| Dear Member,
To everyone who observed Diwali yesterday, we hope your holiday brought love, joy, and endless blessings!
We enter this week feeling motivated! This past weekend, the BTU hosted our best-attended Fall Leadership Conference in several decades in Falmouth. Approximately 200 members gathered for workshops and trainings, to learn about our organizing priorities for the year and to join millions of people across the country in a local No Kings demonstration.
You can find a strategic priorities document for the BTU here and stay tuned for more materials this week!
New Graduation Requirements for Massachusetts
In the wake of last year’s decision by the voters of Massachusetts to end the use of a standardized test as a graduation requirement, Governor Maura Healey appointed a K-12 Statewide Graduation Council to advise on how Massachusetts will determine how a student should earn a high school diploma. The Council includes representatives from multiple stakeholders, and BTU President Erik Berg is a member. The Council is tasked with making recommendations to the Massachusetts Education Commissioner Pedro Martinez and Secretary of Education Patrick Tutwiler, who will make the final recommendations to the Governor.
The Secretary and Commissioner asked constituent organizations to gather feedback on their initial recommendations, with a very brief period to provide feedback. At the October 8th BTU Membership meeting, BTU members were surveyed about the initial draft recommendations. The results show that the vast majority of the recommendations, including completion of MassCore curriculum, an individual post-graduation plan, capstone projects or portfolios, had wide support.
However, the requirement to complete state-designed, state-administered, and state-scored End of Course Assessments (EOCs), was widely panned, with 86% of educators surveyed expressing opposition.
The Council met again Friday, and at that meeting, Council members discussed the draft recommendations. The BTU survey results were distributed, and many council members, including Erik, expressed opposition to the use of EOCs as a graduation requirement, mentioning one BTU member’s statement that they were “MCAS with a different acronym.”
Other Council members were supportive of the requirement. Most of the discussion centered on the use of the tests, and Secretary Tutwiler and Commissioner Martinez noted that federal law requires states to administer a standardized test during high school, and these EOCs could replace the MCAS.
The Council discussed whether the tests would “count,” and while the co-chairs reiterated that they “do not intend for any student to be denied a diploma exclusively because of EOCs,” what it would mean for the EOCs to “count” remains up for debate. Please stay tuned for further updates. The initial draft report is set to be released next month, with a final report due in 2026.
Meanwhile, we strongly encourage you to attend a People’s Forum on Graduation Requirements on October 27th here at the BTU Hall. This gives you an opportunity to add your opinion on how Massachusetts should assess student achievement. |
