Mass. Education Board approves new standardized test
Students in Massachusetts will take a new standardized test beginning in the spring of 2017 after the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education approved the change in an 8-3 vote Tuesday.
The test, which is unofficially called “MCAS 2.0,’’ hasn’t been developed yet, but will be a hybrid of the state’s current Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System (MCAS) exam and the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) tests that Massachusetts school districts have given for the past two years.
This is the first major test overhaul since Massachusetts began giving the MCAS tests about two decades ago.
Even though the state spent years developing and piloting the PARCC exams, which were designed to test critical thinking, education commissioner Mitchell Chester recommended last week that the board adopt MCAS 2.0, which he said will build on the best elements of both standardized tests. It’s still unclear how much it will cost the state to develop the test.
For the time being, districts can continue to administer either PARCC or MCAS tests in spring 2016. MCAS will be the required test for high school graduation through at least the class of 2019, which means that, even with the new requirement, sophomores will still take it in spring 2017.
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