Citizens for Public Schools

CPS Board President Dan French testified on Friday, June 11, at the legislative hearing on bills regarding School Resource Officers, also known as cops in schools. Here is his testimony:

Testimony in Support of H648, S286, and H6594

My name is Dan French and I am president of the board of the nonprofit Citizens for Public Schools. I am testifying in favor of H648 and S286, as well as H694. Multiple studies have shown that the presence of school police or SROs in schools increases rates of school arrests, suspensions, and expulsions.[i] For example, one meta-analysis of multiple studies found that the presence of SROs resulted in a greater than 20% increase in suspensions and exclusions.[ii]  A study by Citizens for Juvenile Justice (CJJ) and Strategies for Youth found that “Schools with police reported 3.5 times as many arrests as schools without police.”[iii]             

            And there are additional concerns related to this data.   → Read More

When students, educators & parents share their MCAS stories, it shows they’re not alone and empowers everyone. We will post stories on our blog, Life under MCAS, and on Twitter & Facebook. Please email us your story at lisa@citizensforpublicschools.org.   → Read More

Be a part of this Week of Action to Say No to MCAS! Monday we share a video on how to opt out of MCAS. Watch it here. Mira el video en español, aqui.

Tuesday is a Less Testing, More Learning Twitter storm with the hashtags #CancelMCAS and #NoMCASMA. Join the conversation and spread the word about opting out of MCAS.

Wednesday is a Facebook Livestream with a panel talking about “What if they gave the MCAS and nobody came?”

Thursday is a forum on the Racist History of Standardized Testing with an awesome lineup of speakers.

Tag three friends on Friday and encourage them to opt out.

Join an opt-out rally and caravan in New Bedford on Sunday at 10am, beginning at New Bedford High School.

Sign our opt out petition, below, to send a powerful message to Governor Baker and Commissioner Riley!

The uproar over a state official’s remark last week about Lawrence and Holyoke shines a light on the systemic racism that underlies state education policy and causes untold harm to the children of Massachusetts urban centers.

That assumption is that city schools would be better off with less democracy, with state appointees determining more of what happens in the classroom.

Citizens for Public Schools maintains the opposite: Children learn better when their schools respond to their communities.

The state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education took an important step at its April 20 meeting: It cancelled the state’s “accountability” system for the current year due to the pandemic. State officials will pause their use of the algorithm dominated by MCAS scores to rate schools and districts.

In the discussion leading to the unanimous vote, board member Michael Moriarty said it was unfortunate that the pandemic was stalling state action in Holyoke and Lawrence schools.   → Read More

January 2021

Jeffrey C. Riley, the Massachusetts Commissioner of Education, has proposed several changes to the MCAS this year, in light of the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic. Here are the changes and what they mean for Massachusetts students and educators. 

• In a January 5 memo, Commissioner Riley said he will recommend to the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education that this year’s seniors be allowed to earn their high school diplomas by passing their required courses and not have to pass the MCAS. 
  
• He said, “The [Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE)] will significantly reduce testing time for students in grades 3-8 through a session sampling approach, in which each student will take only a portion of each MCAS assessment in each subject.”
  
• The Commissioner will not “recommend to the Board any new underperforming or chronically underperforming districts or schools in the upcoming school year.” Those are labels the state assigns based on MCAS scores.