Education Reform Act

Time to rethink education assessments and standards

Education/ Opinion

Time to rethink education assessments and standards

21st century thinking requires different approach to curriculum, testing

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The secret of change is to focus all of your energy, not on fighting the old, but on building the new. – Socrates  THIS PAST SUMMER saw the failure on the part of the Legislature to arrive at a compromise piece of legislation designed to begin the process of remedying the flaws to educational funding formula(...)

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Voc-tech schools are a Mass. success story

Education/ Opinion

Voc-tech schools are a Mass. success story

4,400 students are on waitlists; let's expand schools that work

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MASSACHUSETTS VOCATIONAL-TECHNICAL high schools are like the person who toils for years, only to be termed an “overnight sensation” when he or she finally achieves recognition. For over a decade the schools have quietly compiled an impressive record, and the time has come to expand them. Voc-tech schools were once among the staunchest opponents of MCAS(...)

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The missing piece of education reform

Education/ Opinion/ Fall 2016

The missing piece of education reform

Leadership by superintendents and principals is key

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TWENTY-FIVE YEARS ago a broad coalition of legislators, business people, education experts, and state officials put together and passed a wide-reaching education reform law. That law reflects a set of shared beliefs—basically, that a combination of increased funding, state testing tied to graduation requirements, new state curriculum frameworks, charter schools, and increased authority for superintendents(...)

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End the charter school wars

Education/ Opinion

End the charter school wars

A new path forward can be good for charter and district schools

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IT SEEMS TO have become an annual ritual now, like taxes, the flu, or hurricane season. The charter schools war flares up to a point of intensity, sucking up all the oxygen in the education realm and consuming tons of good will and sometimes millions of dollars in the fierce clash of two orthodox cultures,(...)

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