MBAE Elects 4 New Board Members
October 11, 2017MBAE’s Take on Transition in Lawrence; New MCAS Results
November 20, 2017
In this issue: Preparing Students for Success | Business Groups Oppose Testing Moratorium, Rollback of Education Reforms | MBAE Elects Four New Board Members | In the News
In meetings and at forums over the past several months, the consistent message we hear from employers is we can and must do better at preparing students for the future. Jobs go unfilled, opportunities go unrealized. The state’s ability to attract the GE’s and Amazon’s of the world and, as importantly, to sustain small and local businesses depends on ensuring excellent schools in EVERY community and greater alignment of schools with the demands of the workforce.
That’s what we’re working on.
Preparing Students for Success
A panel discussion at the State House hosted by Senator Jason Lewis and Representative Paul Brodeur, Chairmen of the legislature’s Joint Committee on Labor and Workforce Development, and moderated by MBAE’s executive director Linda Noonan explored what schools can do to provide students greater exposure to career pathways and ensure they graduate prepared with career readiness skills.
David Ferreira, Executive Director of the Massachusetts Association of Vocational Administrators, shared encouraging news about proposals to expose more middle school students to career opportunities in the trades, and to expand the use of vocational technical schools beyond current hours to provide students in traditional high schools the chance to learn valuable career readiness skills.
Panelists Donna Cupelo, President, Verizon New England and Katie Holahan, Vice President of Government Affairs at Associated Industries of Massachusetts, helped lead the discussion and stressed that educating our students for the workforce is urgently important – both to fuel our economy and ensure all students access opportunities.
Business Groups Oppose Testing Moratorium, Rollback of Education Reforms
In testimony submitted to the Education Committee at a hearing in September, statewide, regional, and local business groups joined together to urge legislators to defeat Senate Bill 308 and House Bill 2844 that would dismantle reforms that have led to Massachusetts rise to number one in the nation in student achievement.
The education reforms that Massachusetts adopted in 1993 and in subsequent years have been critical to raising the bar across the Commonwealth. Any rollback of these measures would be a grave mistake that would set students back.
MBAE and its 22 affiliates as well as Associated Industries of Massachusetts, the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation and the Massachusetts Business Roundtable signed a statement urging the legislature to reject these regressive proposals.
Read the statement here.
Read MBAE Board member testimony from the hearing here.
MBAE Elects Four New Board Members
MBAE is pleased to announce the election of four new, exceptional leaders to our Board of Directors.
We welcome Rebecca Frisch, Vice President, Government Relations and Co-Chair TD Bank’s Southern New England Diversity Council, Jacqui Lipson, Vice President, PreK-12 Education at Widmeyer Communications, Syed Quadri, Senior ASIC design verification engineer at Intel, and Bill Triant, Vice President of Strategic Partnerships and Investments at Pearson.
MBAE continues to add new Directors to the Board as our Network grows and our mission is more relevant than ever. Employers continue to face significant challenges finding qualified candidates to fill open positions, and K-12 education is the foundation by which closing achievement, opportunity and skills gaps can be accomplished. These new Board members add depth to MBAE’s communications and data analytics capabilities, expertise in diversity that is crucial to ensuring representation of critical stakeholders, and classroom experience that informs deliberation.
In the News
MBAE Board Member Alan Macdonald and Tom O’Rourke, President and CEO of the Neponset Valley Chamber of Commerce (an MBAE Affiliate) argued in two separate op-eds this weekend against a moratorium on MCAS testing.
Alan Macdonald writes in the Boston Globe North, “MCAS results provide an objective measure of school and district performance. They help identify schools that need improvement and highlight where best practices are happening that others can learn from and replicate. A moratorium would send us back to a time when parents, community members and policymakers alike had no way of measuring a school or a district’s performance.”
Tom O’Rourke writes in the Boston Globe South, “Parent concerns about too much time being spent on test preparation are legitimate and must be addressed (as a parent of two middle schoolers, I can attest to this), yet we should be careful not to throw the baby out with the bathwater. We have to have a way of measuring both student and school progress. Parents want to know how their kids are doing and they need an objective measuring stick.”
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Employers play a pivotal role in bringing about needed change in our public education system. Please join MBAE in our effort to ensure every student graduates high school prepared for success in college, career and citizenship.