Sometimes real-world developments cut through foggy rhetoric and bring needed clarity to much-muddled matters.
That just happened with the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System tests, better known as the MCAS. Those are the exams Massachusetts students take regularly as they progress through school. High school students must demonstrate a basic competence in 10th-grade math, English language arts, and a branch of science in order to graduate.
The latest MCAS results, released Tuesday, are a mixed bag. Some 78 percent of the high school class of 2026 cleared the MCAS threshold on their first try, compared to 82 percent in 2023. About 16,000 students failed at least one subject area.
That’s not the progress one would hope for but neither is it a devastating setback, particularly when you consider that the score required to pass has increased. Failing 10th-grade students will have four more opportunities to take the test during high school. If past experience is any indication, with work and application almost all will eventually clear the hurdle.
Further, these scores show the results-improving importance of uniform statewide standards high school students must meet to graduate: The percentage who achieved or exceeded expectations climbed notably on the 10th-grade tests compared to the eighth-grade exams, which carry no student consequences.
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