BOSTON (WHDH) - Teachers’ unions are expressing concern about a question on this year’s MCAS test that they’d like to be thrown out.
Now, state education officials are responding.
The question asked students to write from the perspective of an “openly racist” character in the novel, “The Underground Railroad.”
The State Department of Elementary and Secondary Education now says it will not score responses to that question and will take the question out of exams that have yet to be administered.
City leaders say they’re proud of the way the department responded and hope they can learn from this.
“We agree with their decision and we look forward to an ongoing conversation to ensure that the testing environment is a level for all of our students,” said Interim Superintendent of Boston Public Schools Laura Perille.
Mayor Martin J. Walsh added, “The question is insensitive, and it should have been flagged beforehand, but I’m proud of our kids and the way they responded. Rather than dwell on it, we need to learn from this, move forward, and hopefully, it won’t happen again.”
State Commissioner of Education Jeffrey C. Riley said in a statement, “The department has a thorough process for vetting test questions that includes review by educators, review by a committee that looks at possible biases, and field tests of all questions before they are used toward students’ scores. However, out of an abundance of caution and in the interest of student fairness, we have decided not to use the results from this particular question as part of students’ scores.”
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