WEST SPRINGFIELD, Mass (WWLP) - One of the five ballot questions in the 2024 election for Massachusetts voters was a law that would eliminate the requirement that a student pass the MCAS, or other statewide standardized tests, in order to receive a high school diploma.

"There are other requirements, like attendance and other things that are happening within the schools already and that happened before MCAS became a graduation requirement," said West Springfield Mayor Will Reichelt.

This law will impact school districts differently all across the state.

"Essentially means if you don't pass the MCAS, which is very minor in West Springfield, we maybe had one student last year that after an appeal couldn't get an actual diploma. It would just mean that that wouldn't be considered when we give a diploma in June" said Mayor Reichelt.

One of the concerns for eliminating MCAS as a high school graduation requirement is students won't take the test as seriously as even though it won't be a requirement, they will still have to take it in 10th grade.

"In addition to MCAS, we have a lot of other data-based administration that we do within the schools too. In the math curriculum and the reading curriculum, we get feedback throughout the year on how students are doing, and they take that seriously so I think they're still going to take the test seriously and still get some good data on how our district is doing in comparison to other districts," said Mayor Reichelt.

Some states already don't require high-stakes standardized tests to graduate including New York where students have an option to submit a portfolio of their work instead of the test.

Each school district is unique for its graduation requirements and for districts across the state who may not have as high of a rate of students who receive their diploma as West Springfield, they may have to impose new academic standards for graduation.