Groups call for invalidated MCAS exams after question was removed

A question was removed from an MCAS exam after teachers' unions and advocacy groups demanded that state education officials invalidate the test.

Students raised concerns last week about a section of the 10th-grade English Language Arts exam, containing a question asking students to write from the perspective of an "openly racist" character in the novel, "The Underground Railroad."

The controversy comes from the question about the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel "The Underground Railroad," written by Colson Whitehead in 2016.

The book chronicles the lives of two slaves fleeing an alternate-history Georgia plantation in the 19th century, and groups said the exam asked students "write a journal entry from the perspective of the character Ethel, who is openly racist and betrays slaves trying to escape."

The state's Department of Elementary and Secondary Education told schools that the question would not be scored, and said it should not be included on any exams that haven't been administered yet.

Some groups, however, said the response wasn't sufficient, and asked for the entire exam to be nullified.

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The MTA, the Boston Teachers Union, the American Federation of Teachers Massachusetts, the Massachusetts Education Justice Alliance and the New England Area Conference of the NAACP joined in a press release urging the state to pull the exam.

In a release, Juan Cofield, president of the NAACP's New England Area Conference, said the state needs to improve its oversight process.

"This issue brings into question the matter of who is reviewing and approving the test before it is administered," Cofield said. "The lack of cultural sensitivity and adequate supervision is a serious matter for all communities and certainly for communities of color."

Cox Media Group