Student who passed MCAS says state should scrap test Student who passed MCAS says state should scrap test
From a student's perspective, I am going to tell you all about the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System. I am currently in 7th grade, and I was the first group of 4th graders to take the MCAS when I was in that grade. I got Proficent in all 3 categories. Now, today, it is so important to the teachers to pass the MCAS that everything I and my peers are taught is all for the MCAS.
It seems that the state's educational person, Lt. Gov. Jane Swift, or Governor A. Paul Cellucci, are scared to take the test because they may fail. It is hard for all the students, as I found out in 4th grade, to take the MCAS when most of the stuff on the test was not taught to us. I cannot believe that everyone and everything in the schools is about the MCAS.
When my mother went to open house, she said they mainly talked about the MCAS. In my opinion, I think the MCAS should be eliminated from the state's educational process. The test is certainly not helping schools, school districts, or the state in general, because the bad results that schools get are based on how good the school is. That is absolutely false. I think that the Legislature should rethink what the MCAS is doing and how effective it is.
This letter was published in the Springfield Union News on October 13, 2000.
