How Will New MCAS Rules Impact Current and Former Massachusetts School Students?

Massachusetts high school students now don't need to pass a standardized test to graduate. In November 2024, residents voted to eliminate the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System (MCAS) standardized test from graduation requirements. Some parents and others in the educational community are questioning how the new changes will impact current and former Massachusetts school students.

“I understand the logic of it,” Dighton-Rehoboth Superintendent Bill Runey said in an interview with ABC6 News in Providence. “I was hoping that it would remain as one of the competency determinations for graduation, because if something is optional for students, they don't always take it as seriously.”

The MCAS exam requirement first took effect in the state in 2003. Now that passing this exam is no longer a graduation requirement, Runey said that former students may finally be able to receive their diplomas.

“Anyone from 2003 to 2024 who did not get their high school diploma because of the MCAS requirement, they can reach out to us,” he said. “We will gladly do an audit of their transcript.”

Concerning how these changes will impact current students, the superintendent said several discussions are taking place about revising the curriculum to reflect the elimination of the MCAS.

In his conversations with teachers, Runey said many told him they believed the MCAS requirement constrained them with their curriculum, noting, “Sometimes that handcuffed their creativity in the classroom.”

Runey said he feels teachers' creativity in the MCAS subjects will expand now that these educators no longer feel they must teach to the test. He added that educational administrators across the state continue to dialogue about the best methodologies for teaching before the upcoming graduation season begins.