Will has shown me what all of my students prove every day – that the achievement gap that exists between students growing up in poverty and their more affluent peers is a solvable problem.

As a new teacher working to give my kids the excellent educational opportunities they deserve, I rely on the support of my fellow teachers, both novice and veteran, and my school administrators every day, but I feel incredibly lucky as a first-year teacher to have a number of formal support systems to provide me with ongoing coaching.

I am in the enviable position of having not just one source of instructional coaching, but two. As a Teach For America corps member I have a member of the Teach For America staff assigned to observe my classroom and help me identify what is working and what I can improve. Teach For America also provides a wide range of resources and ongoing professional development in my content area. From Chelsea Public Schools, I have a High School administrator who regularly observes my classroom and provides feedback as part of their newly implemented teacher evaluation system, a mentor teacher who share’s his experience, a 9^th grade instructional coach, and a special education coach who provides guidance specific to my special education students.

I know what a special situation this is because I have a sister who teaches in another district in Massachusetts and was only observed twice during her entire first year. Because I have such frequent classroom visitors, I am able to get continuous feedback that helps me continuously improve. As a teacher, I make decisions that effect my students’ learning all day long so it is both reassuring and empowering to have a veteran educator (or two) sharing their wisdom and bolstering my efforts.

My instructional coaches are invaluable when I run into the inevitable challenges as I work to set ambitious, meaningful learning goals for my students, track class progress, and invest my students in our work. They both help me identify viable solutions to the roadblocks I encounter and hold me accountable for implementing those strategies. They keep me grounded in my commitment to do whatever it takes to give my students the excellent education they deserve.

I find I get so much out of the coaching I receive because it is a collaborative process. I feel like I’m on team with my district evaluator and my Teach For America instructional coach. I know they care about me and my students and want me to maximize my effectiveness. A supportive environment that fuels a teacher’s ambition to grow and improve as a professional is an incredible incentive for an effective teacher to choose and stay with a school.

I’ve learned so much in my first six months in the classroom and I look forward to continuing to increase my effectiveness in the months and years to come. I credit my students for teaching me more than I ever could have expected and my instructional coaches for creating the conditions that foster my growth. It’s students like Will who inspire me to do my best and take advantage of all the resources around me. He has demonstrated his incredible potential and he deserves to have the best teacher I can be.

Sam Wolfson is a first-year Teach for America corps member teaching math at Chelsea High School.

MBAE has been a staunch supporter of statewide accountability systems that are designed to raise student achievement and focus attention on areas for improvement since we helped make sure this was a central component of the Education Reform Act of 1993.  More recently, we have played an active role on the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education’s (DESE) Accountability and Assistance Advisory Council, which helped link technical assistance and support to identified needs for district action through development of the new Framework for District Accountability and Assistance.  So, it was only because of our confidence in the potential of  this state system and the absence of action by Congress to address the problems with the current federal system that we supported the state’s application for an ESEA waiver.  

MBAE shared our concerns about the DESE request for the ESEA Waiver  during the public comment period, and supported the waiver “conditioned on Commissioner Mitchell Chester’s assurance that he has ‘no interest in watering down our standards and expectations’ and that he plans to continue the state’s vigorous support of high standards, rewards for strong performance, and aggressive pursuit of continuous improvement”.    

We will hold the Commissioner to this commitment and continue to advocate for high standards of performance and accountability for meeting these in every level of public education in the Commonwealth.

The state’s request, and the U.S. Department of Education’s response are online at the U.S. DOE website.   Additional information about the state’s application can be found on the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education website.

A new analysis from the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation shows that savings for cities and towns  from municipal health reform are exceeding the $100 million projected to be gained.  Since the plan was first proposed a year ago, a dozen communities have negotiated changes through the traditional collective bargaining process that will save an estimated $30 million in the first year alone.  The list of  municipalities adopting the new approach and those with negotiations underway is growing.  We are delighted with these results and confident that some of these funds will help avoid cuts to education and children will be the beneficiaries.

