As far as I know mcas isn’t used to assess the students it’s used to assess the schools so they want it to be standardized, not saying it’s good or bad

It's really easy to pass the MCAS. It's also to review the school's performance, not an individual student's.

It's not easy for everyone. I'm lucky I have kids that are good test takers, but my kids have friends with severe text anxiety or learning disabilities, and it's difficult for them. The fact that it assesses the school makes it even worse for me because we are wasting our kids' time for the sake of evaluating admin and teachers?

Usually, the kids with learning disabilities or test anxiety are given more time (up to 7 hours).

The students overall performance and the school district’s performance in general helps determine state funding allocations.

It is only mandatory for grade 10. I am also a college professor and while I do appreciate the snapshot of “learning” MCAS can give our district, the time spent prepping for the test pretty much renders that data useless. Combine with how far behind my kids are this year due to our district’s experiment cutting SPED and forcing teaching teams to manage classrooms with remedial, honors level and standard level students combined and we really should not be wasting a minute on these. My 8th grader is excused this year (you can find a standard exemption letter online).

I did not know exemption was an option for my 8th grader. I am going to look into that. Thank you!

What is your town’s goal in having a classroom with kids from a wide range of abilities this late in their age?

My daughter has accommodations for epilepsy because after she has a seizure, she has severe brain fog for a day or two. Usually I just keep her home the day after, but if I didn't, I'm certain that extended test time the day after a seizure would make no difference. Don't get me wrong, I think it's a great accommodation for many students, but it won't be useful for every student.

You would have to ask our moron superintendent. The goal 2 years ago was to not have to pay as many teachers. But the experiment has failed - we are not providing adequate aides to make the set-up work nor are we providing the amount of team planning time we were told would be made available (for teachers to teach “across a curriculum” they need to meet on paid, scheduled time weekly). Teachers are basically handling social-emotional issues and not having enough time to teach. The staff admit they are getting though less than 2/3 the material than before this experiment.

Ah, so your town is trying to operate like a publicly traded company and cut costs and force the teachers to do more with less and produce the same results. Except instead of appeasing stockholders, they’re causing harm to kids of all learning levels diminished returns.

Links

https://www.metrowestdailynews.com/story/news/education/2023/01/04/ma-advocates-educate-families-on-opting-out-of-mcas-standardized-test/69766963007/

they word it all over the state that mcas is required by law for grades 3-8 but the truth is the schools are required by law to OFFER it. Parents may refuse with no penalty for their student:

https://www.cpsd.us/departments/research_assessment_evaluation/mcas

greatly diminished returns! I have seen our schools tank between my oldest’s time here and my youngest’s. And for what? We are still not properly funding and asking for more overrides🤷🏻‍♀️