House Speaker Tom Finneran (D-Mattapan) has been a thoughtful supporter of education reform. What he says deserves attention.

“Reasonable accommodations for special segments of the population – whether it’s special education or bilingual education or voc tech will actually add credibility and acceptance to the rest of the MCAS-tested population,” Finneran said on a visit to a school in Needham.

Certainly special-education students need “reasonable accommodations.” The most reasonable might be to see whether the goals of their individual education plans were being met – for many, this could mean taking the MCAS unmodified like everybody else.

Bilingual students are different: They do badly because they’re in a rotten system of “transitional” bilingual education that fails to teach them in either their native language or in English. Reform of this system in California raised test scores of Hispanic students by 20 percent; Massachusetts should enact a similar reform (one is discussed below) and get some experience before considering any MCAS accommodations.

And then there’s voc tech. These students should not be held to a lower standard than regular students – at least on math and English.

Vocational-technical students will work with their hands, not their heads, those who look for relaxation may argue. True, but the MCAS passing grade is supposed to represent a minimum competence necessary to function adequately as a citizen. In our society, it is increasingly true that nobody can do well on just manual dexterity and a strong back.

An auto mechanic has to read repair manuals. A carpenter may have to estimate the overall cost of a complex job requiring different tasks; he’ll use basic arithmetic for that. A plumber may have to write a report to a contractor that will have to be reasonably comprehensible.

If Finneran were to propose a lower standard on the other three parts of the MCAS requirement – science, social studies and foreign language – he could make an argument. These are more abstract, less related to the humdrum business of life than math and English.

Lest anyone read too much into the speaker’s remarks, another comment of Finneran’s should be noted: “No matter what the furor is out there on the validity of testing, I don’t detect any desire whatsoever to retreat.” Good.



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