

Third, it will allow us to increase education standards across the state. Currently, this one MCAS exam decides if students receive a diploma. If Question 2 passes, the state will likely move to make MassCore (an optional set of graduation requirements) mandatory for all districts; Senate Education Committee chair Jason Lewis plans to submit a bill in January that would do just that (aligning Massachusetts with 42 other states that do not have a graduation exam).

Question 2 opponents claim that without an MCAS graduation requirement, there will be a “different set of requirements for each district,” but that is misleading; all teachers must currently follow the state’s educational standards found in the curriculum frameworks, which are generally seen as a national model.

Massachusetts is only one of eight states that still requires a graduation exam (down from a high of 28 in 2010). Voters need to ask themselves, why? The data are clear that graduation tests do nothing to lift student achievement while raising dropout rates. If this ballot question passes, it would have a positive effect on our state’s public school system, allowing districts to focus more on student improvement than on achieving an arbitrary score on a narrow exam. It will allow schools to better support students who are at risk of dropping out of school. It will allow schools to think more holistically on what students need to be successful after graduation.

A “yes” vote on Question 2 will ensure that all of our students can succeed.

Christopher Martell has been an educator for more than 22 years. He is a resident of Dorchester, a Boston Public Schools parent, a former high school social studies teacher. He now is an associate professor of education at UMass Boston.