Higher graduation rates are something to celebrate, so long as they’re actually backed by an increase in academic achievement, but Boston’s standardized test scores tell a different story.
Mayor Michelle Wu (D) says her city’s graduation rate at public high schools — 81.3 percent last year, the highest in district history — came without “lowering any expectations” or “moving the goalposts.”
Then why did 73 percent of the class of 2019 graduate, with an average SAT score of 1016, while the class of 2025 had an average score of 1004?
In what has become a pattern across America, graduation rates have increased while standardized test scores dropped sharply and have yet to recover. The evidence suggests kids are not actually better prepared.
Consider how much Boston’s Class of 2025 struggled to meet expectations on the MCAS, the state’s standardized test, when they were in 10th grade. Less than half of students met or exceeded expectations in English and fewer than 40 percent did in math. On both subjects, Boston students fared well below the state average.
Boston’s struggles are a reminder that more government spending does not automatically lead to better outcomes. The district spent more than $33,000 per pupil in 2024.
Rather than deal with these underlying problems of spending too much money for bad outcomes, Massachusetts decided to go after the test itself. The Class of 2025 was the first not required to pass the MCAS to graduate. That’s because of a 2024 ballot initiative backed by politicians like Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D) and the Massachusetts Teachers Association.
Wu’s celebration of higher graduation rates doesn’t just ignore test scores. It masks growing problems for vulnerable students, according to a City Journal piece by the Manhattan Institute’s Neetu Arnold.
Since 2019, the graduation rate for Black students has gone up nine points, even though their SAT scores remainedabout the same. Younger Black students are struggling in Boston, with only 16 percent of eighth graders meeting or exceeding expectations on the MCAS math section, compared to 21 percent in 2019.
Progressive activists spin policies that lower standards as advancing what they call “equity.” That is the soft bigotry of low expectations in action. There’s nothing equitable about social promotion or ignoring the yardsticks that measure success.
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