Chez Chesler

BostonHerald.com - Herald Columnists: MCAS fails to recognize courage The Boston Herald has been running stories, opinion pieces, and letters about kids (and one kid in particular, Lisa Williamson, the subject of the Peter Gelzinis column cited. Columnists are available to Herald subscribers, or ask BugMeNot for a login) who are unable to pass the MCAS even though they've tried hard. A bill was proposed for special-needs student Tracey Newhart, who has Down syndrome and can't get into a culinary school to which she's otherwise been accepted without a high school diploma, which is dependent on passing the MCAS. The Federation for Children with Special Needs, quoted in that article, states its position on the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System here. The MCAS was originally proposed as a means of assessing schools, but as its opponents predicted, it morphed into a means of testing students, and became a requirement for graduation. New York State has long had the Regents exams, and they are fairly well suited to their task, assessing whether students have mastered the fundamentals of a subject. The MCAS doesn't have that legacy, and it is still being shaken out. Nevertheless, there is nothing wrong in principal with a standard requirement for a diploma, which in turn means that a diploma certifies that its holder has achieved to a certain standard. Some students, no matter how worthy, no matter how much they've overcome, no matter how hard they've tried, will not be able to pass a standardized exam. Too bad. No matter how hard I try I'll never be able to play ball well enough, run fast enough, and so on to be a professional baseball player. I'd love to have that as my job. Should I insist on getting that job because I'm worthy?