When voters head to the polls in Massachusetts, they face a contentious ballot referendum on whether or not to eliminate a requirement that high school students pass a statewide test in order to get a diploma.

Without the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System (MCAS) exit exam, school districts would determine graduation readiness.

The language of Question 2 says students will need to complete coursework, certified by the their district and demonstrate a “mastery of competencies” of the state’s academic standards.

Currently, the competency determination that applies to graduation is the passing of the MCAS.

“If that is no longer the case, now the [state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education] needs to sort of correct the record, so to speak, on that regulation,” Massachusetts Secretary of Education Patrick Tutwiler said last week.

Tutwiler said that means the board would need to define for districts what mastery of English, math and science actually means.

“We’ll need to get more granular so that there’s a clear understanding for districts around, how they will communicate to the state that students have mastered the subject matter,” he said.

Tutwiler, along with Gov. Maura Healy, is opposed to removing the MCAS graduation requirement.

“Frankly, the work that we [would] need to take up [is] — how can [the state] be confident that a student who is attending school in one community has been held to the same standard as a student in another community?” Tutwiler said.

Tutwiler has said repeatedly over the past few weeks that he knows the current test is not perfect. It has evolved over the years, and there is more room for improvement, he said.

Concerns about ballot questions making education policy

In 2002, a question related to teaching and learning landed on the state ballot. It passed and eliminated Massachusetts’ transitional bilingual education program in public schools.

“I was a teacher at the time, and this was the Unz initiative,” Tutwiler said. “It hurt a lot of multilingual learners in Massachusetts.”

In 2017, the state passed legislation that reversed the law. Supporters of the bill, signed by then-Gov. Charlie Baker, said the 2002 ballot law had not helped close the achievement gap between native English speakers and their peers who are still learning the language.

“I just don’t want to see us experience the same kind of misfortune. I think change [of the MCAS] can happen,” Tutwiler said.

There is a way to do that, with an effective, thoughtful, process, he said, insisting the ballot question is not that way.

‘The Legislature and governors have failed to act’

Massachusetts Teachers Association President Max Page, whose organization is largely driving Question 2, disagrees with Tutwiler.

“We — being the MTA, the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), the Boston Teachers Union, Citizens for Public Schools, a whole host of education advocates — have gone to the Legislature for at least the past 10 years seeking change to the high school graduation requirement,” Page said in an interview.

At some point, Page said, why not go to the people?

“We [have] filed legislation, gathered co-sponsorships, testified at hearings over and over, and the Legislature and governors have failed to act,” Page said.

The state’s high standards cover every academic area and every grade, Page said, making the argument that those standards anchor teachers in the classroom.

“It shapes the curriculum. It shapes [student] report cards. It shapes teacher licensure exams. It shapes what is taught in our teacher preparation programs,” Page said.

The ballot question, if passed, would remove the MCAS connection to graduation, but the test itself would continue to be administered. The data will still be available as a diagnostic tool for districts and the state.

Disclosure: Some NEPM employees are members of the Massachusetts Teachers Association. Our newsroom operates independently.