“The results show slight improvement in English language arts scores among students in grades 3 through 8 and no change in math scores for that cohort. Results for 10th graders, the first class to take the standardized test knowing that voters had already scrapped it as a high school graduation requirement, were down across the board.”
COVID-19
Posted inCriminal Justice
Grubhub pays $3.5m to settle restaurant overcharging claims
n addition to the $3.5 million that Grubhub will pay to impacted restaurants, the company will also pay a $125,000 penalty to the Commonwealth.
Posted inHealth, State Government, State House News Service
State Police union claims victory over ‘tyranny’
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE THE PRESIDENT of the State Police union took a victory lap on Monday after an arbitrator ruled in favor of seven troopers who had remained on […]
Posted inOpinion
ARPA is giving local officials the tools they need
LIKE MANY MAYORS, I am often faced with the choice of investing taxpayer dollars to address immediate needs or to make investments whose benefits will be realized only in the long […]
Posted inHealth, State Government, State House News Service
Healey walking back vaccine mandate for state workers
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE SOME OF THE LAST vestiges of the COVID-19 emergency declaration will end in May when Gov. Maura Healey will lift the modified public health emergency and […]
Posted inTransportation
State toll revenue getting back to pre-COVID levels
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE THE STATE HIGHWAY system is bringing in nearly as much money from tolls as it did before the COVID-19 pandemic hit three years ago. The Department […]
Posted inOpinion
Public health is at a crossroads
This article was originally published in Harvard Public Health. NOW ENTERING the fourth year of a historic pandemic, the US public health system is at a crossroads. COVID-19 has exposed […]
Posted inThe Download
Low birth rates, slow immigration harms state workforce
Almost every industry, from hospitals to restaurants, is struggling to hire in Massachusetts. And while some of this may be due to COVID-related factors that will eventually diminish, a new […]
Posted inEconomy
Low birth rates, slow immigration harms state workforce
ALMOST EVERY INDUSTRY, from hospitals to restaurants, is struggling to hire in Massachusetts. And while some of this may be due to COVID-related factors that will eventually diminish, a new […]
Posted inThe Download
Epidemiologist lays out her COVID-19 ‘campaign of honesty’
When the coronavirus vaccines first emerged, they were shown to have 94 to 95 percent efficacy in preventing symptomatic COVID-19. It was a situation where the message from public health […]
Posted inHealth, Health Care
Epidemiologist lays out her COVID-19 ‘campaign of honesty’
WHEN THE CORONAVIRUS vaccines first emerged, they were shown to have 94 to 95 percent efficacy in preventing symptomatic COVID-19. It was a situation where the message from public health […]
Posted inOpinion
Time to come clean about COVID-19
RATES OF COVID-19 vaccination in this country are too low. Less than half of those over 65 have received a second booster and, among children under 5, the rate of […]
Posted inHealth, Opinion
An epidemiologist’s advice for living with COVID
IT SEEMS LIKE a pretty simple question: Have we reached the point where COVID-19 has become less lethal than the flu? But if you ask a group of public health/infectious […]
Posted inHealth
State drops quarantine for close COVID contacts in schools, childcare
IN A SIGN of the continually evolving nature of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Department of Public Health on Wednesday quietly updated its guidelines for educational settings to no longer require […]
Posted inUncategorized
Cocktails-to-go, outdoor dining will continue another year
RESTAURANTS WILL be allowed to sell cocktails-to-go for another year, under a bill Gov. Charlie Baker signed Friday. The Legislature and Baker agreed to extend the popular pandemic-era policy to […]
Posted inOpinion
Mass. employers shouldn’t get stuck with the UI bill
IN THE CONFUSION surrounding the initial weeks and months of the pandemic, when businesses were ordered to close their doors and workers were losing their jobs by the thousands, the […]
Posted inOpinion
COVID therapies important step on pathway out of pandemic
MASSACHUSETTS IS THANKFULLY seeing sustained decreases in COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations, and deaths. In the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, there was limited testing capability, no specific therapies, and no […]
Posted inState House News Service, Uncategorized
State House dropping mask, vaccine requirements
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE WITH THE COVID-19 pandemic’s two-year anniversary approaching, legislative leaders lifted the mask mandate and proof-of-vaccination-or-negative-test requirement for entry into the State House, starting on Monday. House […]
Posted inState House News Service, Uncategorized
Masks no longer mandated on school buses
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE A DAY AFTER K-12 students returned to classrooms with a statewide mask mandate no longer in place, the Baker administration announced that children no longer need […]
Posted inThe Download
Local-option COVID approach slammed
Carlene Pavlos, executive director of the Massachusetts Public Health Association, says the Baker administration’s policy of leaving many of the major COVID decisions to local boards of health helps explain […]
Posted inUncategorized
Local-option COVID approach slammed
CARLENE PAVLOS, executive director of the Massachusetts Public Health Association, says the Baker administration’s policy of leaving many of the major COVID decisions to local boards of health helps explain […]
Posted inOpinion
Why lifting mask mandates is so divisive
ON FRIDAY, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention updated its mask guidance for the first time since July—including for schools, where the debate on whether to mandate them […]
Posted inOpinion
Ending mask mandate won’t bring us back to normal
“I FEEL LIKE my throat is closing,” said a 9-year-old boy, between raspy breaths and a barking cough. He was admitted to the hospital with COVID croup, a condition where […]
Posted inUncategorized
Getting social mobility done during a pandemic
THIS ISN’T ANOTHER COVID think piece written by a college president. This is a story about upward mobility in the face of the most significant public health crisis of our […]