Doubts voiced about replacing MCAS test

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http://www.patriotledger.com/article/20150803/NEWS/150809511/0/breaking_ajax

Doubts voiced about replacing MCAS test
By Maria Papadopoulos
Posted Aug. 3, 2015 at 1:31 AM
Updated Aug 3, 2015 at 3:17 AM

BROCKTON – Ohio has dropped the Common Core-aligned PARCC test, and some local officials are hoping that Massachusetts will do the same.

While the state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education won’t take a vote until the fall on whether the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers exam will replace the 22-year-old MCAS, some educators and school committee members already have strong feelings about its worth. The case against the test is building, as teachers and parents across the state await the decision on whether Massachusetts will adopt it.

The Massachusetts Teachers Association in March likened the introduction of the new format as adding to “testing madness.” More than 200,000 Massachusetts students in grades 3-8 took the PARCC exam last spring.

In Brockton, where many of the district’s 17,000-plus students took the new exam in the spring, administrators are optimistic about the benefits of the test.