By NEIL ZOLOT
NORTH READING — The town’s school system, like those in other communities, has to establish graduation requirements in the wake of passage of a ballot question last November eliminating passage of the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System (MCAS) test as a requirement.
A ballot question last November eliminated passing the MCAS test as a graduation requirement. The town followed state trends, voting 5,603–4,103 to do so.
“We have to certify mastery of knowledge based on state Framework Standards,” Assistant Superintendent for Teaching and Learning Sean Killen said in a presentation to the School Committee last month.
“We’re stressing coursework and want to make sure it reflects what we want our students to know. Ours are pretty high, but not necessarily set to match with the state’s Competency Determination (CD). In a couple of places, it exceeds the state Core Curriculum Standards (MCSS), which lays out what Massachusetts wants students to experience for college and career readiness,” Killeen said.
Before the ballot question, the CD was based on academic standards and curriculum frameworks for 10th graders in Mathematics, Science, History and Social Science, World Languages and English, and a determination that a particular student demonstrated mastery of a common core of skills, competencies and knowledge in these areas as measured by the MCAS.
After passage of the ballot question, the CD will be based on the standards and curriculum frameworks and determination of mastery by satisfactorily completing coursework that has been certified by the student’s district and a mastery of skills, competencies and knowledge contained in the state academic standards and curriculum frameworks measured by MCAS High School tests in 2023 and any additional areas determined by the School Board.
“They’ll hold us to the same content area that was tested,” Killeen explained.
Killeen thinks many, if not most voters, thought the ballot question would completely eliminate MCAS; however, it will still be taken by students and used for data, just not as a requirement for graduation. School Committee Chairman Scott Buckley believes the voters didn’t want a “one-size-fits-all standard. The idea is education should be a pathway to a diploma.”
Assessments in English, Math and Science in grades 3-10 will continue to be administered with participation required by federal and state regulations; 95% participation is a federal requirement. There is no opt out, although the MCAS-Alt will remain an option for a specific subset of students and will continue to not count to CD.
MCAS data will still be used locally to determine curriculum updates, instructional approaches, student placement, and interventions and supports. “It gets confusing,” Killeen admits. “We’re saying MCAS is not CD, but all our students will be taking it and we’ll use that data because it’s subjective,” he said.
“MCAS was a standard, but now everything’s all over the place,” Superintendent Dr. Patrick Daly added. “I’ll advocate for North Reading to have high standards. You don’t want colleges to look at an applicant from North Reading and think their diploma is not what others are.”
Killeen sees North Reading as being in a good position. The Class of 2025, which took MCAS as sophomores before passage of the ballot question, are already meeting competency standards. “No students in the Class of 2025 hadn’t demonstrated competency in MCAS and most in the Class of 2026 have because they took MCAS in 2024,” he said.
The Class of 2026 and younger students will still have to demonstrate competency outside of MCAS, however.
“We have to determine what mastery will look like,” Killeen said.
Students are required to complete coursework with a grade of 60 or higher in English 9 and 10, American Literature or Advanced Placement English and Composition and a senior year course; Algebra 1 and Geometry; Biology, Chemistry or Physical Science and various U.S. History courses.
Graduation requires 28 credits, four each in English, Math, Science and Technology and Social Studies, five in Electives, three in Fine Arts/Digital Learning/Entrepreneurship, and two each in World Language and Health/Physical Education.
New requirements for graduation could include a civics project, genocide studies and Algebra 2.
“This is evolving,” Daly said. “There’ll be a lot of discussion about what it means to have competency. As you can imagine, this has been a hot topic.”
“There are lots of moving pieces and the interchangeable terms of graduation requirements and competency determination need more attention,” Killeen added.
Action taken February 10
At the most recent School Committee meeting on Monday, February 10, the board approved the second reading of the district’s updated local graduation requirements along with competency determination language added to the program of studies for the high school. Daly said the requirements include academic achievement aligned with college and career readiness and exceeding MassCore curriculum standards.
Per the requirements, “competency determination” will be ascertained by student performance in Algebra 1 and Geometry, English 9 and 10 and Biology, similar to MCAS test subjects, among other classes. There is a caveat for allowing students to graduate if they show competence in equivalent courses, as determined by the principal.
Acceptance of equivalent courses includes determining if grades and test results from a new student’s former district or an alternative high school program are applicable. “We wanted to have other ways to determine competency,” Daly explained. “It’s not one size fits all.”
Competency has already been determined for the Classes of 2025 and 2026 because these students took their MCAS exams before the November 2024 ballot question passed.
New graduation requirements and CD
The updated policy adopted February 10 now includes reference to the local graduation requirements and competency determination that was previously measured by the MCAS as follows:
Local Graduation Requirement and Competency Determination: “A high school diploma will be granted to each student who fulfills the prescribed program for North Reading High School. In addition to requirements established by Massachusetts Laws and the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, the North Reading School Committee may stipulate further requirements, based on the recommendation by the high school principal, with the approval of the Superintendent of Schools.
A high school diploma will be granted to each student who satisfies both the local graduation requirements and the competency determination as described in the North Reading High School Program of Studies.
The North Reading High School Principal will provide any updates to the local graduation requirements and competency determination measures to the School Committee in advance of publication in the Program of Studies.”
New state council formed
The elimination of MCAS as a graduation requirement left the state without a statewide competency standard, therefore Gov. Maura Healey is in the process of establishing a new standard with the intention of addressing disparities between communities on different ends the socio-economic scale. She recently signed an Executive Order to establish a Massachusetts K-12 Statewide Graduation Council to be led by the Secretary of Education and the Commissioner of Elementary and Secondary Education.
The new state council will include a broad range of stakeholders, including students, parents/caregivers, educators, school counselors, labor, education advocacy organizations, higher education representatives, legislators, and the business community. It is to be tasked with making recommendations on how Massachusetts can ensure that all students graduate with the skills necessary to succeed in college, careers and civic life regardless of their background or location, and demonstrate these qualities through a consistent statewide set of expectations.
Daly doesn’t believe any standards will be forthcoming this year.