Is there a Spin Doctor in the House?

The Massachusetts Teacher's Association (MTA) has been involved in pushing to eliminate the state's MCAS test as a requirement for high school graduation, a question now slated to appear on the November ballot. 

The recent release of a report by the Annenberg Institute at Brown University, “The MCAS as a Graduation Requirement: Findings From a Research-Practice Partnership,”  generated a 'statement' yesterday from MTA that might lead a reader to suppose that the Brown University researchers also oppose MCAS.

For example, the MTA statement begins, "The new report by the Annenberg Institute at Brown University underscores the danger of attaching high stakes to the MCAS exams.

The report suggests that several factors contributed to improvements in outcomes for students in Massachusetts public schools, especially a significant increase in funding and the creation of nation-leading academic standards, the basis for all the teaching and learning in our schools. The MCAS does not deserve the weight that some have attached to it."

The MTA statement continues in a similar vein for a few more paragraphs. 

A reading of the actual Brown U report, however, leads one to a nearly opposite impression. While both MTA and Brown agree that English learners and those with disabilities do not fare well on MCAS, researchers found broad and even surprising benefits, particularly in terms of long-term student outcomes for nearly all other students that passed the MCAS. 

An executive summary of the Annenberg-Brown report can be read here.

The full report is available here.