AMID THE SURGE of COVID-19 cases, Cambridge Public Schools closed Monday and Tuesday to test 3,500 students. Superintendent Victoria Greer wrote to families Tuesday that 157 of 362 pools tested positive – meaning somewhere between 157 and over 1,000 students had COVID. But the district had not received individual results, so no one knew which […]
Elementary and Secondary Education
Posted inEducation
Most, but not all, schools reopen Monday
A NUMBER OF SCHOOL DISTRICTS didn’t open on Monday because of concerns about COVID, but Gov. Charlie Baker said none of them will be exempted from in-person learning requirements. “The rules here are pretty simple,” he said at a press conference at the Saltonstall School in Salem with Salem Mayor Kim Driscoll. “We count in-person […]
Posted inHealth Care, Politics
MTA attacks Baker on testing
THE MASSACHUSETTS Teachers Association went on the attack against Gov. Charlie Baker on Thursday, calling the state education commissioner incompetent in delivering 200,000 rapid COVID-19 testing kits to schools and urging the governor to be more flexible around virtual learning from home. “We are tired of Band-Aid approaches from Baker and [Education Commissioner Jeff] Riley […]
Posted inOpinion
Affinity groups are a way to retain teachers of color
I FELT A SENSE of community the moment I walked into my school as a new classroom teacher. Our guidance counselor met me at the door, smiling ear to ear. Within an hour, another Black staff member introduced herself to me and welcomed me into the community. “I make sure to go out of my […]
Posted inOpinion
Early childhood education at inflection point
THIS WEEK, the Massachusetts Legislature heard about a number of bills focused on early childhood education and care, including two of my own bills dealing with universal (H550) and full-day kindergarten (HJ549) and one that I’ve cosponsored focused on early education (H605). When I first filed my two bills more than a decade ago, there […]
Posted inEducation
Students didn’t return to public schools this year
UNTIL THIS YEAR, Jennifer Quadrozzi’s daughter had always attended public school. When the pandemic hit, Quadrozzi kept her enrolled in second grade in North Andover and stayed home with her to shepherd the remote learning process. But that experience gave Quadrozzi a direct view into her daughter’s classroom – and she wasn’t happy with what she saw. […]
Posted inOpinion
An eyewitness view of school segregation — in Needham
FOR 60 SECONDS in the early evening, the best view in Greater Boston transportation is aboard an outbound MBTA commuter rail train as it passes Millennium Park in West Roxbury, goes over the Charles River, and into Cutler Park Reservation in Needham. For Needham-bound commuters, it is a peaceful and at times majestic end to […]
Posted inOpinion
Schools need up-to-date data privacy law
NEARLY TWO DECADES ago, when Kate was a teacher in the Atlanta Public Schools, she kept her students’ records in manila folders, stored in a metal file cabinet. Each one contained student work, a diagnostic reading test proctored one-on-one at the start of the school year, and family correspondence and contact information. Kate submitted attendance […]
Posted inThe Download
The kids are not okay
The memes going around the internet in the early days of the pandemic, as schools and daycares shut down, made it clear: the parents are not okay. A year and a half later, as society reopens, it is becoming increasingly clear: The kids are not okay, either. In a shocking and tragic incident this week, […]
Posted inEducation
The kids are not okay
THE MEMES going around the internet in the early days of the pandemic, as schools and daycares shut down, made it clear: the parents are not okay. A year and a half later, as society reopens, it is becoming increasingly clear: The kids are not okay, either. In a shocking and tragic incident this week, […]