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The cast test has

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had fierce opponents
and defenders for years

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and now Massachusetts voters will decide
if the decades long

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graduation requirement of passing
the test will stick around.

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Reporter
Christopher Huffaker dropped by to talk to James

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Pindell about question two.

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Well, Chris,
thank you so much for joining us.

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Now, the requirement for that
you had to pass the cast

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to get to graduate from high
school has been around for decades.

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Why is this on the ballot this year?

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I think the basic answer would be
that after,

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you know, opposing that requirement
for a long time,

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the Massachusetts Teachers Association,
the the big backer of the ballot measure,

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decided that now was the moment for them
to invest the resources,

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get this on the ballot,
and try to convince voters

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that it was the right thing to do.

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There's
no other education measure on the ballot.

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There's a lot of consternation
about the education system

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after COVID,
and they thought it was a good moment.

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In the Massachusetts.

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Massachusetts Teachers Association,

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the largest teachers union in the state
that obviously has been opposing

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in cash for years
and in different legislative sessions.

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Are they

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the only ones who favor scrapping this
or are there others on the team as well?

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Yeah, there are other supporters
of this measure.

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You know, Senator Senator Elizabeth Warren
has come out in favor of this measure.

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There are, you know, other advocacy groups
that say that the impasse

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is, you know, an uneven burden on English
learners, students with disabilities.

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There's, you know,

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700 plus students each year
who are not graduating because of it.

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And there's a lot of concern that folks
have about the degree to which teachers,

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you know, have to teach to the test
and whether that influences

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what else makes it into the curriculum.

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Question two means teachers can address
each individual

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student's
needs instead of teaching to the test.

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It replaces the high stakes in class
graduation requirement,

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which tells us who's good at taking tests,
not who will do well after graduating.

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I certainly see the argument
about those who are in

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were English as a second language
or folks who have disabilities

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as any other argument
as to why this should be scrapped as a

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test case is just whether or not it's
a graduation requirement.

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Right. Right. Exactly.

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I mean, it's a federal requirement
to have a state test.

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What they say is like, look,
there's three students who would graduate

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otherwise score, you know, good in school
and they're just not good test takers.

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And this one thing is blocking them
from getting a high school diploma.

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And obviously,
that has big influences on their life.

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A lot of anxiety.

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One quick follow up here.

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They take the test in 10th grade.

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The students do
and they have a chance to repeat it.

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How many times?

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If they don't, they don't
If they don't pass it, they.

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Have four chances to retain it twice
each of the successive years.

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Got it. So it's not just a one and done
kind of situation.

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Who opposes changing the law?

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Yeah.

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So, you know, like I said, we've got
Senator Elizabeth Warren on one side.

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On the other side, Governor Maura
Healey opposes repealing this.

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There are other you know, the state
legislative leaders oppose it.

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There's a you know, a business
education advocacy group.

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They say, you know,

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having this test ensures that

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there are high standards that are across
all Massachusetts school districts.

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We need to check every year
to make sure that they are on the right.

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Path to succeed.

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The end goal of all of this
is economic mobility,

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to make sure that they are going to have
a bright future.

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The idea of being before
there was the graduation requirement,

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you would have, you know, one district
with radically different

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requirements, higher graduation
rates in another district.

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And if you're an outsider, a college,
an employer,

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you would have no way of knowing
if a diploma

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from this place, a diploma from this place
mean the same thing. Right?

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Because you would know at least the person
who graduate from high school

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had a 10th grade master's because that's
when we do the impasse, Correct?

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Okay.

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So this all comes in the context
that these and test scores,

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particularly for the 10th grade exam,
have been going down in Massachusetts.

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How much?

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Roughly speaking, I'm going
put you on the spot.

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And why? Yeah, so

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they've gone down because of COVID.

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This is a pandemic learning
loss situation.

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And students were, you know, not in
classrooms, really hard to learn online.

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There was a lot of other disruptions
all over the country.

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Test scores came down a lot
on all the state tests, national tests.

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And in Massachusetts,
they have not really come up much.

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There's not been a lot of recovery.

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And that means that the the number
of 10th graders who are not passing

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at the level that they need to to
graduate has gone up a lot.

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A lot more students are going to be
retaking this year, next year

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because they didn't do well enough
last year.

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And just to be clear, does wrap this up,
if the first of votes, yes,

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they're voting to remove the requirement
and they vote no, does that mean.

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If they vote no.

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Nothing changes and they vote yes,
it reviews it, right? Yes.

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Thank you so much, Chris.
Thanks for joining us.

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Thank you for having me.

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