Vote "NO to Bullshit" on Question 2

Abolishing the MCAS standardized test as a high school graduation requirement is on the ballot on November 5th, with the Mass teachers association being the engine behind it. Vote "NO" on Question 2.

Surprisingly, defending the obvious is harder than fighting for the nontrivial. Why should one even waste ink, time, and words to argue that predicating a high school diploma on objective universal tests of mathematical, scientific, and writing proficiency, outside of the teacher’s control, is indispensable for a proper college placement and career advisement? Yet, on November 5th, we will indeed need to affirm this truism, via voting “NO” on Question 2, “Repeal Competency Assessment Requirement for High School Graduation Initiative.” All thanks to our dear friends at the Massachusetts Teachers Associations (MTA). Yes, the same ones who used their platform to spread antisemitic tropes and lies.

We will engage in this ridiculous exercise for no other reason but the fact that in an opinion poll, on September 18, 51% of the population of Massachusetts supported abolishing the MCAS and only 34% (including our Governor and our Secretary of Education) wanted to keep it (see here, p. 6, paragraph 2). This is worrisome, our dear readers, and

we implore you NOT to skip over the Question 2 while thinking to yourselves: “Doesn’t matter. Such an unserious proposal will surely fail utterly.” Don’t suppose, vote!

—Editors, The Flickering Beacon

How come we are so outnumbered? Well, you see, your opponents are also right… but within their own logical system, the one where rigorous tests serve the goals of the “old Earth [who] is changing her foundations.” Here is the Massachusetts Teachers’ Association (MTA) president (emphasis ours):

The focus on income, on college and career readiness speaks to a system … tied to the capitalist class and its needs for profit. We, on the other hand, have as a core belief that the purpose of schools must be to nurture thinking, caring, active and committed adults, parents, community members, activists, citizens…

[P]ublic education must be reconceived [sic.] from scratch…

—Max Page, Massachusetts Board of Elementary and Secondary Education, August 2022.

Yes, our teachers union is no longer trying to hide how fully consumed it is by ideology and no longer pretends that the primary role of teachers is to, you know, teach. In sooth, paraphrasing Clausewitz, war education is the continuation of politics by other means.

Max Page, president of the Massachusetts Teachers Association, testifying before the state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education at its August 2022 meeting along with MTA vice president Deb McCarthy (CommonWealth Beacon).

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Some less lofty motives are undoubtedly also at play. The ballot language is vague on the subject of what will replace MCAS as a measure of students’ competence:

[I]n order for a student to receive a high school diploma, the proposed law would require the student to complete coursework certified by the student’s district…

In other words, the gaping hole left by the abolished MCAS is hence to be replaced by the assessment of the teachers on the ground. But wait, wasn’t the MCAS also designed as a “state accountability system that uses scores of the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System to judge school and district performance?” (Emphasis ours.) And here we go! No one likes being evaluated, not even our teachers! So let them cut the middleman and evaluate themselves. Like in any good dictatorship.

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In an attempt to sell the MCAS move to the underserved class, the language of “removing barriers” has been deployed. According to the MTA webpage,

[t]he punitive aspects of the MCAS regime are especially detrimental to students with Individualized Education Plans, students learning English as a second language, students of color and and students from groups that have been historically marginalized from an equitable and supportive education.

There hasn’t been ever a clearer demonstration of how little these little justice soldiers know about real life. For them, education and professional success are a perk, a privilege, something unrelated to skills and abilities. For them, standardized tests are a part of the evil system rigged against the unfortunate of this world. Or so they tell the ones they purport to protect.

Does the underserved class buy it? By and large, “no.” Here is Edith Bazile, the founder of Black Advocates for Educational Excellence, commenting on Max Page’s pro-marxist panegyrics:

[T]he biggest disparity in education is how schools fail to prepare Black and brown students for college, career, and vocational success. That is the only way we are going to close the wealth gap.

With that in mind, and with the well-documented large performance gap among school districts, one that disfavors black students, low-income students and English language learners, one question arises: Wouldn’t letting every district set its own standards only exacerbate the problem for underserved districts and thus increase the achievement gap? The MTA does not seem to have a clear answer to that question.

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One would also think that the elites, with their children and grandchildren in poshy private schools, would abstain from having an opinion on something that doesn’t concern them directly. Harvard still admits by merit, albeit partially. However, MTA just sent out an pan-UMB email entitled “🎯 Sen. Elizabeth Warren To Speak At YES on 2 Webinar This Tuesday!” Inside, one finds this:

One may wonder: Will she be there because she is a genuinely selfless politician who can invest her time and energy in a subject she has no personal stake in? And no stake she has! According to Corey A. DeAngelis of the Cato Institute and the American Federation for Children, Warren’s grandchildren “go to a private school that costs $39,700 each year.” What MCAS, what public schools?

But maybe, just maybe, Elizabeth Warren’s distaste for the MCAS is not so altruistic after all. Maybe it’s “all about that base.” With MTA being an important element of that “base.” Maybe the “bass” of that “base.”

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To be fair, there does exist a small pro-MCAS rebellion within the Democratic Party. However, the only useful role its pitiful powerlessness can play is to solidify the perception of the anti-MCAS claim as absurd. Apparently, that’s not enough for reason to prevail.

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To sum it all up, try to google “Massachusetts question 2.” Here is what you are likely to get: