Cambridge students – particularly students in underserved communities – deserve better than to have their success summed up by their scores on one high-stakes standardized test. Standardized tests can be an important measure of learning, but their results too closely reflect parental education and income for Cambridge to rely on them to the exclusion of other measures. We need to develop better, more culturally responsive methods of assessment to supplement the MCAS and provide the context we’ve too often failed to even look for.

Assessment should not be a once-a-year special occasion. It should happen regularly, embedded in the learning process so that educators can adjust to students' needs.

Cambridge should work with the Massachusetts Consortium for Innovative Education Assessment to implement high-quality, rigorous assessments giving students the chance to show what they've learned in multiple, culturally responsive ways. They should emerge with the kind of experience that will equip them for the futures they want — whether that is college, vocational training, apprenticeship, or work.

We also cannot discuss student success without discussing the achievement gap — observed differences in academic performance between groups of students corresponding to socioeconomic status and to race and ethnicity. Research has shown for decades that the achievement gap is both pervasive and linked to income inequality and systemic racism.

Too many in our community blame educators for the achievement gap. I believe this is misguided and unserious. In fact, research shows that “gaps grow relatively little while children are in school, which is not what we’d expect if schools were primarily responsible.” And Cambridge specifically has shown above-average academic growth during the course of a student’s schooling, notwithstanding Cambridge’s significant income inequality.

Instead, if we want to close the achievement gap we need to address the root causes. And although we cannot unilaterally end poverty or systemic racism, we can provide wraparound supports, a culturally responsive and sensitive curriculum and education, and free quality early education and child care. If the achievement gap is large even when children enter public school, we should double down on investing in early education to close the gap.