Massachusetts Secretary of Education Patrick Tutwiler said in an interview broadcast Sunday that he is “adamantly opposed” to the ballot question that would eliminate the mandate that students pass the MCAS standardized test to graduate high school.
“It is simply a measure of the Massachusetts learning standards,” Tutwiler said in a segment of WCVB-TV’s On the Record, noting that Governor Maura Healey also opposes Question 2.
Massachusetts public schools are “number one” in the country, Tutwiler said, partly as a result of a “system of assessment and accountability” that includes MCAS standardized tests.
Most voters are leaning toward repealing the requirement, according to a recent Suffolk University/Boston Globe poll — about 58 percent of voters favor Question 2, while 37 percent oppose it.
The Massachusetts Teachers Association also supports the measure, calling the MCAS requirement a “high-stakes testing regime” that incentivizes teachers to “teach to the test.”
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Tutwiler pushed back on that claim.
“That’s not what’s happening in Massachusetts classrooms,” he said in the interview. “I don’t even know what that looks like.”
Ninety-nine percent of students who meet local requirements pass the MCAS and graduate, Tutwiler said. For the 700 of 70,000 students who don’t, Tutwiler said, the state should focus on meeting their needs, not changing the system.
“The ballot question does not replace what we have right now with a system, it just eliminates the current system,” Tutwiler said.
Madeline Khaw can be reached at maddie.khaw@globe.com. Follow her @maddiekhaw.