New Bedford Says No Non-MCAS Diplomas

A month ago, the New Bedford School Committee made news by announcing it would award diplomas to New Bedford High School students who had met all of the district's graduation requirements except for passing the MCAS test. State education officials and our absentee governor reacted with outrage and threatened to withhold the more than $100 million in state aid that New Bedford receives annually for its schools. Understandably, the folks in New Bedford relented and something like 60 students who would otherwise be graduating will only receive certificates of attendance. The state finds it easy to hold individual students - undoubtedly ones who don't have a lot of effective advocates fighting for them - to the letter of the law on MCAS requirements, but all we ever hear about holding schools and entire districts accountable is a lot of bluster and empty threats. Has the state ever taken over a school? If it has, what's been the result? If the answer to the first question is yes, I suspect the answer to the second quetion is "The same result" because there's no magic formula and the sooner everyone jettisons the political rhetoric and seriously addresses the root causes of poor academic performance, the faster we'll see real improvement.