Welcome to the MCAS Mentor Community of over 300 schools and districts statewide. We are growing to meet your needs. We started as a small group of teachers working together to devise a curriculum for after school programs.

       In 1999 several Massachusetts teachers got together to brainstorm ideas for the upcoming school year. They all had the same feeling that the pressure to improve MCAS scores in their respective districts was very high. They asked each other to share the resources they were using in their schools to help the students without “teaching to the test”.

       There was universal agreement that standards based materials were very hard to find. Some books had been published by national companies, but there was nothing available that represented the real needs of the Massachusetts educator. Books already published were fill in the blanks, they had no “heart”. We wanted our students to have more open response questions in context with each standard.

           MCAS Mentor was born to fill the gap in providing standards based materials and E-Books. We all agreed that current after school and summer programs were inadequate. Teachers needed a curriculum to follow. MCAS Mentor course materials lead students through the standards with engaging material and Internet resources to add motivation and a change of pace.

          Our first experiences with our courses taught us many things. We have revised all materials as a result of limited testing during school and after school program classes. Readings have been revised and more hands on learning experiences have been added. Other subject standards are incorporated as tie-ins.