Educational Association of Worcester

The state House of Representatives has taken a step to keep MCAS alive this year. We need you to tell the Legislature to reverse it and cancel the test.

Call your state senator and state representative NOW and deliver a simple message: Cancel the MCAS tests for this year, including the use of MCAS as part of the competency determination for the Class of 2020. Go here to get your legislators’ phone numbers to make that call. Leave a message and ask the legislators to call you back.

 Thursday evening, with no advance warning and no debate, the House passed a bill during an informal session that would permit the commissioner of education to require districts to administer a modified version of the test, and MCAS could still be used to deny seniors a diploma.

The federal government has granted states the right to cancel their standardized tests [ Read More ]

Letter from Congressman Jim McGovern [ Read More ]

Colleagues,

Today, the U.S. Department of Education held a call with two other agencies announcing relief offered due to COVID-19. Notes are attached for those who were not able to join the call with officials from the Department of Education (waivers and student loans), the CDC (COVID-19-related information), and the Department of Agriculture (school meals).

The Department of Education announced that it was providing a waiver for the testing requirements in ESSA for this school year due to COVID-19. Additionally, the Department directed all federal student loan servicers to grant at least 60 days of relief to any borrower with a federal student loan who requests one. To request a forbearance, borrowers have to contact their loan servicer online or by phone. The Department also authorized an automatic suspension of payments for any borrower more than 31 days delinquent as of March 13, 2020, or who becomes more than 31 [ Read More ]