I want to thank the Brookline School Committee for endorsing yes on Ballot Question 2. This continues a 25-year tradition of the Brookline School Committee as a leader in creative education, new ideas and pedagogy, and opposing standardized testing as a single measure of student achievement.
While the MCAS will still be given if Q2 passes, we will stop punishing students by denying them a high school diploma. Students who fail (mainly non-native English speakers and students with disabilities) would still be taking the test, and meeting the requirements of their classes, their school, and our state’s high standards. This is also an important step towards allowing teachers to focus on the whole child, not teaching to the test.
This ballot question has been endorsed by the Massachusetts Association of School Committees, the Brookline School Committee (and many other school committees), together with thousands of educators and parents across the state. I hope the Brookline community will follow the lead of our School Committee and vote yes on Question 2.
The writer is a retired Brookline educator.