The stance from DiZoglio is similar to that of U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Cambridge), who also endorsed the Yes side last week.
“I believe in public schools all the way down to my toes. I believe they are the places where we build opportunity for all our children and the places where we strengthen our democracy,” Warren said in a press release from the same committee. “So I will always stand by our public school teachers, including on Question 2 this November. We need to make sure that Massachusetts schools continue to be the best in the nation, and that means elected officials and teachers working hand in hand to come up with sensible ways to assess our students.”
However, supporters of the MCAS argue that without it, the value of a high school diploma could be questioned, suggesting that standardized tests provide necessary benchmarks for student learning and school accountability.
That’s the stance that former governor Jane Swift takes.
“While there are innovative improvements to testing that the Commonwealth should consider, such as utilizing more formative assessments to target necessary and personalized interventions for students sooner in their learning journey, wholesale elimination of any accountability will exacerbate the already unacceptable gaps in student achievement between students,” Swift told NewBostonPost in a September 2023 email message.