House must restore accountability language in ed funding bill; add focus on college and career readiness

Next week, the Massachusetts House will take up the Student Opportunity Act, a bill that has the potential to greatly improve equity and student readiness for future success if funds are deployed strategically by districts. Senate amendments to the bill seriously weakened language that would have ensured that, and jeopardize the carefully crafted compromise legislation that came out of the Education Committee.

MBAE offered support for the compromise bill not because it was perfect, but because we felt it made a good faith effort to include accountability measures that ensure substantial new funding is used effectively to close persistent, debilitating racial and socio-economic achievement gaps. We were disappointed, however, that the Committee bill did not sufficiently focus on getting students ready for college and workforce success, a critical goal given the declining opportunities for students with only a high school diploma, but believed that the bill’s framework could easily accommodate changes that provide greater support for career-connected learning. The failure to include these changes among the significant alterations made by the Senate risks leaving our system without the tools to prepare students for participation in our high-skill economy.

Together with our business affiliates across the state, MBAE will be pressing House members to, at a minimum, restore accountability language that was in the original Committee bill, and further strengthen the legislation by adding language that would require districts to focus on college and workforce readiness by:

• Requiring districts set targets for improving student college and career readiness, in alignment with state targets for same, and report annually on progress toward meeting those targets.
• Requiring districts address how they will improve student college and career readiness in their three-year plans.
• Requiring outreach to the business community in the development of local plans.
• Requiring the Secretary of Education to set state targets for college and career readiness that districts would align with, collect statewide data and make it available, and report back to the legislature and the public on progress.
• Adding college and career readiness as a priority for funding from the 21^st century fund.

On accountability, Committee language must be restored and refined as described below:

• The Commissioner must have the ability to review ALL plans to ensure that they have measurable goals and outcomes, that are utilizing best practices and that they represent the letter, spirit, and intent of the legislature in their development and presentation. The Commissioner must have the ability to send back for changes any plan deemed non-compliant and districts should be required to make necessary changes.
• Language requiring that district targets align with the state targets required to be set by the Commissioner should be restored.
• Committee language around best practices in the plan must be improved and clarified: requiring each plan to address each of the practices listed as to why or why not it was chosen, how it will be used to close gaps, or what alternative evidence-based practice will be utilized with the funding.
• All plans should also be easily accessible by the public on local and state websites.