Since the 1996 debut of the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment Test (MCAS), a student test used as a statistical marker of public schools, the test has been at the center of a debate between parents' organizations, teachers' unions and education groups.

The debate has focused on the administration and significance of the MCAS, initiated by Chair of the Massachusetts Board of Education John Silber.

Because grants are linked to schools' test scores, some educators are concerned that teachers will change their curriculum to concentrate on MCAS material.

The MCAS is given to all Massachusetts public school students in grades 4, 8 and 10. Still in the "tryout stage," according to the Massachusetts Department of Education, the test initially contained math, science and technology portions. Last April, the Board of Education added a combined English and language arts portion, including a writing section, and a history and social studies section.

The purpose is to ensure basic educational skills across the state, both for individual students and within every school. State officials analyze the results of the tests to determine the amount of money schools receive through Academic Support Services grants earmarked for improving basic skills and shoring up student performance on future MCAS tests.

While the Board of Education, Commissioner of Education David P. Driscoll and Governor A. Paul Cellucci all support the test, some teachers and principals have voiced concerns over the MCAS, questioning everything from the test's importance to its administration.

Roger O'Sullivan, president of the Cambridge Teachers Association, a local teachers' union, said that while schools should have some form of standardized testing, MCAS results should not be the sole determinant of aid to schools.

He says the fear of losing funding is prompting some schools to design their curriculum around material on the test.

"It should not be the be-all and end-all of the measurement of school performance," O'Sullivan says.

O'Sullivan also says one of the newest and most controversial measures of the test is problematic: the requirement of having to pass the MCAS to graduate, which will first apply to the class of 2003.

"I think there will be an outcry from parents and teachers who disapprove," he says of the requirement.

But Linda Neri, communications manager for the Massachusetts Coalition for Higher Standards, a public-interest group specializing in the issue of the MCAS, points to a piece of information she says many worried parents and teachers may not know: students who do not pass the test in the 10th grade can retake the test in the 11th and 12th grades.

"Students get to take the test again. It's not like they have a bad day [during the testing] and are prevented from graduating high school," she says.

Still, teachers say they worry that the time required to administer the test will detract from time devoted to school curriculum, as well as focusing the curriculum on the MCAS material.

"Many teachers think that the curriculum focuses too much on [the test]," O'Sullivan says. "A lot of questions have to be asked. The test is still changing."