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Superintendent explains MCAS changes, graduation rules and new silent‑911 ID cards for staff
Summary
Superintendent Kelly told the Revere School Committee that MCAS no longer counts as a graduation requirement but remains required as a statewide assessment and retains uses such as scholarship eligibility; the district will send a letter to families with details.
Superintendent Kelly reminded the committee on Jan. 21 that recent state law changes remove MCAS as a graduation requirement but do not eliminate the assessments themselves. "MCAS is not gone. It's just not counted as a graduation requirement," the superintendent said, and she asked the district to send a letter to families explaining the change and how it affects students.
Kelly said districts must still administer state assessments where federal law requires them and that the results remain important for specific purposes: eligibility for the John and Abigail Adams Scholarship and as evidence for the Massachusetts Seal of Biliteracy. She described how Revere’s graduation and competency determinations will rely on course completions such as integrated math sequences, English 9/10 equivalents and a lab science, and said guidance staff will audit transfer transcripts when students arrive from other jurisdictions.
Separately, Dr. Gallucci described a recent safety initiative: a two‑sided card placed behind staff ID badges that lists the district’s internal incident commands on one side and the state’s silent 911 texting protocol on the other. The card reduces the amount of information staff must recall during an emergency and includes simple numeric text options (e.g., press 1 for police, 2 for fire, 3 for ambulance) and a yes/no response code. "This is yet another available tool for someone that's hanging around their neck and that they can reference during an emergency situation," Gallucci said, crediting staff and Lifetouch for producing the cards.
Kelly also noted a joint meeting of the school committee and the school building committee scheduled for the next night to review project paperwork being prepared for the Massachusetts School Building Authority. No formal committee action was taken on the MCAS guidance or the safety cards at the Jan. 21 meeting.
