Study Urges New K–12 Accountability Framework Following End of MCAS Graduation Requirement

In late 2024, the citizens of Massachusetts voted in favor of Question 2, which prohibits the continuation of the MCAS exam graduation requirement. Technically, however, it changes only one paragraph of state law, leaving other sections in apparent contradiction. The Massachusetts legislature must resolve the ambiguity.

The Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System (MCAS) is one product of the 1993 Massachusetts Education Reform Act (MERA). Other components of the holistic reform included extra funding for public schools, more school choice, and an independent statewide school inspectorate. In the years following, Massachusetts students would rise to the top on national and international assessments.

The Massachusetts Teachers Association (MTA), in both person power and funding, embodied the main force behind Question 2. It not only opposed the MCAS exam as a graduation requirement, but any other external exam with direct consequences for students or teachers. It also employed some long-debunked research tropes to argue against testing.

The Voices for Academic Equity Coalition organized the most prominent entities opposed to Question 2. Included were some of Massachusetts’ leading political, business, and non-profit organizations.

The governor appointed the K–12 Statewide Graduation Council after Question 2’s passage, which included a wide variety of stakeholders. They met throughout 2025 to devise a plan to replace the MCAS examination as a graduation requirement. They proposed a new program of statewide end-of-course tests, along with locally designed portfolios and capstone projects.

Question 2 prohibits only the retention of the MCAS exam graduation requirement. This may have the beneficial effect of encouraging the Commonwealth to consider quality control over the entirety of the K–12 program, rather than just at its end point. It is recommended that such a quality control framework comprise four elements:

1. Consultations with students (and sometimes parents) at key decision points for a student’s progress as to appropriate next steps in student’s career
2. Choice of curricular pathways in high school with some state-required courses, plus micro-credentials
3. Standardized state examinations with consequences for students:
   • End-of-course examinations in high school
   • Mid-8th grade full battery exam used to aid high school pathway decisions
   • 2nd or 3rd grade exams for reading, and 4th or 5th grade exams for math
4. Re-instatement of the Office of Education Quality and Accountability (EQA) in its original, independent form

It is important that key quality control measures be independent of and external to the entities being evaluated. It is just as important that the education system offer multiple curricular options with multiple targets for success. Students vary in ambition, comportment, organization, and aptitude, and those differences widen over time during their school years. An efficient education system offers meaningful, challenging options of interest to all.

###

About the Author:

Richard P. Phelps wrote The Malfunction of U.S. Education Policy (Bloomsbury/Rowman & Littlefield, 2023) and edited and co-wrote Correcting Fallacies about Educational and Psychological Testing (American Psychological Association, 2009).