Sammy Lane

Since third grade, most Mountaineers have taken the MCAS test once a year. Unfortunately, in high school the stakes intensify as passing the exam contributes to a high school diploma.
But this fall, that could change if the Thrive Act gets enough votes on the 2024 presidential ballot as “Question 2”.
“Let’s just stop getting away from the rigid, pretty punitive system where one test gets to determine whether a student is competent in a single area and then in fact if that test doesn’t work for that student or they have anxiety or English isn’t their first language, all of these issues would prevent a student from getting a high school diploma,” said state Senator Jo Comerford to 22 News.
On February 16, 2023 representatives James K Hawkins and Samantha Montaña introduced a proposal for Bill H. 495.
The bill immediately received lots of attention from teachers around the state once it reached the public eye through numerous social media posts in support of the act.
On the standardized test, scores scale in different levels with the highest number of points being 560. But only a couple students a year complete this accomplishment.
In August 2023 the Massachusetts Teacher Association revealed that the teachers union unanimously supported the decision and started pursuing the action of contributing the requirement on the ballot.
“I used to think it [MCAS] was a smart idea because it forced students to focus in classes,” said senior Carter Egdall. “Now, it is a graduation requirement that you must pass the test, which I find stupid.”
During the upcoming 2024 presidential election, voters will now be able to vote on the bill as it finally made the ballot.
The act originally started when teachers and supporters started collecting signatures outside of grocery stores (such as Market Basket and Shaw’s) around the state of Massachusetts for signatures in support of the act. A total of 135,000 signatures were collected.
Many teenagers today deal with the stress of big tests in admitting to school overall. These issues can result in “bad testing days” which could reflect a student’s MCAS score.
“I have bad testing days every couple of weeks due to my anxiety in school,” said junior Lianna Flores. “What if that day of the week happens to fall when MCAS is, and it ruins my chance to graduate?”
The current passing scores for the exams are: 220 for science, 486 on math, and 472 on English. If students do not receive a score higher than these, they will be required to retake the test or fulfill the requirements of an educational proficiency plan. If, by the end of their senior year, students do not achieve that goal, then they cannot receive a diploma.
Not only can MCAS cause stress and anxiety, but the questions asked on the MCAS can be controversial to the student body.
In 2019, a very triggering question asked on the exam shocked students as well as enraged parents and educators across the state. The question asked students to write from the perspective of a racist character from Colson Whitehead’s The Underground Railroad.
The questions asked on the MCAS are not only controversial, and triggering, but are also sometimes not up to date with what students are currently learning.
Last year, during the days of Math MCAS that Massachusetts schools require sophomores to take, the Regional’s sophomores claimed they did not know all of the material and it was too early to learn topics such as Trigonometry.
“When I got into the trigonometry section, my mind blanked,” said Egdall. “I had no idea what was going on.”
Another issue with the MCAS is the scheduling of the test and the conflicts that may occur from the exam’s time-frames.
Principal Michael Pratt claims MCAS isn’t just very hard to schedule, but takes away from class time.
“I wish the test was on one big exam,” said Pratt. “If the test was on a Saturday, it wouldn’t take away from students’ learning.”
Senior Blake Follansbee agreed.
“It takes away from my learning, and I don’t believe that it [MCAS] benefits me in the long run,” said Follansbee.
Although opinions on the MCAS exam differ between Mountaineers, it does reflect on the state’s education system.
“MCAS allows the state to see which school districts are teaching better than others,” said Pratt. “It [MCAS] is also one of the reasons why Massachusetts has the highest education out of all 50 states.”
This November 5th, voters will decide whether to vote yes or no on question 2. A yes vote supports repealing the requirement that students must achieve a certain number in order to receive a diploma on their graduation day.