The Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System (MCAS) test has done some positive things for our schools. It has put the spotlight on districts that are struggling and in need of additional help and resources from the state. And students who otherwise would simply be passed along from grade to grade are challenged to succeed in school.

Yet those advances are likely to mean little to the tens of thousands of kids who have dropped out of school in the years since the test became a make or break graduation requirement. Do the creators of MCAS have anything to say to these children? Probably not. They have already demonstrated they care little about the students left behind by MCAS.

In the years since MCAS became paramount to Massachusetts teen’s futures, we have seen a narrowing of curriculum in schools, more children dropping out and little improvement in other, standardized test scores. Students are not entering the workforce or college with any more preparation than they did before the test.

There are students, here in Somerville, who have failed the test by 1 or 2 points and once denied graduation, given up and dropped out. Sure we can blame them. That would be easiest. But after six years of the MCAS as a graduation requirement shouldn’t we try to fix the system?

The MCAS reform movement led by State Rep. Carl M. Sciortino is not intended to abolish the test. It is meant to reduce the overwhelming emphasis on standardized testing that currently infects our schools. Instead of scrutinizing test scores, schools must take on the responsibility of educating the whole child and consider test performance as only one factor in a field of many.

The governor or the legislature must take a serious look at how this high-stakes test is affecting the future of children in communities such as Somerville. They owe them at least that much.