Massachusetts NAEP scores are down to where they were 20 years ago. The deterioration in the quality of public education in the state had been underway for nearly a decade by the time the pandemic hit.

Jamie Gass
Ending MCAS requirement would be a step backward
IN RECENT YEARS, many Massachusetts public education policy decisions have been made with an eye toward increasing equity. It’s a worthy goal, but too many of the policies have proven to diminish both equity and academic excellence. One aspect of the Commonwealth’s public K-12 education system that has promoted both equity and excellence is the MCAS […]
Teachers union wants ed reform money — but not accountability
THE MASSACHUSETTS TEACHERS ASSOCIATION is calling on its members to be “conscientious objectors” by refusing to administer MCAS and not let their own children take the dreaded tests. Such farcical extremes ensue when a special interest group has had too much power for too long. Massachusetts’ landmark 1993 Education Reform Act transformed K-12 public education […]
Civics education is crucial to engaged citizenship
A FORMER PRESIDENT of the United States calls “for the termination of all rules, regulations, and articles, even those found in the Constitution” less than two years after a mob attacked the US Capitol seeking to prevent the certification of an election and calling for the vice president to be hanged. Perhaps the best antidote […]
Time for state action on troubled Boston Public Schools
FORMER STATE SENATE President Tom Birmingham often describes the centerpiece of the landmark 1993 Education Reform Act he co-authored as a massive infusion of state dollars into public schools in return for high standards and accountability for all. There is perhaps no better example of just how far back into the rear-view mirror accountability has […]
How Mass. abandoned its recipe for educational success
EINSTEIN DEFINED INSANITY as “doing the same thing over and over again, but expecting different results.” Education policy makers in Massachusetts have taken the concept to a new level by doubling down on policies that have brought a decade of decline. The Commonwealth’s K-12 education funding formula was no longer providing adequate resources to less affluent school districts, and […]
Dimming the state’s literary light
“A ROBUST GENIUS, born to grapple with whole libraries,” is how 18th-century biographer James Boswell described the illustrious British man of letters, Dr. Samuel Johnson. It’s a literary reference that’s likely familiar to Massachusetts governors Charlie Baker and Deval Patrick, as both were Harvard College English majors. September marks Johnson’s 310th birthday. His A Dictionary […]
Tie state ed funding to school committee seats
FEW DOUBT THAT the time has come to update the mechanism by which the Commonwealth funds local school districts. After 25 years, the current formula isn’t keeping pace with rising employee health insurance and special education costs. The specifics may have changed over a quarter century, but as they address this issue, state leaders should […]
Common Core’s slashing of fiction drains life out of schools
“LIVE, THEN, AND be happy, beloved children of my heart, and never forget,” reads The Count of Monte Cristo by French novelist Alexandre Dumas, “that… all human wisdom is contained in these two words, – ‘Wait and hope.’” Today marks the birthday of Monsieur Dumas, the genius of 19th-century romantic historical fiction, whose other masterworks […]
Bill Weld mastered the classics – and disruption of education status quo
MASSACHUSETTS’ 68TH GOVERNOR, Bill Weld, might be the only state executive in a century who dreams in ancient languages and can effortlessly connect lessons from 5th-century B.C. Greek historians with modern K-12 education policy. In paraphrasing Thucydides’ masterpiece, History of the Peloponnesian War, Weld described why he, Tom Birmingham, and Mark Roosevelt — architects of the […]