On Feb. 6, the Wareham School Committee instated the new process for determining if a student has met the state’s academic standards after voters removed the MCAS test as a graduation requirement late last year.

Previously, a student had to pass the tenth-grade English, math and science MCAS tests to meet the state-wide “competency determination” standards and graduate. Now the responsibility of determining if a student has met the state’s standards is in the hands of local school districts.

On Thursday night, the school committee decided that students who pass tenth-grade English, algebra 2 or geometry and biology or chemistry or physics have met the state’s academic standards. A passing grade in Wareham is 65, in many other school districts it is 60.

The new requirements address a specific problem: students in the class of 2025 who took the tenth-grade MCAS test when it was required to graduate and did not pass.

Wareham High School Principal Scott Paladino said very few students in the 2025 class did not pass the tenth-grade MCAS. Despite that, he said the decision was “urgent” because those students need to know what they have to do to get their diplomas this spring.

Palladino, who drafted the new requirements, suggested that the committee revisit them in the fall for the class of 2027. That class will be the first to take the tenth-grade MCAS test without needing it to graduate.

The committee also discussed an alternative approach to addressing the decision to repeal the MCAS as a graduation requirement: reversing the repeal and reinstating the test as a requirement for graduation.

School committees across the state have the option to reverse the referendum, but only one had done so thus far, according to school officials. Wareham’s committee did not vote or make a decision at their meeting, but did share their opinions on the subject, which were mixed.

Along with school committee members, a teacher and a student expressed their views on the committee reversing the MCAS decision.

Ryan Fitzgerald, a Wareham teacher of 20 years, adamantly opposed reinstating MCAS as a graduation requirement.

Fitzgerald questioned the validity and reliability of the test and accused test makers of bias.

“If my child had earned a diploma and completed all the determinations of competency and then a test, that no longer needed to be used, was suddenly reinstated my solution would be very simple,” Fitzgerald said. “I would move or I would have my child school choice into another district to receive the diploma that she had earned.”

Ninth-grader Sofia O'Neil said although she enjoys seeing her test scores, it's not a feeling shared by her peers.

“The stress that I’ve seen a lot of my friends go through is because they’re worried about it affecting them graduating,” O'Neil said. “Making it a graduation requirement wouldn’t be beneficial because of the stress that students go through. I don't think they would perform their best.”

School Committee member Apryl Rossi said the committee should not go against the “will of the people” especially since Wareham voters “overwhelmingly” supported repealing the MCAS requirement.

While member Brenna McKiernan said he hopes that the state will soon create a suitable MCAS replacement to measure students' academic understanding at a state level.

Member Geoffrey Swett said he did not want to alienate voters, educators and employers. However, he highlighted that the test served as a valuable metric for employers to gauge a prospective employee's “teachability.”

“Their aren’t enough knowns yet, we wait and we see,” said School Committee Chair Kevin Brogioli.