Danielle Pellegrine race downfield in a game of “ultimate ball.” Chasing her, on right, is fellow Millis Middle School student Alex Golash. MUSIC FROM A homemade CD blares from […]
Elementary and Secondary Education
Posted inEducation
Back to schools
This special issue of CommonWealth catalogues all of the unfinished business of the state’s 15-year-old education reform effort: the achievement gap between rich and poor, the high number of failing […]
Posted inEducation
Reports from the front line
<!– Illustration by Jon Cannell –>Jesse Gerson-Neider, Somerville Jalene Tamerat, Boston Anna Gelinas, LongmeadowCharter schools show what we can accomplishBy Jessie Gerson-Nieder I am a seventh-grade English and social studies […]
Posted inEducation
Natural curiosity
Imagine a baseball team run on the same organizational model as a typical school. Players would join not because they love the game, but because reformers in the 19th century […]
Posted inEducation, Politics, State House News Service
A question of equity
Nine black students, protected by the 101st AirborneDivision of the US Army, began classes at the all-whiteLittle Rock Central High School in 1957.Photo by UPI/LANDOV.as new england prepared to cheer […]
Posted inEducation, Opinion, Politics
Ed reform’ missing piece
when massachusetts passed its education reform law in 1993, everyone expected that the combination of greatly increased funding and high-stakes testing would produce dramatic gains in student achievement. Since then, […]
Posted inEducation, Politics
The 0.1 solution
in the summer of 1995, the entire Boston public school system seemed possessed by anger and incompetence. Every day brought new reports of financial scandals, mismanagement, racial tensions, sour labor […]
Posted inEducation
Ed reform must move beyond MCAS
the education reform Act of 1993 established curriculum frameworks for our public schools and mandated a way “to measure outcomes and results regarding student performance, and to improve the effectiveness […]
Posted inEducation, State House News Service
Falling membership doesn’t affect PTA’s political clout
INTRO TEXT gov. deval patrick’s selection of Ruth Kaplan, a Brookline School Committee member and longtime MCAS critic, as his first pick for a seat on the Massachusetts Board of […]
Posted inEducation
MCAS is a national model for accountability
the anti-mcas activists may not want to hear this, but the MCAS graduation requirement is here to stay. The data does not lie: Our children are learning more, achieving more, […]
Posted inEducation, Politics
Review session
edward kennedy has been getting an earful of late. And since the subject of the senator’s listening sessions is the 2001 No Child Left Behind Act, which he played a […]
Posted inEducation
In tight times, universal preschool gets held back
INTRO TEXT while massachusetts has invested heavily in public K-12 education in recent years, grand plans to extend that reach to the preschool years are bumping up against harsh fiscal […]
Posted inEducation, Politics
MIDDLE SCHOOLERS ARE CAUGHT IN A CHASM
Thank you for shining a much-needed light on the middle school crisis in your article “The New Math” (CW, Winter 2007). To the extent that children are falling through the […]
Posted inEducation
The new math
EDITOR’S NOTE: After CommonWealth went to press, it was reported that Manuel Rivera would not be taking the job of superintendent of Boston’s public schools. Manuel Rivera, who arrives in […]
Posted inEducation
Another day of reckoning approaches for Renaissance
Renaissance is the largest charter school in the state. Has its size protected it from scrutiny? Photograph by Frank Curran. HAS THE BOSTON Renaissance Charter School gotten its act together, […]
Posted inEducation, State House News Service
Accreditation agency raises questions about school finance
INTRO TEXT at first, the news looked good for Georgetown Middle High School, the sole secondary school in a northern Essex County town of 7,377 residents, with students in grades […]
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Advancing degrees
compared with k-12 education, which has been under the microscope since (at least) the publication of A Nation At Risk in 1983, higher education has had it easy. Here in […]
Posted inEducation
Troubled charter schools get direction
INTRO TEXT Charter schools burst onto the scene as a bold challenge to the status quo. Supporters said that charters – which are publicly funded but operate free of bureaucratic […]
Posted inEducation, State House News Service
The pilot school concept comes to Fitchburg
INTRO TEXT would you lend ancient Chinese masterpieces to a middle school? Maybe not, but the Sackler Foundation didn’t blink before sending 33 priceless artifacts, among them Chinese Buddhas and […]
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Grading the graders
massachusetts is about as good as it gets when it comes to setting standards for public school teachers and holding schools accountable for outcomes, according to Quality Counts 2006, the […]
Posted inEducation, State House News Service
Education officials grow impatient with perenially failing public schools
INTRO TEXT ‘F’ is for failing, and some Massachusetts public schools have the dubious distinction of doing just that. But school turnarounds have not taken place as fast as education […]
Posted inEducation
Sink or Swim
English immersion students in Brockton:Seyla Nou and Elisia HeakEunji Gloria Cho Mantzouranis—Ms. Cho to her students —uses a green marker to put on the whiteboard what should be a simple […]
Posted inEducation
Counterpoints
Yes, charter schools have been controversial, but then again, so has just about everything we’ve done to improve public education. Curriculum frameworks, graduation requirements, teacher testing, you name it, and […]