James A. Peyser was secretary of education under Governor Charlie Baker from 2015 to 2022.
In November 2024, the voters of Massachusetts approved Question 2, a ballot measure to end the statewide use of the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System for making so-called competency determinations, which are a prerequisite for high school graduation under state law. The “Yes on 2” campaign was led by the Massachusetts Teachers Association, under the banner of “High Standards, Not High Stakes.” The MTA promised that Massachusetts didn’t need the state’s Department of Elementary and Secondary Education to validate student knowledge and skill in core academic subjects because school districts could be trusted to uphold high educational standards on their own.
The state is now approaching the end of the first full school year since the passage of Question 2, so it’s a good time to take a look at what “high standards” mean in a post-MCAS requirement world.
Under current state regulations, districts are responsible for certifying that each graduating student has “satisfactorily completed coursework” aligned to the state’s 10th-grade curriculum frameworks in English, math, and at least one science. In addition, students must show “mastery of a common core of skills, competencies, and knowledge” in those same subjects.
To get a sense of how districts are interpreting these requirements, I reviewed the competency determination policies of a little more than 50 school districts, representing the largest districts in the state, as well as those with the lowest and highest 10th-grade MCAS scores.
Here’s what I found.
Two-thirds of the districts reported that a grade of D- was sufficient to qualify as “satisfactory completion” of the required courses. Another 18 percent set the bar at a D. About 15 percent indicated that students needed to earn a passing grade, without specifying what that grade is — although based on a spot-check of local grading policies, passing is usually set at the D or D- level.
When it comes to demonstrating mastery, more than 70 percent of districts also require students to “successfully complete” or pass a final course assessment, typically with a D or D- grade. About half of the remaining districts submitted policy statements regarding mastery that were ambiguous or didn’t specify any minimum performance standard. The rest generally reported they had no additional requirements for demonstrating mastery, over and above (barely) passing a course.
I don’t know anyone who suggests that a D or D- grade equates with mastery or even grade-level achievement. It clearly does not. And yet that is the standard most districts are setting when they issue competency determinations, which are supposed to establish high expectations for student performance.
As a result, Massachusetts has gone from having some of the highest statewide graduation standards in the country to effectively having none at all.
Last year, Governor Maura Healey formed a K-12 Statewide Graduation Council (I am a member), cochaired by the education secretary and the commissioner of elementary and secondary education, who issued an interim report in December outlining several initial recommendations, including a statewide core high school curriculum and end-of-course tests to replace high school MCAS assessments and possibly locally developed final exams in the relevant courses. There’s disagreement about whether students will be required to pass these new tests, but since students already have to pass their final exams to earn a competency determination in most districts, this shouldn’t be such a big issue.
Fully adopting the council’s recommendations will probably require legislation, which is not likely to happen this year. Whenever legislation is enacted, it will take even more time to implement new standards. In the meantime, there are steps the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education can consider under its existing authority to elevate the embarrassingly low standards that currently prevail.
Specifically, the board should clarify its competency determination regulations by providing districts with a flexible menu of options for establishing and measuring local standards for mastery, such as the following:
▪ Achieve a “Meeting Expectations” score on one or more relevant MCAS exams or an equivalent score on a comparable assessment chosen or developed by the district and approved by the commissioner.
▪ Score three or higher on one or more relevant Advanced Placement exams or earn an International Baccalaureate degree.
▪ Successfully complete a state-approved Career Technical Education credential, Innovation Career Pathway, or Early College program with an average grade of at least a B or B-.
Students who are not on track to meet one of these mastery standards by the end of 10th grade should be given an Individualized Educational Proficiency plan by their high school no later than the fall of their junior year, so they can receive the coursework and extra help they deserve in time to graduate with their classmates.
If the state really believes that all students need to master essential knowledge and skills to ensure they’re ready for college and careers, it needs to align standards with expectations — and needs to do it now.