Community colleges are a logical place to turn at least in the short run to provide the training to close this skills gap.  Accordingly, we are pleased that the governor will call for “an integrated and comprehensive community college system” with 15 line items consolidated into one.  A single appropriation makes comparison of results among community colleges more transparent and significant, and thereby enhances accountability for performance.  It will also promote the ease of credit transfer and alignment with regional workforce needs that the Governor is promising. 

 The challenges are not new.  A 2007 article in Commonwealth magazine  raised concerns about low graduation rates at community colleges, and a lack of a coherent vision and clear mission.  The comparison to other states where graduation rates were being used to rank performance; and where curriculum and credit alignment was easing transfer for students to pursue a four-year degree did not reflect well on Massachusetts. 

A recent report commissioned by The Boston Foundation clearly outlines the problem, identifies promising models for alignment, and offers suggestions for reforms.   The Case for Community Colleges: Aligning Higher Education and Workforce Needs in Massachusetts calls for developing a blueprint that would involve:

• Strong partnerships with employers
• Effective governance across institutions
• Clearly defined performance metrics to establish standards for accountability and tie success to distribution of funding
• Use of financial incentives to promote innovation and bring programs to scale

Centralizing governance has already met with strong resistance, but we believe it is an important step in clarifying the mission of our community colleges, adopting performance metrics, and allocating funding appropriately to meet critical workforce needs and thereby to enhance employment prospects for community college graduates who face a very challenging employment market. 

The report also emphasizes the importance of preparing students for college and career success during their pre-K-12 years.  This remains the focus of MBAE’s advocacy because it is essential to ensuring the long-term economic health of the Commonwealth.  While community colleges have an important role to play as well — and we support the Governor’s initiatives — we must ensure that all children graduate from high school ready for college and career.

The state’s application promises to ensure that all children, but particularly those with the greatest need, have access to high quality pre-K education. 

Specific components of the state’s plan include the following:

• Enhancing the quality of all early education programs in the state by securing universal participation in the Massachusetts tiered Quality Rating and Improvement System (QRIS), which uses a definition of quality and standards designed to elevate the quality of care in state early care and education systems and to ensure growth as children develop. Currently over 2,000 programs out of the 12,000 early education and care and out of school time programs licensed by the Department of Early Education and Care (EEC)  are engaged in the Massachusetts QRIS.
• Aligning birth to age five early learning and development standards, including the creation of English Language Development standards for birth to age five. 
• Creating the Massachusetts Early Learning and Development Assessment System (MELD) from birth to grade three by expanding screening for children and developing a common tool for a kindergarten entry assessment.  
• Increasing culturally and linguistically appropriate engagement with parents, families and community members regarding literacy, universal child screening and other statewide priorities.  
• Providing essential support to early educators and enhance their effectiveness in practice by providing educational opportunities and targeted professional development.
• Creating greater alignment between early education and grades K-3 to promote healthy child development and to support successful school transitions.

MBAE congratulates EEC Commissioner Sherry Killins and her team for putting together a strong proposal and for her commitment to making early childhood education a strong foundation for the state’s college and career readiness continuum.   We also commend our friends at Strategies for Children and the  Early Education for All   campaign for their tireless work on behalf of young children that put the state in such a unique and strong position to qualify for this award. 

Now, just as with the K-12 Race to the Top competitive grant program, the hard work begins.  The funding is important, but what really matters is that state policy makers, educators and  community leaders all have a clear road-map for improving educational opportunities for children and that we succeed in reaching the goals set in these proposals.  

MBAE recently reported on first year progress on Race to the Top – read the report here.

