High School Diploma vs Certificate of Completion

In the thirteen plus years since MCAS became the necessary evil to receive the vaulted Massachusetts high school diploma, assessment brainwashing has permeated government system workers, parents and children. I am amazed over the semantics. When it comes to high school diploma or Certificate of Completion folks remain immovable from yesteryear. They are fixated over that word "diploma," almost like it's the end all, be all. No diploma equals failure, right? Wrong. You may fail the tests or refuse to take assessments, that does not brand you a flunky.

I get it. We afford the diploma comfort zone status. It's a recognized goal aspired to since kindergarten. Interestingly, most parents of today’s middle and high school students, complete with their own dusty diploma, never took MCAS. They graduated.  

The only difference today between the Massachusetts Certificate of Completion and a high school Diploma is passing the tenth grade MCAS. Applied knowledge is power. The only difference between the two is passing the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System. Today's Certificate of Completion is yesterday's Diploma. A few thought-provoking questions:

• If your child passes MCAS in 10th grade, why don't schools issue the diploma that school year?
• What is/are the necessary educational reason(s) to make students endure two more school years?
• If the student still needs two more years of education after MCAS, how effective can the test be, in the tenth grade, at truly measuring a teenager's readiness for a diploma? 

Private schools do not administer MCAS. Rarely will a home-school child take MCAS. The fact that the majority of colleges and universities throughout the Commonwealth and country accept the Certificate in lieu of Diploma needs to penetrate the membrane. Feel the reverberation. More colleges and universities accept the Certificate of Completion than do not. Don’t believe me! Check for yourself. Call the Admissions department of several colleges/universities outside the U-Mass and state college/university system. Consider this a research assignment for yourself and offspring.

Ask any government school teacher in the system for 15-20 years, they will tell you teaching to the test is a daily grind, an activity that’s much more demanding today than a decade ago. The teacher also will assert that teaching to the tests began in earnest when MCAS rolled out in the 1990's. This “educational reform” philosophy has now steam rolled its way into the lives of school system minions and families.

It is my firm belief that only when parents and students make a conscious effort to research the real powers inherent in the Massachusetts Certificate of Completion, will they finally liberate themselves from the shackles of high stakes testing and exhale an exhilarating sigh of relief!