“This fight needs to be at the State House and if you go over there I’ll go with you,” he said.

But Price insisted on the need to take a stand at the local level.

“Most of the people here who are lobbying remember segregation and when segregation was the law. They came here first hoping that we would take a stand for them,” he said.

In order to dispel fears, Sullivan introduced an amendment that would nullify any parts of the resolution found to be illegal by the state.

Committee members defeated the amendment because they said they felt it took away the strength of the resolution.

“I believe it actually deletes the meaning,” Committee member Alice L. Turkel said.

Committee member Nancy Walser defended the resolution without the amendment, citing a similar resolution passed in October by the Hampshire Regional School Committee that she said drew only an angry letter from the state.

Turkel and Walser also said they thought the benefit for students outweighed any risk.

“When you have a big wide chasm and you take a baby step, you fall in,” Turkel said. “I would prefer that the DOE came in and fired the School Committee and our superintendant and shut down our schools.”

Opponents of the resolution said the schools need to work on improving education instead of minimizing the importance of the MCAS.

“[The issue] is not the test. It’s why children are failing in the school system,” Grassi said.

When the resolution passed, dozens of parents and teachers cheered.

“It’s huge,” Scharf said. “I’m hoping this is heard and felt in Arlington.”

—Staff writer Claire A. Pasternack can be reached at cpastern@fas.harvard.edu.