What about Massachusetts? There is both good and not-so-good news.  Massachusetts has long prided itself on the quality of its longitudinal data systems, and indeed, Massachusetts has all 10 of the 10 elements deemed necessary.  On the other hand, the Commonwealth has made demonstrable progress on only five of the 10 state actions.  There remains important work to do so that we can take better advantage of the data elements the state has worked so hard to put into place. Specifically: 

Actions Met [ √ ] and Not Met [ X ]

X 1: Link data systems: Massachusetts has yet to link state K-12 data systems with early learning, postsecondary education, workforce, social services and other critical agencies

√ 2:  Create stable, sustained support

√ 3:  Develop governance structures

√ 4:  Build state data repositories

X 5:  Implement systems to provide timely access to information: Massachusetts has yet to implement systems to provide all stakeholders with timely access to the information they need while protecting student privacy

X  6:  Create progress reports using individual student data to improve student performance: Massachusetts has yet to create progress reports with individual student data that provide information educators, parents and students can use to improve student performance

√ 7:  Create reports using longitudinal statistics to guide systemwide improvement efforts

√ 8:  Develop a P-20/workforce research agenda

X 9:   Promote educator professional development and credentialing: Massachusetts has yet to implement policies and promote practices, including professional development and credentialing, to ensure educators know how to access, analyze and use data appropriately

X 10: Promote strategies to raise awareness of available data: Massachusetts has yet to promote strategies to raise awareness of available data and ensure that all key stakeholders, including state policymakers, know how to access, analyze and use the information

Race to the Top and other longitudinal data grants the state has received give Massachusetts the opportunity to address the needs identified by the Data Quality Campaign.  MBAE will be paying close attention to the Commonwealth’s progress in these areas.

The Consortium has released “model content frameworks” for English language arts/literacy and mathematics that were influenced by responses to an initial draft during a public review in August, 2011. The intention of these model content frameworks is to identify the big ideas in the Common Core State Standards  for each grade level and to help determine the focus for various PARCC assessments being developed by the consortium. The frameworks are being created through a collaborative process that includes state experts and members of the team that wrote the Common Core State Standards.

PARCC intends to continue to invite feedback from a wide group of stakeholders during future public review periods.  The Model Content Frameworks are intended to be dynamic and responsive to evidence and on-going input.  In this way, the Model Content Frameworks can evolve to reflect the experiences of educators and students as these are used in classrooms across the country. For more information or to view the frameworks, visit http://parcconline.org/parcc-content-frameworks.

Employers have a lot at stake in the successful implementation of the Common Core State Standards!  These “college and career ready” standards were designed to better prepare students for postsecondary education and success in the workplace.  MBAE and other business groups endorsed adoption of these standards after an extensive review by WestEd concluded that these were as rigorous as what Massachusetts had developed AND included features that were of particular value to employers – strategic thinking, reading of complex non-fiction texts, and persuasive writing among these.  The business community must be vigilant to make sure that the potential of these new standards is realized as curriculum and assessments are developed and used in our classrooms.

Check out MBAE’s blog posts for more information and resources page for links to the WestEd analysis!

The Massachusetts Business Alliance for Education is answering these critical questions.  Year One, Race to the Top in Massachusetts: An Education Progress Report, finds that while the State has largely met its promises for Year One, its ability to meet the overall goals of the Race to the Top agenda will hinge on whether schools and districts fulfill their individual commitments to the state’s vision and whether the state has the capacity to assist districts in meeting this expectation.  The report tracks progress on several key initiatives, including implementation of the Common Core State Standards and a new evaluation system for teachers and administrators, and outlines the successes and challenges of Massachusetts’ first year of Race to the Top.  

Highlights of our findings include:

• Quality control needs to be strengthened.  The Department of Elementary and Secondary Education must  focus not only on whether districts meet goals and benchmarks, but more importantly on how well they do the job. 
• Focusing on getting great teachers and great leaders in every school is the foundation of meeting every other Race to the Top goal.  The state must prioritize the creation of a specialized corps of teachers and principals to turn around low performing schools.
• The state needs ongoing indicators throughout the school year to measure whether district implementationof the Common Core State Standards is actually occuring. 
• In the area of using data systems to improve instruction, the state needs to make up for delays due to procurement and staffing.  The focus should be on creating tools for teachers to analyze and use their students’ data.

This report was made possible with support from EMC Corporation and Associated Industries of Massachusetts.

Springfield, Massachusetts, the home of Reading Success by 4th Grade, had a banner week this week, with leaders on the national, state and local level reaffirming the importance of the community-wide reading proficiency goal that will ensure that children are successful in school and in life.

