The measure, which does not eliminate the administration of the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System (MCAS) exam, but rather its role as a graduation requirement, passed with of voters in support and 41% opposed, with 96% of votes reported as of Wednesday afternoon. The “yes” vote was particularly strong in western Massachusetts, while towns and cities in the greater Boston area were more likely to vote against it, according to reporting from . In Weston, one of the state’s wealthiest communities, 2 in 3 voters cast ballots in opposition, according to the Globe. 

Students still must meet the state’s course requirements of gym and American history and civics, along with locally determined measures, set by the some 300 school districts. 

When asked about next steps at a press conference Wednesday afternoon, Gov. Maura Healey, who was a of the measure, said “The Department of Elementary and Secondary Education will be out with guidance shortly on that … But the voters spoke on that question. And I don’t know what will come as of just yet.”

In response to a question about her willingness to entertain bills that would overturn the measure, Healey said, “I’ll review anything that comes to my desk, but I’m not going to engage in hypotheticals.” 

Those who wanted to keep the requirement and see the ballot measure defeated — including Massachusetts Secretary of Education Patrick Tutwiler and the National Parents Union — argued that the MCAS is a high-quality assessment that is necessary to hold schools accountable, communicate progress with students and their parents, and establish consistent academic expectations statewide.

Those in favor of the ballot measure — backed by the statewide — argued that the testing requirement narrowed curriculum, forcing teachers to “teach to the test.” Each year, more than 700 students — including many English language learners and students with disabilities — are unable to graduate because they didn’t pass the MCAS or because they didn’t meet local district requirements.

Historically, approximately 70,000 10th graders sat for at least one of the three MCAS exams each year. Based on state policies, students had to earn a passing score on all three exams to earn a diploma. Those who didn’t could try again at least four times and some students were able to participate in an appeal process or an alternative pathway. Ultimately, the vast majority of students — about 99% — met the requirements.

“With this election victory, voters have welcomed a new era in our public schools,” said Massachusetts Teachers Association President Max Page and Vice President Deb McCarthy in a following the announcement that voters approved Question 2. “This is the beginning of more holistic and thorough assessments of student work.” 

Leading the charge on the ballot measure, the union poured $7.7 million into its campaign as of Oct. 1 and opponents spent $1.2 million, according to reporting from the .

John Schneider, the chair of , a coalition opposed to the ballot measure, said in a statement that, “Eliminating the graduation requirement without a replacement is reckless. The passage of Question 2 opens the door to greater inequity; our coalition intends to ensure that door does not stay open.”

This point was echoed by the president of the , Keri Rodrigues, in an interview with The 74 Wednesday afternoon.

“I think it’s a strong signal about what we’ve been warning about: that we’re going to watch the inequities in Massachusetts kind of just go wider and wider and wider” as more affluent districts largely maintain high standards and others lower theirs.

Rodrigues said she and other advocates will immediately begin calling for legislation that implements new statewide graduation requirements based on , a state-recommended program of study, which includes the successful completion of four credits of English, math and a lab-based science, along with a number of other requirements.

James Peyser, former state education secretary, is similarly concerned about the new lack of regulation. “We had [a graduation standard],” he told The 74. “I think it was working well, and I’m disappointed that the ballot question passed because it replaces something — something that’s working — with nothing. But we need to fill that void as quickly as possible.”

(Correction appended November 7, 2024)

Massachusetts mom Shelley Scruggs says she’s spent the last decade thinking and worrying about standardized testing — specifically the three exams her son would need to pass in order to earn a high school diploma.

A junior at a technical high school in Lexington, her son, who has ADD and an Individualized Education Program, has always found greater success with interactive, hands-on learning and is now studying plumbing.

Last spring, he took the English, science and math exams. While she believes it’s important to assess how kids are doing in school, a frustrated Scruggs sees the exam requirement as forcing teachers to teach to a test, narrowing curriculum, putting undue stress on students and making the most vulnerable feel bad about themselves.

Her son is one of the approximately 70,000 10th graders who sit for at least one of the three Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System (MCAS) exams each year. Based on state policies, students must earn a passing score on all three exams to earn a diploma. Those who don’t can try again at least four times and some students are able to participate in an appeal process or an alternative pathway. Ultimately, the vast majority of students — about 99% — meet the requirements.

Scruggs said her son’s experiences motivated her to try and repeal the state’s graduation requirement. She drafted a ballot initiative last year and began collecting signatures, ultimately joining efforts with the Massachusetts Teachers Association. After collecting 170,000 signatures, the union got the question officially certified on the Nov 6 ballot, where it will appear as Question 2.

