Scores on last spring's MCAS tests precipitously declined in Cambridge as district-wide scores felt the impact of the numerous students who boycotted the test, according to results released by the state yesterday.

Tenth graders' scores were down sharply. Two-thirds of the city's sophomores failed the English test and three-quarters failed the math exam. Starting this year, sophomores will have to pass both standardized tests--which are part of the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System--in order to graduate.

The year before, 40 percent of sophomores failed the English test and 61 percent failed the math portion.

About 30 percent of sophomores at Cambridge Rindge and Latin School (CRLS) did not take the MCAS last spring. Statewide, less than 5 percent of tenth-graders did not take the MCAS. The state Department of Education treats students who do not take the test as students who failed the test.

School officials say this adds up to inflated failure rates. They had been expecting a drop in scores, but the decline was even steeper than they had anticipated.

"It was discouraging to see the rates over the last three years show a trend toward higher rates of failure," said Joseph Petner, principal of the Haggerty School.

"The results are disappointing and clearly we need to ask the hard questions of ourselves why that is," he added.

Scores also decreased at the eighth-grade level and showed no improvement at the fourth-grade level.

Principals and administrators met yesterday to discuss the results.

Administrators had been hoping for an increase in reading scores because of intensive efforts at increasing literacy in the early grades. But results showed a slight decrease for fourth-graders on the English test.

Boycotting

Mass. Commissioner of Education David P. Driscoll said many high school students boycotted the English section of the test and others did not take the writing portion seriously. One of the problems, he said, was that last spring's scores did not count for tenth graders' graduation.

"We need to look at next year, when kids try," he said.

Driscoll said he agreed the boycott had "skewed" the tenth grade scores in Cambridge but said how to use the results was up to administrators.

"They need to look at that," he said of Cambridge school officials.

Boycotting "is something that parents have to think about. It is a counterproductive way of protesting MCAS," he added.