Uncomfortable Juxtaposition

From Today’s Globe:

“Massachusetts education officials are quietly putting together a proposal to scrap the controversial MCAS exams in English and math and replace them with new tests they are developing with about two dozen other states.”

From 2006 Globe and State House News accounts (sorry, MA library card req. for access):

…Thomas F. Birmingham, a former Senate president and a candidate for governor in 2002, said at a Pioneer Institute breakfast forum Thursday. “In this regard, I’m a bit discomfited that one of the leading candidates for governor is, in my opinion, ambiguous on the issue of even retaining MCAS as a graduation requirement.”…

…In an e-mailed statement… Patrick spokeswoman Libby DeVecchi said the campaign has reached out to Birmingham and let him know Patrick strongly supports MCAS as a graduation requirement.”

“Deval Patrick has been clear in his support of MCAS as a graduation requirement,” she wrote…..

There’s some subtleties in interpretation here. It appears that the key distinction is DOE’s credibility around what might ‘replace’ the MCAS.