Students at Walpole High School are preparing for MCAS testing starting on May 15.  But, towns all over Massachusetts must  sacrifice their time along with their money for these tests.  The state of Massachusetts must also spend millions of dollars in the preparing and the scoring of the tests.  So, are the benefits of MCAS worth the cost?

Most States have similar test to MCAS that assures that students are all learning the same material.  They can help the state find out which schools or towns need to be teaching their students better.  In Massachusetts the students grades three to eight and grade ten take the MCAS.  Students in grade ten must pass the test to graduate but for the rest of the grades the test is only a way to make sure all students in Massachusetts are on the same level.  It may seem like a good idea but the problem is the cost.  In 2003, it cost the state of Massachusetts 19 million dollars to have the test.  The state must first pay to create and print the tests.  Then, is has to pay the postage to distribute them.  After students have taken the test they have to pay to have them corrected and have the scores distributed.  Every state must go through a process like this, so that means every state is paying millions of dollars a year to administer tests.

The towns in Massachusetts are also forced to contribute their time and money for MCAS tests too.  The teachers must attend classes to learn the best way to teach the material on MCAS.  The town must buy new textbooks to keep up with the ever changing material.  Schools have to have special programs for students that are at risk of failing the test.  On the day of testing the town will have to pay for the staff to administer the test and for substitutes to cover the classes with students not taking the test.  And lastly they must pay for extra pencils and the postage to send the tests to be corrected.  All these costs start adding up and soon each town is paying hundreds of thousands of dollars on MCAS testing.  In 2003, most towns spent between 6,000 and 7,000 dollars per student on MCAS testing.  Most towns could find plenty of better things to spend that money on.

Do the MCAS tests benefit students in a town like Walpole which has consistently done well on MCAS?  The students of Walpole are already learning the information on the tests because of Walpole’s good teaching staff.  The town of Walpole could find many other ways to spend their money than on MCAS like sports, clubs, or more classes.  All states, including Massachusetts, could find something much better to spend their money on as well.  Some people believe that some form of test is still needed though, so a nationally administered test would be a better options than tests in separate states.  This would reduce the cost and time because only one test would have to be made.  This would also help to get all states at the same level and learning the same things.  The cost of MCAS testing does not outweigh its benefits.