Coursework will be key for Massachusetts high schoolers looking to graduate, according to education officials, following a vote this week as the state continues to determine new graduation standards – months after residents voted to stop using MCAS test passage as a means to earn a high school diploma.
The Massachusetts Education Board decided this week on new regulations when it comes to the state determining how a student can earn their Competency Determination, or CD, needed for graduation.
Amending the current rules on the books, the board approved what Rob Curtin, the state education department’ Chief Officer of Data Assessment and Accountability, calls an “interim solution” – one needed after a ballot initiative led to the state parting ways with using the MCAS test as a high school graduation requirement.
“This is an interim solution, coming off of the November ballot election … we are in a period, right now, with our districts, where they are left to have many questions - we have fielded an inordinate amount of questions since …. the ballot passed,” Curtin said during Tuesday’s Board of Elementary and Secondary Education meeting. “… these regulations are meant to serve as that bridge, as the statewide Graduation Council, and, hopefully, the legislature, comes up with a longer-term solution, and that would look at a comprehensive list of statewide graduation requirements, as opposed to the competency determination that we're speaking about today, which only covers through grade 10.”
In Massachusetts, public school students need to meet both local and state requirements to graduate high school - with the state requiring all students meet a competency determination standard. Passing the MCAS meant achieving a CD, but that's no longer an option, following ballot Question 2’s passage in 2024.
This week, new interim CD regulations went before the board for approval after being proposed earlier this year and collecting public feedback.
“We defined terms - most importantly, ‘Satisfactory,’ ‘Completing Coursework’ and ‘Showing Mastery’ - and we specified new, minimum requirements to earn the CD, which was, for the first time, to have a required set of courses to be taken through grade 10,” Curtin explained during a presentation. “We've never had that before, and for the first time, those in ELA, math and science, starting with the class of 2026 … then for 2027, we proposed adding U.S. history to the required set of courses as well.”
In-part, the new regulations mean students will be required to complete coursework that “is the equivalent of:”
- “Two years of high school English language arts courses
- One year of both Algebra I and Geometry courses or the equivalent of one year of both Integrated Math I and Integrated Math II courses
- One year of a biology; Physics, Chemistry; Technology or Engineering course.”
Final, permanent regulations will likely come from the aforementioned Graduation Council and the state legislature.
The interim ones quickly received a rebuke from the Massachusetts Teachers Association. The MTA says with its vote, the board “approved the limited use of MCAS scores to determine if students are satisfying the competency determination for a high-school diploma.”
A statement sent to WAMC read, in-part:
“The Massachusetts Teachers Association adamantly opposes using MCAS scores in any capacity to derive a student’s competency determination for high school graduation. In decisively passing Question 2 in November, voters spoke loudly and clearly that they wanted Massachusetts to join the modern era of education and retire the high stakes use of standardized tests.”
Among the proposed amendments to CD regulations was language stating how, in limited circumstance, if a district can’t document a student’s prior coursework, a CD can be achieved via a “relevant high school MCAS assessment” or meeting an equivalent standard certified by their school district.
Curtin’s presentation also mentioned how “while individual districts are allowed to use a qualifying score on the MCAS as a local graduation requirement,” the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education would not be “proposing to create a second pathway during this interim period.”
Before the vote, there was at least one last public comment on the matter: Mary Tamer, founder and executive director of the nonprofit MassPotential, addressed the board and contended the interim regulations will not prepare students for a pathway to college or college competition - setting a low bar instead.
“What is most concerning is that these requirements, which are far below nearly every other state in the country, don't align with our public university's admissions requirements,” Tamer said. “If adopted, they send the message that lower expectations are acceptable, while reducing the chances of our students pursuing a secondary degree at their own state universities, and all of this is taking place while we continue to watch literacy and math proficiency rates decline, particularly for historically marginalized students.”
The board voted to approve the matter 8-1, with the only “no” vote coming from Vice Chair Matthew Hills, who noted while the word “interim” is attached to the proposal, how long the regulations could be sticking around is a concern.
“We're calling this ‘interim:’ if it turns out this is interim for a couple of years … in retrospect, I could have lived with anything - my concern is; it's not going to be interim for just a couple of years, it's going to be interim for a much longer period of time,” he said. “So, if there was any openness to expanding beyond just the curriculum and grade path, openness on the part of the board, whether it's through MCAS or other means, I am totally happy to support it.”
