The following is a letter from MASC President Jason Fraser re: the Graduation Council’s Preliminary Recommendations
Dear MASC Members,
I want to bring to your attention the Graduation Council’s Preliminary Recommendations, which were released recently. As both your President and a member of the Graduation Council, I believe it is essential that we carefully examine these proposals and understand their implications for our districts, our students, and our communities.
At the outset of our work, the Secretary of Education made it clear that Council members serve in an advisory capacity and that the final recommendations to the Governor would be his and his alone. While I found it disheartening to learn that our role would not be one of true consensus-building, I did appreciate the Secretary’s candor in stating this from the beginning.
As president of the Massachusetts Association of School Committees—the largest group of elected and appointed officials in the Commonwealth—I feel a particular responsibility to raise our collective concerns when proposals run counter to the values and expressed will of the people we serve.
Overall, I found much in the documents that I strongly support, along with some elements I believe I can accept with further explanation. However, there is one area that raises significant concern: the reference in the Hybrid Approach to Demonstration of Mastery to End-of-Course (EOC) Assessments.
Based on the “Mastery” section of the Preliminary Recommendations, we fear that the language suggests the possibility of state-created, state-graded, high-stakes testing:
(“Students take end-of-course assessments that are connected to specific courses that are designed, administered, and scored by the state, promoting a uniform standard across Massachusetts.”)
The materials further indicate that EOCs could be used for accountability, which I would not oppose if they were replacing the current MCAS testing at the relevant grade levels. My concern is the potential for EOCs to become part of a student’s course grade or, more critically, a graduation requirement.
This would directly conflict with the will of Massachusetts voters, who spoke decisively in a recent ballot initiative to abandon high-stakes testing as a condition for graduation.
Reintroducing such measures, even under a different name, risks undermining both voter intent and the trust of our communities.
We will continue to monitor this closely and advocate for an approach that reflects both educational best practice and the clear mandate of Massachusetts voters. I encourage you to review the preliminary recommendations and share your own perspectives with me, as the collective voice of our membership is crucial in shaping how we respond.
Sincerely,
Jason Fraser
President
Massachusetts Association of School Committees