Education

AP courses are bridge to college

Opinion

AP courses are bridge to college

Classes can also help narrow the achievement gap

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GREAT TEACHERS NOT ONLY LOVE to teach, they love to learn how to be even better teachers. That’s why over 520 teachers from Massachusetts and across the country gathered recently this summer to sharpen their skills at teaching Advanced Placement courses that provide high school students the chance to earn college credit. For the teachers,(...)

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Charter school proposals would add nearly 5,400 seats

charter schools

Charter school proposals would add nearly 5,400 seats

Groups hope to open new charter schools and boost existing enrollment

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STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE FOUR GROUPS ARE LOOKING to open new charter schools in Massachusetts and four existing charter schools are hoping to boost their enrollment. The Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education said Thursday it received proposals for new schools in Lynn, Haverhill, New Bedford and Lawrence. The state’s existing 78 charter schools(...)

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Mass. rating plan deemed unfair to high-poverty schools

Mass. rating plan deemed unfair to high-poverty schools

Report faults state system for not using ‘growth’ as bigger factor

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MASSACHUSETTS GETS A poor grade from a Washington-based policy organization on how its plan to comply with a new federal education law treats schools with high rates of poverty. But a number of education policy thinkers in the state are pushing back against the report and say its message undermines an important pillar of education(...)

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Employers can help with student debt

Opinion

Employers can help with student debt

Tax breaks would incentivize firms to provide aid

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AS THE STUDENT DEBT CRISIS worsens, elected officials are turning to college affordability as their primary policy solution. New York is implementing tuition-free public higher education through its Excelsior Scholarship, and our neighbors to the south are close to making two years of college free through the Rhode Island Promise Scholarship. Right here in Massachusetts,(...)

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Time to update state school funding formula

Opinion

Time to update state school funding formula

The current system is leaving poor districts and high-needs students behind

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FOR SOME POLICYMAKERS and the public, a billion-dollar budget such as the one granted to Boston Public Schools last fiscal year appears robust — even excessive. But teachers like me know that critical resources are in short supply. Every day, we feel the pinch: There aren’t enough support staff in the building, teachers use personal(...)

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Changing of the guard

Summer 2017

Changing of the guard

Jessica Tang says she’ll bring a different style, but no change in values, as the new president of the Boston Teachers Union

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Photograph by Frank Curran What will be different about the Boston Teachers Union under your leadership? One thing that I’ve brought to the union is a focus on organizing and working with students, families, community members and coalition building. But we’ll also continue to do a lot of what I guess you would call the(...)

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Letters to editor, Summer 2017

Opinion/ Summer 2017

Letters to editor, Summer 2017

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PREP SCHOOL CLAIM SPECIOUS While I applaud Michael Jonas’s commitment to presenting all sides of the ongoing debate that surrounds  the operation and performance of Massachusetts’s public vocational- technical high schools, I must respond to some of the opinions shared in the article (“Voc-tech tension,” Spring 2017). The idea that the Commonwealth’s public vocational schools(...)

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Where Mass. ranks on education tests

Opinion

Where Mass. ranks on education tests

At K-12 and college levels, state does well

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IN THE SEASON OF GRADUATIONS, it is worth looking at how Massachusetts and Boston stack up against international competitors in education. According to global university rankings and international school achievement tests, Massachusetts ranks near the top in global education excellence. According to the respected Academic Rankings of World Universities (the Shanghai rankings), when population is(...)

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Remembering Mitchell Chester

Opinion

Remembering Mitchell Chester

A "relentlessly regular guy" with a noble vision of education

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David Coleman, the president and CEO of The College Board, shared this remembrance with friends and colleagues of Mitchell Chester, the Massachusetts state education commissioner who died this week at age 65.  I WORRY AS I think about Mitchell I think too much about myself. Mitchell encouraged me at pivotal moments. I met him first(...)

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