Massachusetts’ Civil Rights groups and teachers’ unions are outraged by a racist question in the state ELA Test.
“In response to accounts about racially troubling questions embedded in this year’s 10th-grade English Language Arts MCAS exam, the Massachusetts Teachers Association, the Boston Teachers Union, the American Federation of Teachers Massachusetts, the Massachusetts Education Justice Alliance and the New England Area Conference of the NAACP are demanding that the test immediately be pulled and that the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education not score any exam that included a question concerning material from Colson Whitehead’s novel “The Underground Railroad.”
“The organizations further insist that the DESE end the gag order imposed on students and educators barring them from discussing the content on the MCAS exams. Educators and students are forced to sign confidentiality agreements saying that they will not reveal the questions — or even discuss the contents. Students could have their test scores tossed out; educators could lose their licenses to teach. Passing the 10th-grade MCAS test is a graduation requirement.
“Educators and students have reported that the MCAS is using the passage from “The Underground Railroad” to have students write a journal entry from the perspective of the character Ethel, who is openly racist and betrays slaves trying to escape.
“For all of the unconscionable aspects of standardized testing, DESE has imposed a new layer of trauma — particularly on students of color — forcing students to read a tiny excerpt of the book, produce a quick answer about race relations embodying a racist perspective, and then stifle the complicated emotions that emerge. To deny students their right to wrestle with the issues with their teachers reveals that the MCAS is not about education at all and only undermines a school curriculum,” said MTA president Merrie Najimy….”
”MTA Vice President Max Page said this was not enough and repeated the call for a moratorium on high-stakes testing.
“Students should definitely read the brutal and brilliant book ‘The Underground Railroad’ and work with experienced educators on exploring the important and complex issues it raises,” Page said. “But in order to do so, our students need fully funded schools with small class sizes and teachers who have the academic freedom to guide this complex and emotional discourse so that students are building empathy and understanding of our troubled history. Our schools also must include libraries stocked with literature and full-time librarians who can guide children in exploring the diverse and multiple perspectives on any subject.”
Diane Ravitch's blog 
These state ELA tests are equally well vetted in other respects.
Look. They are a scam. Resist. Opt out. Demand that your state legislators end the invalid, unreliable, useless high-stakes standardized testing.
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SUE! SUE! SUE!
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Obviously, an ignorant white person came up with that. Horrific! I’m a MA parent and teacher. My daughter will be in 10th grade next year. I was hoping the moratorium would happen before then….I’ve always encouraged her to opt out, but she wanted to take the tests because all her friends were. I tried, but couldn’t convince other parents to opt out. She will want to take it next year so she can get her diploma. I frankly don’t care -I’d be happy with a certificate of attendance and a transcript – but I understand.
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Besides the very odd requirement that a student read a short selection and instantly morph into a screenwriter, how can any numerical data be legitimately attached to a student answer to such a question?
This is the way in which testing turns scrambled eggs into milled titanium. Alchemists are in awe, gazing down from their heavenly perches, wondering why they went wrong. Who knew the road from lead to gold ran through testing students. What were we thinking?
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We must ask what review process allows such egregious questions to end up on a test.
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I can’t use foul language to describe the foul test question about which I just read? OK, let’s break out the Shakespearean insults. Whoever allowed that horrifying question to be given to children, an act which can never be truly rescinded or reconciled, you are impertinent, ill-nurtured ratsbane! Disgusting!
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Wellllll, how about we consult with the Secretary of Education.
Her wisdom and experience will certainly shed light as to whether this question is acceptable for a state standarized test.
Ha – seriously – I hope some reporters ask her for an opinion
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perhaps a certain amount of power these days will come in publicly and relentlessy attaching all testing debacles to whoever sits in the Sec Of Ed office
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I’m no hisch teacher, but if I were, I’d think long & hard about having students role-play such a scene, even in a small class. There are less risky ways to imagine & discuss this character’s mindset. As an exam question it’s reckless and bizarre.
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As a history teacher, role plays and simulations should be done VERY carefully, and not at all with certain subjects, including slavery, genocide, the Holocaust, etc. To require students “identify with” a racist character is beyond insulting to the memory of all slaves, and a trauma to many students that is unconsciounable.
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Diane, the other day I emailed to the Boston Globe the letter to the Editor below. Unsurprisingly, the Globe did not publish the letter.
And I see that yesterday, the Globe published an Editorial in which, among other things, it excoriated the Massachusetts Teachers Association for making use of the outrageous MCAS question to call yet again, as it has for years, for a 3-year moratorium on high stakes testing.
What in heaven’s name are we doing to our children and their teachers with this endless MCAS nonsense? Is there anywhere a shred of evidence that the MCAS has construct validity — in short, that it measures the knowledge and skills it purports to measure?
What are we teachers, including those, like me, who dare to speak, to do? I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness.
My unpublished letter:
Like many, I am appalled that 10th graders taking the English MCAS Exam this spring were instructed to write a journal entry requiring them to give voice to the views of a racist (“After protests, state tosses out MCAS question on ‘Underground Railroad.’ Metro, April 3.) Also disturbing is the response of the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education to this outrage.
The state’s Education Commissioner, Jeffrey Riley, announced that students taking a make-up exam this week would be told to skip the question, saying “We, on one hand, want kids to be challenged; we want them to take on tough issues. On the other hand, we want kids to feel like they are in a safe space.” I am glad the Commissioner wants kids to feel safe, but the only thing challenging about the question is that it forced children to spout the views of a racist so that they would do well on a test that generally they must pass in order to be eligible for a high school diploma. And the question did not require students to “take on tough issues.” The students were not asked to comment on racism, but to do something perilously close to engaging in it.
I wish that the Commissioner had instead apologized on the Board’s behalf for including on the Exam so foolish and pernicious a question, one that traumatized many children, especially children of color.
The Commissioner and the Board should also discard its gag rule forbidding students and teachers from discussing test questions. There is no reason the questions should be a secret. (Weirdly, the Board has refused to release the offensive question or even the reading, even though the cat is out of the bag.) [N.B. The Board has just relented and released the passage and prompt.] Keeping them so prevents students, teachers, and the public at large from critiquing the Exam. As Justice Brandeis famously wrote, “Sunlight is said to be the best of disinfectants.” It is time to shine a bright light on the MCAS questions in their entirety. We are paying a king’s ransom for the construction and grading of the MCAS. Let us see what we’re getting for our money.
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