Since Massachusetts launched its experiment with charter schools in 1993, tensions between Commonwealth charter schools and public school districts have steadily intensified. Proposed as laboratories of innovation that, by suspending […]
Elementary and Secondary Education
Posted inEducation
In Need of a Renaissance
A year of tumult at the state’s largest charter school leaves a besieged leader in place, but the future uncertain Fall 2005 Photograph by Frank Curran On June 30, Roger […]
Posted inEducation
Preschool Promise
Everybody has them, but (it’s just a theory) women of a certain age may have them more than men do—those moments in life when you stop and ask yourself: “How […]
Posted inEducation
Classroom cash
It takes a lot of dough for Massachusetts to be nothing special in terms of staffing its public schools, according to the country’s largest teachers’ union. The National Education Association […]
Posted inEducation
Author Peter Schrag talks about the Hancock case and the slippery concept of adequacy in education
As of this writing, the state’s Supreme Judicial Court has yet to hand down a ruling in Hancock v. Driscoll, the latest round of educational-equity litigation that has been on […]
Posted inEducation
MCAS hasnt erased the need for remedial classes in community colleges
INTRO TEXT More than a decade after the Education Reform Act, and two years since passing MCAS became a graduation requirement for high school students, few of the grim prophecies […]
Posted inEducation
An education tour of China reveals great success alongside vast failure
You would think that traveling with a 2-year-old would be enough to discourage trips halfway around the world. But when Primary Source, a regional professional development group, invited us on […]
Posted inEducation, Politics
Wrong answer on school finances
In the first week of October, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court heard arguments in the Hancock school finance case. The arguments addressed the opinion issued last April by Superior Court […]
Posted inEducation, Politics
The state still doesnt provide equal education
June 15, 1993: an important day for education in Massachusetts. On that day, the Supreme Judicial Court issued its decision in McDuffy v. Secretary of Education and defined the Commonwealth’s […]
Posted inEducation
The Hancock Case: Remedy lies in new goals new strategies
We are really just beginning to understand that schools are indeed our most important social institutions. And only recently have we faced up to the reality that, rather than being […]
Posted inEducation, Opinion
A court decision on school financing is a chance to revisitand improveeducation reform
The coverage in the press gave a misleading picture of the school finance decision handed down by Judge Margot Botsford in April. The judge did not say that the state […]
Posted inEducation
Flunking out
What do we do about them?Julie Holly, a Winchendon mom, has put out Snickerdoodles and croissants, muffins and chocolate chip bread. Four other moms are seated around the table, but […]
Posted inEducation
A hard look at education accountability in the wake of No Child Left Behind
No Child Left Behind? The Politics and Practice of School AccountabilityPaul E. Peterson and Martin R. West, editorsWashington, DC, Brookings Institution Press, 340 pages. In January 2002, President Bush signed […]
Posted inEducation
Worcester’s Wonder
When it comes to guessing the communities with the highest MCAS scores in the state, a lot of towns beginning with the letter “W” might come to mind–Wellesley, Weston, Winchester. […]
Posted inEducation, Politics
Barnstable cant get enough of charter schools
At a time when school districts across the Commonwealth are feeling the triple squeeze of the federal No Child Left Behind law, MCAS tests, and shrinking budgets, officials in the […]
Posted inEducation
Testing the test
The headlines shocked the public and rocked the education establishment: It was the first time the state ever tested would-be teachers to weed out who did–and did not–belong in front […]
Posted inEducation
This is only a test
It’s springtime, which has come to mean not only balmy weather and blooming flowers but MCAS testing in our public schools. In April, fourth-, eighth-, and 10th-graders took their tests […]