standardized tests - NewBostonPost

Massachusetts

Michigan Senate panel turns to old Mass. MCAS standards

BOSTON – If efforts to repeal Common Core education standards succeed and the state returns to the old approach used with the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System, or MCAS, tests in place before 2010, it may find itself in good company. In Michigan, a state Senate committee has advanced a bill that

Massachusetts

New Bedford presses parents to accept PARCC exams

NEW BEDFORD – School officials in this seaside city are pressing parents to allow their children to take the controversial PARCC exams, claiming that too many opt-outs of the Common Core-aligned tests may harm the district financially and otherwise. The controversy over the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and

students

Last run for current SAT this week; new one debuts in March

WASHINGTON (AP) — The current version of the SAT college entrance exam has its final run this weekend, when hundreds of thousands of students nationwide will sit, squirm or stress through the nearly four-hour reading, writing and math test. A new revamped version debuts in March. Sixteen-year-old Alex Cohen, a junior

Massachusetts

Second Common Core video released as Mass. considers dumping the federal standards

BOSTON – A second undercover video portraying Common Core as an exercise in profiteering by publishers including Boston textbook giant Houghton Mifflin Harcourt surfaced Thursday, showing an executive of the company saying such education initiatives are "never about the kids." The video, from Project Veritas, a nonprofit journalism outfit

Massachusetts

Ed board backs MCAS 2.0 plan for new standardized tests

MALDEN – Bay State education policymakers voted Tuesday to create an MCAS 2.0 standardized testing program that combines elements of the multi-state PARCC exam and the current Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System by 2017. The Board of Elementary and Secondary Education backed Education Commissioner Mitchell Chester's recommendation to come

Massachusetts

MCAS 2.0 called for by Bay State ed chief Chester

BOSTON – A "next-generation MCAS" is the route Massachusetts should take in choosing its new standardized student assessment program, Elementary and Secondary Education Commissioner Mitchell Chester announced Tuesday. The new test would include items from both the MCAS and PARCC exams, along with questions specifically developed for Massachusetts, according

Massachusetts

Bay State reformers backed MCAS over PARCC, think tank says

BOSTON – Debate over standardized testing in Massachusetts schools heated up Wednesday as the Pioneer Institute, an independent policy research organization, rebutted an argument backing adoption of a multi-state assessment system by pointing to the positions taken by two education reformers who helped to create the MCAS exam. Former Massachusetts Republican

Massachusetts

Bay State students get best grades in ‘Nation’s Report Card’

BOSTON – While Massachusetts policymakers debate standardized exams and what form they should take in the future, the Bay State's fourth- and eighth-graders earned top marks in reading and math in nationwide testing results released Wednesday. Fourth grade students ranked first in reading and tied for first in math,