Lexington parent Shelley Scruggs, who initiated the ballot question to end the MCAS grad requirement, told legislators: This test “penalizes students like my son who are just not good test-takers.”

— Massachusetts Teachers Association (@massteacher)

The measure does not propose eliminating the administration of the MCAS exam, but rather its role as a statewide graduation requirement. If it passes, students in Massachusetts would still need to meet the state’s course requirements of gym and American history and civics, along with locally determined requirements set by the roughly 300 school districts.

Scruggs recently got a call from her son’s guidance counselor: He passed his math and science MCAS exams, but failed the English exam by one point. Describing it “as the best phone call I ever got in my life,” she remains staunchly opposed to the graduation requirement and is campaigning alongside the union in favor of Question 2.��

The statewide teachers association has spent more than on the effort.  MTA President Max Page told  , “We’ve long  believed that this fixation on this one test does not help us understand how a student or school is doing.” 

Page, and other union representatives, did not respond to The 74’s multiple requests for comment. 

Those who want to keep the requirement and see the ballot measure defeated — including Gov. Maura Healey, Secretary of Education Patrick Tutwiler and The National Parents Union  — argue that the MCAS is a high-quality assessment that is necessary to hold schools accountable, communicate progress with students and their parents and establish consistent academic expectations statewide.

According to the conducted between Oct. 2-6 by Suffolk University and the Globe, 58% of the 500 Massachusetts residents surveyed plan to vote “yes,” on Question 2, eliminating the MCAS graduation requirement, and 37% plan to vote “no.”

The state education department recently released the which predictably dropped in the pandemic’s wake and following the state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education’s decision — implemented for the first time this spring —  to for what’s considered a passing score.

Statewide, 10th graders exceeded or met expectations on the English exam, 48% on the math exam, and 49% on the science one.  Historically, only of students — around 700 total — ultimately miss the requirement, the majority of whom are English language learners or have a disability.

Massachusetts resident Keri Rodrigues, president of the National Parents Union and the parent of five kids, one of whom receives special education services, believes that getting rid of the requirement in the name of kids with disabilities is “really offensive.”

“[My son] absolutely took and passed the MCAS … Kids like Matthew are capable not only of proficiency,” she said, “but excellence.”

Rodrigues argued that the data collected from MCAS scores actually contribute to equity, rather than detracting from it.

“The idea that we would just toss away data and call it social justice,” she said, “is just — it’s wild to me… we need more data and information on our kids so that we can be better equipped to help them and figure out what the challenges are.”

Massachusetts as a bellwether

The MCAS graduation requirement goes back to the 1993 Education Reform Act; it’s been used since 2003 as part of the graduation standard. Before that, the only state requirements were a U.S. history course credit and gym classes.

And what happens in Massachusetts, ranked the top state for public education nationally, matters greatly, said James Peyser, former state education secretary.

“I think Massachusetts in many ways is a bellwether for what goes on around the country… If a question like this succeeds here, I think it’ll send a signal to policymakers and to union leaders and educators … around the country that maybe it’s time to abandon the whole exercise,” he said.

As election day nears and the debate intensifies, neither side wants to focus on the high passing rate, according to Evan Horowitz, the executive director of at Tufts University who authored on the ballot measure. He found that those who don’t pass the MCAS typically don’t meet district requirements for graduation either.

Those in favor of the exam insist it’s a rigorous standard and those opposed insist it’s an unfair hurdle, “so there’s sort of no constituency to the argument that actually this test might be too easy to really matter, certainly too easy to have a big, statewide fight over,” he said. 

John Papay, director of the at Brown University and lead author of on the MCAS exam, said both test scores and course grades predict longer-term student outcomes and test scores can tell us something beyond grades about how well high schoolers are prepared for college and career. 

He remains concerned about how well vulnerable student groups are being served overall. 

“The question about the exit exam is a little bit of a red herring around this bigger, critically important question about, ‘How are we ensuring that English learners [and] students with disabilities, are getting the skills that they need out of the Massachusetts public education system?’”

Correction: An earlier version of this story mischaracterized the reach of the ballot proposition. The measure proposes the elimination of the MCAS��exam as a statewide graduation requirement. If it passes, students in Massachusetts would still need to meet the state’s course requirements of gym and American history and civics, along with locally determined measures, set by the roughly 300 school districts.��