Mass. Education Secretary, Teachers Association President Debate MCAS Ballot Question at HGSE

State Secretary of Education Patrick Tutwiler said he opposes eliminating the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System high school graduation requirement without an alternative state-wide requirement at a Harvard Graduate School of Education event Tuesday.

Tutwiler’s comments come two weeks before Massachusetts residents will vote on a referendum — Ballot Question 2 — that would remove the MCAS testing requirement. If passed, students would still have to complete district-certified coursework.

Tutwiler joined Max Page, president of the Massachusetts Teachers Association, Mary Bourque, executive director of the Massachusetts Association of School Superintendents, and Brown University Professor of Education John Papay at the forum to discuss the merits of MCAS before election day.

Page and the MTA have contributed more than $8 million to the campaign to pass Ballot Question 2. Page took aim at the opposing campaign on Tuesday, calling them “bad actors who are against public education.”

“Let’s really be clear, on this side, the Yes side are the educators, through their union, supporting this,” Page said in an interview with The Crimson.

“On the other side are about 50 individuals — rich people or rich organizations,” he added.

Page said he supports using the MCAS as a diagnostic tool for improving teaching, but said the test preparation takes time away from other lessons. He also said that the requirement structure hurts students who fall just below the cut-off score.

“Are we putting this pressure that is forcing them — superintendents and principals and then educators — to spend so much time on things that are not authentic?” Page said during the forum.

While Mass. Governor Maura T. Healey ’92 — Tutwiler’s boss — has come out firmly against removing the graduation requirement, both Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Rep. Ayanna S. Pressley (D-Mass.) have voiced support for the proposition.

“All it does is deconstruct the current system,” Tutwiler said in an interview with The Crimson. “It does not propose something as a replacement.”

Tutwiler added that without the requirement to enforce attendance, the MCAS will not accurately reflect preparedness.

“High school students will not take it seriously going forward, so it won’t be a useful assessment anymore,” he said. “You’ll just have a local assessment and understanding of how students are doing. And I'm saying that’s not enough.”

Bourque, who served as superintendent in Chelsea between 2011 and 2020, warned that the proposition could create a gap in assessing high school graduates in the time a new standard is being developed.

“How many years is it going to take?” Bourque said at the forum. “Are we willing to let the next four years of high school graduates go through without a high standard?”

Pamela B. Schulman, a HGSE masters student who attended the event, declined to say how she would vote on the question, but said the panel made her reconsider.

“I came in thinking I was going to go one way, and I’m feeling a little bit more conflicted,” she said. “Whether it’s removing this graduation requirement or not, I think the Massachusetts electorate needs to pay attention to teachers.”

“As a teacher, I really believe that teacher autonomy is extremely important to intrinsic motivation,” Schulman added. “That is more important than ever now.”

Acknowledging the fierce debate over the MCAS referendum, Tutwiler said he came into the forum expecting a battle.

“When I walked in the room, I was relieved to see the set of chairs and not a boxing ring,” he said.