AFTER DECADES OF being overlooked, the importance of teaching US history and civics in public schools is at last gaining momentum. At the same time, the American Rescue Plan will […]
Tom Birmingham
Posted inEducation
Charter schools leading the way with in-person instruction
THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC has created unprecedented challenges for countless sectors of society, including our schools. The data are clear on the academic and emotional price remote learning exacts on students. […]
Posted inEducation
Voc-tech schools thriving despite pandemic strictures
HANDS-ON EDUCATION plays a critical role at Massachusetts regional vocational-technical high schools, where students alternate weekly between academics and shop classes. Given that reality, you’d think the schools would be particularly […]
Posted inEducation
Mass. schools must recommit to knowledge-based curriculum
LONG BEFORE OTHER states, Massachusetts understood that a democratic republic can’t endure without a good public education system. Its constitution, written by John Adams in 1780, requires that it “cherish” education. […]
Posted inEducation
Don’t mess with success of voc-tech high schools
OUR ECONOMY IS changing faster than ever before, and no part of the Commonwealth’s system of public education has done a better job of keeping up with those changes than […]
Posted inEducation
Career and technical high schools are jewels of ed system
A RECENT VISIT to Greater New Bedford Regional Vocational Technical High School demonstrated why career and technical high schools are rightly considered a Massachusetts success story. But it also serves […]
Posted inOpinion
Charter school debate is not over
TWO YEARS AFTER an ill-conceived ballot campaign in which Massachusetts voters rejected raising the cap on charter public schools, the political impulse is to assume this debate is settled. But […]
Posted inEducation
Falling short on school standards and funding
AS MASSACHUSETTS MARKS the 25th anniversary of a landmark Education Reform Act that propelled us to the head of the national class in public education, the Commonwealth’s latest results from […]
Posted inOpinion
Time to lift up Boston’s voc-tech high school
“SUCCESS IS TO BE measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life,” said Booker T. Washington, the famous turn-of-the-20th-century black educator, “as by the obstacles… overcome.” […]
Posted inOpinion
Our schools ignore US history at our peril
ABOUT 25 YEARS AGO, as a member of the Massachusetts Senate, I co-authored the Massachusetts Education Reform Act. Drafting a complex bill with such far-reaching consequences requires significant compromise, but one […]
Posted inEducation, Opinion
Will district schools embrace charter-like reforms?
LONG BEFORE MORE than $40 million was spent last year making the cases for and against charter public school expansion, I was skeptical about using a statewide ballot initiative to […]
Posted inEducation, Opinion
Voc-tech schools are a Mass. success story
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 […]
Posted inEducation, Opinion
A school-choice double standard
THE NATIONAL ASSOCIATION for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is right to have long supported the Metropolitan Council for Economic Opportunity (METCO), through which more than 3,300 Boston and […]
Posted inEducation
About-face
The Death and Life of The Great American School System: How Testing and Choice Are Undermining Education By Diane RavitchNew York, Basic Books, 283 pages diane ravitch is the preeminent […]
Posted inOpinion
A diploma means nothing without evidence of skills and learning
Read Counterpoints by: Tom Birmingham Nick Donohue Education reform in Massachusetts was a grand bargain: a massive infusion of state dollars into our public schools in return for high academic […]