Voters in Massachusetts will decide in November if their state should abolish the use of standardized high school exit exams in math, English, and science. Massachusetts is one of only a few states that still require that students pass general competency tests to graduate. Proponents of the ballot question that seeks to repeal the mandate include the Massachusetts Teachers Association, which claims that the high-stakes tests rob students of “authentic learning opportunities” because of the amount of time educators devote to preparing students for them, while opponents say that removing the graduation requirement will lead to lower academic standards and an increase in achievement gaps.
In a new report, a team of researchers at Brown University’s Annenberg Institute led by associate professor of education John Papay, who earned his Ed.D. at Harvard Graduate School of Education, does not take sides in the debate swirling around the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System (MCAS) exams. Instead, Papay and his colleagues analyzed 15 years of their own related work and studies on state testing in Massachusetts to provide evidence to help voters make up their minds about the ballot question.
Here are some of the key findings of The MCAS as a Graduation Requirement paper, which was developed through a research partnership with the Annenberg Institute and the Massachusetts Departments of Elementary and Secondary Education and Higher Education:
High scores in MCAS tests are a good predictor of long-term outcomes.
Students with strong scores in 10th grade that fall within the “exceeds expectations” category are much more likely than students with low scores that only “partially meet expectations,” to graduate from high school and college. Results on the tests are a good indicator of how prepared students are for college and careers, too. The researchers also found that students with high scores have higher earnings by the time they turn 30 years old. One exception was English language learners who earned higher wages at age 30 than their non-English language learners who had similar test scores.
MCAS scores predict future academic achievement and labor market success “above and beyond” high school grades.
Young people with similar demographic backgrounds who attended the same high school and achieved the same GPA had better long-term outcomes, on average, such as wages, if they had higher MCAS scores.
The report highlights what the researchers describe as a significant problem with the inflation of students’ course grades in Massachusetts’ public high schools. Grade inflation worsened during the COVID-19 pandemic “when grades went up substantially while test scores and attendance both declined sharply,” it states. The issue has been a concern for some time though because, according to the report, “the share of students earning an A in their high school courses has close to doubled since 2011.”
No clear answer on whether the MCAS graduation requirement alone led to students developing skills, knowledge, and capacities to help them succeed in work and civic life.
There has been “tremendous education progress” for all student groups in the state — including substantial increases in high school and college graduation rates for students with disabilities and students from low-income families and of all racial and ethnic backgrounds, the researchers say. However, they were unable to conclude if the graduation policy was solely responsible for the improvements. When the Massachusetts Education Reform Act of 1993 was implemented, there were many other changes in K–12 schools, including the introduction of rigorous standards and a major increase in spending, which made it challenging to determine which changes were responsible for the academic improvements.
Passing the MCAS makes a difference. There are better outcomes for students who barely pass the tests on their first attempt versus those who fail them.
Students from low-income families who barely passed the MCAS math test on their first attempt increased their likelihood of graduating from high school by more than three percentage points compared with students who failed it. The researchers suggest that because these students passed the test they were likely encouraged to continue on with school instead of dropping out — their confidence was boosted. Meanwhile, for students from high-income families, barely passing the MCAS increased their college graduation rates by three percentage points compared with students who failed it the first time. There was not a similar bump on college graduation rates for poorer students who barely passed the test, though.
Most students who fail one or more MCAS tests retake the test and then pass, but 85% of those who never pass are English language learners and students with disabilities.
The researchers predict that the percentage of immigrants who never pass the English Language Arts MCAS test, which evaluates reading and writing skills, will increase in future years as more newcomers arrive and because of a higher passing threshold on the test which will take effect for the class of 2026.
A small percentage of students never earn a high school diploma because of their MCAS test results.
In 2019, 1,237 students (1.8%) who completed their local graduation requirements failed to pass all three of the MCAS tests or appeal successfully and earned a certificate of attainment instead of a high school diploma.
Higher MCAS scores do not always mean higher-quality schools.
The report found that while most high schools that improved test results also improved their students’ future outcomes, there were some outliers. Some career and technical education schools were able to produce graduates who ended up with better future earnings even though they did not raise their MCAS test scores. This finding “suggests that there are pathways to improving earnings that do not include improving test scores,” the researchers say.
In the report, the researchers also emphasize that increasing MCAS test scores should not be the ultimate goal of educators and school leaders, but improving students’ knowledge, skills, and capacities should be. “Too much emphasis on the test, rather than the skills it is designed to measure, can result in higher scores without improving the academic and social skills of students in the Commonwealth [of Massachusetts],” they warn.