Readers offer varying responses to the Globe’s call to vote no on 2

But no standardized test, or any form of assessment, is good enough to determine whether a child is qualified to graduate from high school. We have to look at the big picture, because no student is standard. After all, we’re not training widgets.

What the high-stakes MCAS graduation requirement has succeeded in doing is holding teachers and the curriculum hostage in the very school districts that need the most creative approaches to teaching and learning. Let the pedagogical imagination run wild and we will see an increase in attendance and real engagement.

Vote yes on question 2.

Bill Schechter

Brookline

The writer is a retired history teacher at Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High School.

I couldn’t be more proud of the Globe editorial board’s stance on keeping the MCAS as a graduation requirement. As a founding member of the Massachusetts Business Alliance for Education, I and several others spent endless hours in the late 1980s and early 1990s researching and formulating the principles that resulted in the Education Reform Act of 1993, including the MCAS.

The teachers union fought the proposal every step of the way. Now, despite the overwhelming success, modeled nationally, and the resulting improvement in education outcomes in Massachusetts overall, the same union is trying again with its Question 2 ballot initiative.

I am strongly pro-labor, and I have the highest regard for my Representative in Congress, Jim McGovern, but I urge him to reconsider his position and support the union’s proposal.

Palmer Swanson

Douglas

Using a high-stakes, one-size-fits-all MCAS test to determine whether special education students and learning disabled students graduate from high school discriminates against this class of students, and this situation requires intervention by the Massachusetts Department of Education.

Every student deserves to be assessed fairly and individually based on their demonstrated measurable progress. Students with disabilities should not have their lives derailed based on a standardized test score, but they should be evaluated based on meeting the goals in their Individualized Education Plan.

Teachers and schools can view schoolwork collected in a portfolio, revealing each student’s growth in proficiency in each stated learning objective, thus measurably achieving a high school diploma. Special education students would therefore be fully rewarded for their efforts and success.

Otherwise, special education students are denied the right to fair, equal educational opportunities.

Vote yes on question 2 as a means to provide quality education to an underserved group of students, and indeed to all students.

Bruce C. Ditata

East Wareham

The writer is a retired teacher of moderate students with special needs.

Long ago, a student (I’ll call her Olivia) approached me after my sixth grade English class. Olivia was one of my strongest students, focused and intellectually curious. But at that moment she was in tears and angry. ‘Why not you Doing anything about it?” she asked. We had been reviewing for the upcoming MCAS exam and I had spent the entire class putting my students through a practice exam. Olivia wasn’t just upset that she had to prepare for and take the MCAS. She was angry with me.

From the beginning of the year I was a constant presence, demanding and always expecting the best from my students, but easy-going, silly and sometimes erratic. Now I had turned into a drill sergeant, firing questions at everyone. In short, Mr. Kulick was no longer Mr. Kulick.

Olivia was right to be angry. I was the teacher who had stated again and again that when thinking about literature, asking good questions was more important than giving the “right” answer. Enjoy ambiguity? That – no multiple choice test – is part of a good English lesson.

Some say “fairness” requires compliance with the MCAS graduation requirement. If teachers don’t work hard to ensure that all students pass tests, are we failing those who don’t? Yet most students who fail the test have poor grades. Admissions committees or future employers can view these figures if they wish.

Others argue that the MCAS promotes equity by identifying those who struggle academically, who are disproportionately children of color. Still, MCAS scores are correlated with family income and the educational level of the student’s parents. Does justice require that we be reminded of this annually?

True equity would mean spending all the money necessary to help the neediest students. Teachers know who these students are. Many of them struggle in kindergarten and never catch up. Their fate is morally unacceptable.

I’m sorry, Olivia. The MCAS is a huge disruption to teaching and learning, and I should have done my best to ‘do something about it’.

Neil M. Kulick

Newton

The writer, a retired English teacher, taught in the Westwood Public Schools for more than twenty years.

The arguments made in the Globe editorial in favor of retaining the MCAS as a graduation requirement are excellent. However, teachers who are in favor of keeping the test for this purpose note that the length of the test Testing in the lower grades could be shortened while still meeting required state standards.

For example, the MCAS English Language Arts section for grade three was originally planned to take two hours every two days. With the increased length and density of the test over the years, many qualified students now require a full day to complete even the first of the two sessions.

Returning the test to its originally planned length would address some concerns about unnecessary stress on young people while maintaining the desirable goal of providing a statewide educational standard.

Peter Foukal

Nahant