Massachusetts Question 2: MCAS Repeal and Graduation Requirements

Massachusetts Question 2, approved by voters on November 5, 2024, eliminated the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System (MCAS) as a high school graduation requirement. The measure passed with about 59 percent in favor and 41 percent opposed, ending a requirement that had been in place since the class of 2003.¹ The class of 2025 became the first group of Massachusetts students no longer required to pass the 10th-grade MCAS to earn a diploma.²

What the Law Actually Changed

Question 2 amended Section 1D of Chapter 69 of the Massachusetts General Laws. It struck the language tying graduation to performance on the MCAS “assessment instruments” and replaced it with a requirement that school districts certify students have mastered state academic standards through satisfactory completion of coursework.³

The MCAS itself did not go away. Federal law under the Every Student Succeeds Act still requires annual standardized testing, so students in Massachusetts continue to sit for the exam.⁴ The state uses the results as a diagnostic and school-accountability tool, and MCAS scores still determine eligibility for the John and Abigail Adams Scholarship and other academic distinctions.⁵ What ended is the diploma consequence. A student can score poorly on the MCAS and still graduate, provided their district certifies they have met the coursework-based standard.

Before the change, students who met every local graduation requirement but never passed the MCAS received a Certificate of Attainment rather than a diploma. That affected roughly 700 students a year, and in 2019, 1,237 students, about 1.8 percent of those who completed local requirements, failed to pass all three MCAS sections or win an appeal.⁶⁷ About 85 percent of the students who never passed were English language learners or students with disabilities.⁸

What Students Now Need to Graduate

The new law took effect December 5, 2024. Students who had already earned a Competency Determination under the MCAS-based system kept it. Students who had not, including seniors in the class of 2025 still working toward a diploma, moved to the new standard: coursework certified by the district as meeting state academic standards.⁵

In May 2025, the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education amended the Competency Determination regulations at 603 CMR 30.00 to spell out what that coursework must include. For the class of 2026, students must complete:

Two years of high school English Language Arts
One year of Algebra I and one year of Geometry, or Integrated Math I and II
One year of a lab science

Beginning with the class of 2027, one year of U.S. history is added to that list.⁹¹⁰

Each district must also adopt and publicly post its own local Competency Determination policy, approved by its governing board and submitted to the state by December 31, 2025.⁹ Local graduation requirements set by individual districts still apply on top of the state coursework minimums.

The state also directed districts to create a path for former students who never earned a Competency Determination under the old system, including those no longer enrolled, to earn one now through the coursework-based method.⁵ A student who was denied a diploma in a previous year solely because of the MCAS can go back to their district to pursue one.

Who Backed Repeal and Who Opposed It

The campaign to repeal the requirement was organized and funded almost entirely by the Massachusetts Teachers Association, the state’s largest educators’ union, which provided roughly $13.7 million in combined cash and in-kind support to the Committee for High Standards Not High Stakes.¹¹¹² MTA President Max Page argued that high-stakes testing narrowed the curriculum and worked as an unfair barrier for the students least equipped to overcome it.

The opposition coalition, Protect Our Kids’ Futures: Vote No on 2, raised about $5.3 million.¹³¹⁴ Opponents argued that the MCAS was the only objective, statewide measure of student readiness, and that leaving the standard to more than 300 districts could reopen the door to academic tracking that marginalized students of color, low-income students, and English learners.¹⁵ The single largest contribution on the no side was $2.5 million from former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg.¹⁶

The final tally was 2,004,529 yes to 1,388,297 no, out of roughly 3.4 million votes cast on the question.¹

What Comes Next: The Statewide Graduation Framework

The coursework rule is a transitional answer. The Healey administration convened a K-12 Statewide Graduation Council to design a longer-term replacement, and the council released its final report, “Reimagining High School, Reimagining Readiness,” on June 17, 2026. The proposed framework has four pieces:¹⁷¹⁸

Completion of the MassCore curriculum, covering English, math, lab science, history, world languages, arts, and electives
State-administered end-of-course assessments that would not be high-stakes barriers to graduation
A capstone project or portfolio assessed locally using a state-developed rubric
A postsecondary plan, financial literacy milestones, and completion of the state or federal financial aid application

MassCore would start with ninth graders entering in fall 2027, end-of-course assessments and other pieces would phase in the following year, and full implementation is projected for the 2031–32 school year. Some parts of the framework require new state legislation to take effect.¹⁹

The Fight Over End-of-Course Exams

The proposal for state-administered end-of-course exams, even non-high-stakes ones, immediately drew opposition from the MTA. On the day the report was released, MTA President Max Page and Vice President Deb McCarthy called the proposed exams a “reincarnated, high-stakes standardized test” and said mandating any new state-standardized exams “defies the will of voters” who passed Question 2. The union, working with the Massachusetts Association of School Committees and the National Center for Fair and Open Testing, submitted an alternative proposal relying on locally designed assessments such as portfolios and capstone projects, with no state-administered exam.²⁰

Supporters of the framework, including EdTrust Massachusetts, said some form of uniform statewide standard is needed to prevent widening disparities across the state’s 300-plus districts. State Representative Andy Vargas voiced support for the framework’s civics and financial aid provisions.¹⁷ Whether the end-of-course exam piece survives the legislative and regulatory process is still unresolved. Until any new framework is enacted, the coursework-based Competency Determination set out in 603 CMR 30.00 is what students in Massachusetts must meet to graduate.

1
The New York Times. Results: Massachusetts Question 2, Remove MCAS Tests as High School Graduation Requirement
2
WBUR. Massachusetts Ballot Question 2 Approved, MCAS Test Measure Result
3
Secretary of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Question 2 Full Text
4
Rennie Center for Education Research and Policy. MCAS Ballot Initiative: Foundation for a Conversation
5
Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. Student Competency Determination Update
6
Rennie Center for Education Research and Policy. MCAS Ballot Initiative Part 2: A Closer Look at the Graduation Requirement
7
Harvard Graduate School of Education. What Impact Have High School Exit Exams Had in Massachusetts
8
Harvard Graduate School of Education. Askwith Education Forum Weighs High-Stakes Test Graduation
9
Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. 603 CMR 30.00: Standards for Competency Determination and Local Graduation Requirements
10
Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. Graduation Requirements
11
Commonwealth Beacon. Nearly $10M From Unions, Businesses Floods Into Ballot Questions
12
Daily Hampshire Gazette. Breaking Down the Finances Behind Question 2
13
Massachusetts Office of Campaign and Political Finance. Ballot Question Reports
14
WBUR. Massachusetts Election High School Exam MCAS Ballot Question 2 Explainer
15
Massachusetts Association of School Superintendents. Question 2
16
WBUR. Bloomberg Massachusetts Election MCAS
17
WBUR. Mass High School Graduation Requirements Testing MCAS
18
Massachusetts Executive Office of Education. Statewide High School Graduation Framework
19
Boston Herald. Massachusetts Releases Final Graduation Requirement Recommendations After MCAS Overturn
20
Massachusetts Teachers Association. MTA Statement on Proposed Graduation Requirements