FOUR YEARS AFTER elected officials and advocates began calling for changes to state regulations governing admission to vocational-technical high schools, Education Commissioner Jeff Riley is proposing a sweeping update to a system that critics say has let voc-tech schools “cream” higher-performing students while locking out English language learners, students of color, and special education and […]
Jim Peyser
Posted inEducation
Peyser: Remote learning could continue in fall
MASSACHUSETTS’S TOP EDUCATION officials warned on Wednesday that schools should not expect to return to completely normal activities this September. School will look different when it starts, and there is the possibility that in-person education will be suspended again. “Remote learning will be a much larger factor in planning for next school year,” said Education […]
Posted inEducation
Riley casts vision for education change
WHEN JEFF RILEY took the reins as state education commissioner early last year he suggested it was time to turn the page on 25 years of education reform efforts, pointing to stalled achievement scores, a stubbornly persistent achievement gap, and an unhealthy focus on testing. But exactly what he had in mind for the next […]
Posted inEducation
‘Promise Act’ ed bill would be boon for Boston
WHEN BOSTON MAYOR Mayor Marty Walsh testified in late March on behalf of a bill to revamp the state’s 26-year-old education funding formula, he called it “a solution that will finally take politics out of the conversation.” But as underscored by plans for a big State House rally on Thursday to push for more state […]
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Chester pulls back from PARCC
MCAS or PARCC? “None of the above” now looks like the correct answer to that test question. What looked like an either-or choice between retaining the state’s MCAS exam or scrapping it in favor of the new Common Core-aligned PARCC test has taken an unexpected turn and landed on a compromise plan to develop a […]
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MCAS vs. PARCC: Dead-heat in predicting college readiness
THE MOST CONCRETE evidence state officials will have available in deciding whether to switch to the new PARCC test or to stay with MCAS turns out to be little help in answering the question of which test is a better measure of readiness for college. The PARCC test was developed as a “next generation” assessment […]