Ward, a parent of three students in the Cambridge public schools, is like many parents who oppose MCAS. His objections to MCAS, he says, are specifically about this exam--not the idea of having state-wide tests.

Starting next year, passing the tenth grade MCAS will be a state requirement to receive a high school diploma. That means current ninth graders will have to pass the test next spring or retake it their junior and senior years until they pass.

Ward says schools, students and the test itself are not ready for this "high stakes" exam.

"[MCAS] is still in phases of development, and they still plan on using it as a measure of graduation," he says of the state Board of Education.

Like many others, Ward says making MCAS a graduation requirement punishes students for failures of the Commonwealth's education system.

"Whenever you talk about reform, change, accountability or standards, you typically start off at the top," he says. "You don't start with the kids."

Hannah N. Jukovsky, a sophomore at Cambridge Rindge and Latin School who boycotted the April sitting of the exam, agrees the exam's efforts at ensuring accountability are misguided.

She says the test tries to do too much and has contradictory goals: to ensure minimal competency in academic subjects and raise standards at the same time.