Testimonials

High school students sitting around a table smiling

James, a public school teacher

Massachusetts Association of School Superintendents

“If passed, Question 2 would undermine the high standards that are the cornerstone of Massachusetts’ successful work in education reform over the past thirty years. We believe it is critical for the Commonwealth to have a statewide standard for earning a high school diploma.”

— M.A.S.S President Armand Pires

Governor Maura Healey

"I'm just going to call it as I see it," Healey said. "In my judgment, I think it's very important that we retain MCAS so we have a way to assess our students, how they're doing, so we know what else we need to do to support them."

“I think that assessment is important. We need to be able to assess how our young people are doing, so I do not support getting rid of MCAS.”

“I think there’s a question about what do we do for young people, and there are about 700 each year, who are unable to pass MCAS and therefore do not receive a high school diploma. We’ve got to find a way to take care of those young people, get them what they need and see them through. So that’s a different discussion that my team is engaged on right now. But I think that it’s important to maintain the ability to assess our young people.”

— WBUR-Radio Boston - March 19, 2024

Secretary of Education Patrick Tutwiler

"I support the idea of there being a standard, a state standard for high school graduation," Tutwiler said in an interview on WBZ's Keller @ Large. "That question, if it passes, would deliver us to a place of no standard -- essentially, 351 different standards for high school graduation. I don't believe that is the direction to go. The governor does not believe that is the direction to go, so no, I do not support it."

— Keller At Large, WBZ-TV, March 3, 2024

House Speaker Ron Mariano

“MCAS was something we put a great thought and effort into, and we gave an awful lot of money to the educational system when we passed the ed reform bill with the understanding that there had to be some degree of accountability.”

— State House News Service - Jan. 4, 2024

"I think there is a reason and a rationale for the test," Mariano said.
“I supported the MCAS when the testing was presented. I thought we made a huge commitment of money to the school systems -- and in return, our request for some degree of accountability and some attempt to measure achievement was within the realm of a reasonable request. And I still think there's a place for it."
The overwhelming majority of students pass the MCAS and qualify for graduation, but about 700 students each year do not receive a sufficient score to earn their diploma. Mariano said those students can take "adaptive tests."
"So we seem to be in a real fight over 700 kids, which sort of seems like a waste of resources."

— Statehouse News Service - March 21, 2024

Ed Lambert, Executive Director of the Massachusetts Business Alliance for Education, former Fall River Mayor and School Committee member

"The ballot language question says that students would be required to complete coursework certified by a student's district as demonstrating mastery of the competencies contained in the state academic standards. While they attempt to suggest that this means that the state standards will still apply, we all know -- as we all learn from our high school teachers in our statistics and research courses -- if you don't have uniformity in how you assess something, like achievement, then you don't have a single standard. Only a common assessment can assure that."

— WGBH, March 4, 2024

“It is never a good time to lower standards but doing so when we are facing increasing national and international pressure to maintain our state’s economic competitiveness would magnify the impact of this misguided proposal. More importantly, this measure, if it were to pass, would bring us back to a time when there was much greater inequity in our schools.”

“In spite of some concerns raised when the graduation requirement went into effect years later, graduation rates went up, dropout rates went down, and student achievement increased for all groups of students - leading Massachusetts to first in the nation status. Establishing a single, statewide standard for graduation has been central to that success.”

“If this question passes, interpretation of the standards, and whether they have been met, will vary from district to district, school to school, and even within schools as teachers. In fact, just look at recent research and reports of grade inflation through and since the pandemic that has been detrimental to students, leading them to believe, incorrectly, that they are ready for college or career.”

— Testimony before the Joint Committee on Initiative Petitions, March 6, 2024

Former Massachusetts Board of Education Chairs Christopher R. Anderson, Maura Banta, James A. Peyser, Paul Reville, and Paul Sagan

“The campaign to abolish the MCAS graduation requirement is the tip of the iceberg in a movement to roll education back to the pre-MERA (Massachusetts Education Reform Act-1993) era when goals were unclear, measurement and accountability were nonexistent, and gross inequity was pervasive. MERA’s reforms were a remedy to these ills, and while imperfect, these changes catapulted Massachusetts from middling performance to the leading ranks of K-12 school performance nationally and internationally. They should not be abandoned.”

— Boston Globe, July 17 ,2023

Jeff Howard, a school psychologist and former member of the state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education

“Don’t we all know if you have an assessment that requires that you pass it, and there’s consequences if you don’t, you tend to pay more attention to it,” he said.

— Commonwealth Beacon, March 4, 2024

Douglas Howgate. President of the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation

"If we were to abandon a minimum statewide standard for graduation in Massachusetts, we would absolutely be taking a giant leap backwards in education policy," said Doug Howgate, president of the business-backed Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation, which opposes the ballot question. "We would absolutely be doing something that was antithetical to 30 years of education reform in Massachusetts, and most importantly, we would be doing something that would be harming the 2,500 to 2,800 students every year who are struggling to graduate from high school."

— WGBH, March 4, 2024

Mary Tamer, Executive Director Democrats for Education Reform

"Grade 10 MCAS scores have proven to be reliable indicators of a student's college and career readiness. Eliminating the graduation requirement would leave us without a common, objective measure of achievement that all students across all communities are expected to meet," she said. "At Education Reform Now Advocacy we believe that students deserve more than 300 variations of diplomas."

— Statehouse News Service, Oct. 4, 2023

Senate President Karen Spilka

Asked about the MCAS ballot question...Senate Pres. Karen Spilka says she “cannot support totally getting rid of MCAS” as a graduation requirement “without some reasonable alternative."

— Kelly Garrity of Politico - April 22, 2024

Elizabeth Mahoney, Vice President of Policy and Government Affairs Massachusetts High Technology Council

"As an organization representing the investment, workforce, and competitive business climate priorities of the Commonwealth’s innovation and tech-driven economy, we believe that maintaining the MCAS exam as a graduation requirement is vital for the future success of our students and the prosperity of our state…The MCAS has proven to be a reliable indicator of a student’s college and career readiness. Eliminating it as a graduation requirement would amount to a huge step backward in the Commonwealth’s quest to ensure that all Massachusetts high school graduates acquire the skills needed to be successful in their futures.”