On Tuesday, November 8, Ralph Smith, Managing Director of the Campaign for Grade-Level Reading and Senior Vice President of The Annie E. Casey Foundation came to Springfield to speak to business and community leaders about the nation-wide campaign he is spearheading.  While in Springfield, he also helped to announce the launch of the community’s Funder Collaborative for Reading Success, which has raised almost a million dollars to support the work of organizations that will help children achieve the critical educational milestone.   Media coverage of the launch included this piece.

Also on Tuesday, Springfield Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Alan Ingram affirmed his support for the community collaboration which clearly aligns with the work of the schools. Read about the spirit and enthusiasm and progress in the community-wide collaboration to support Springfield’s children as they strive to achieve reading proficiency by the end of 3^rd grade in the Superintendent’s Blog.

And on Wednesday, November 9, Governor Deval Patrick, outlining his educational priorities for the Commonwealth, declared that priority #1 is that every child must read well by the 3rd grade. “Three-quarters of children who struggle with reading by third grade will continue to struggle academically, greatly reducing their chances of graduating high school, going to college, or successfully participating in our high skill economy.  I want you to go to work now on developing the best ways to address this early in a child’s academic career, in children entering kindergarten.”

Reading Success by 4th Grade is moving forward in a community-wide collaboration toward a goal of 80% of Springfield’s 3rd graders achieving reading proficiency by 2016.

Our nation is at a crossroads. A well-educated, highly trained citizenry is essential to maintain our democratic way of life and compete in the world marketplace. Postsecondary education and training are increasingly necessary for individual and national wellbeing. Yet today, we have no measure for telling whether our nation’s 12th grade students are academically prepared for college and job training. 

That’s why the NAEP 12th Grade Preparedness Commission is holding a symposium with regional leaders in government, education, business, and civil rights in Boston on Monday, October 24.  The purpose of the event, which will take place at the Westin Waterfront Hotel at 425 Summer Street from 9 to noon, is to discuss how The Nation’s Report Card can serve as this critical indicator.

A  panel of noted local leaders and education experts will address the importance of 12th grade academic preparedness, the implications for Massachusetts’ economy and jobs, and the potential relevance of NAEP as an indicator of preparedness for Massachusetts and the nation.  The speakers include Secretary of Education and MBAE Co-Founder Paul Reville, Board of Elementary and Secondary Education Chairman, and former MBAE Chair, Maura Banta of IBM,  former Commissioner of Education and current National Assessment Governing Board Chair David Driscoll, Education Committee Co-Chairs Senator Sonia Chang-Diaz and Representative Alice Peisch, Commissioner of Higher Education Richard Freeland and Commissioner of Elementary and Secondary Education Mitchell Chester.  Governor Deval Patrick and Boston Mayor Thomas Menino have also been invited to speak.

For the past two years, I’ve served on the National Assessment Governing Board’s NAEP Business Policy Task Force that focuses on making NAEP results more relevant to the business community, improving the dissemination of NAEP reports to the business community, and advising on the use of NAEP in reporting on the preparedness of 12^th-grade students for postsecondary education and occupational training.  I’m pleased that Massachusetts education stakeholders will have this opportunity to provide feedback about the potential relevance of the NAEP research to local efforts to address academic preparedness, ideas for additional research the Governing Board can consider, and suggestions for potential research partners.  Whether you are attending the symposium or not, you can submit comments by email to 12th_Grade_Symposium@Reingold.com. 

MBAE is co-sponsoring the event as part of our work to ensure that all students graduate from high school ready for success in college, career and citizenship.  This discussion will be well worth your while, so plan on joining us for the morning on Monday, October 24.  Seating is limited, so REGISTER today by clicking the link. 

NAEP—the National Assessment of Educational Progress—is also known as The Nation’s Report Card. It is the only continuing, nationally representative measure of student achievement in the U.S. The National Assessment Governing Board that oversees NAEP is conducting research to transform it into an indicator of 12th grade academic preparedness.  Visit the NAEP website for more information about reports and research .