As the Deputy Director at MBAE, one of the main projects has been tracking, evaluating, and summarizing the education stimulus programs of which Race to the Top (RTTT) is, by far, the most high profile. As such, I’ve gotten quite […]
The December 1 deadline has passed, and not one new municipality or school district signed on to provide employee health benefits through the state’s Group Insurance Commission (GIC) in fiscal 2012 – which means that hundreds of local government entities […]
This morning, MBAE issued School Funding Reality: A Bargain Not Kept, our report on school funding and spending trends in Massachusetts. We did the study to look at how the foundation budget was working and found that the explosive growth […]
MBAE Board Members and staff were treated to an inspiring tour of the Boston Renaissance Charter Public School recently that reminded me of why it is so critical to extend these unique educational opportunities to more students and their families. […]
For the past seven months, a 40-member Task Force has been working to recommend a new teacher evaluation system to the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education (BESE). MBAE’s executive director represented the business community in this effort but MBAE […]
This morning, the Massachusetts Business Alliance for Education and The Rennie Center for Education Research and Policy, held the second in a series of three forums to examine the implementation of the Common Core State Standards in Massachusetts. At our […]
MBAE’s December 2010 study, “School Funding Reality: A Bargain Not Kept“, revealed that all of the $700 million in new Chapter 70 school aid from 2000 to 2007 was consumed by a $1 billion increase in health insurance costs over […]
In a Washington Post ranking of public high schools that most effectively prepare students for college, the schools ranked #1 and #2 in Massachusetts were both charter schools. Sturgis Charter Public School in Hyannis came in first in Massachusetts and […]
The connection between education and economic development is one that employers have emphasized for many years. In fact, it is the reason MBAE exists – to provide every child the excellent education they need to prepare for the demanding jobs of an […]
With the introduction this week of a new state-sponsored website that tracks each New York school districts progress on implementing teacher evaluation, Governor Andrew Cuomo once again puts the pressure on to get teacher evaluation implemented across the state. The […]
It is good news that Stand for Children and the Massachusetts Teachers Association have come up with a legislative proposal that both organizations can support to address the issues raised in Stand’s Great Teachers Great Schools ballot initiative. MBAE joined […]
Reports Spotlight Need to Better Prepare Students for Careers Education is an economic issue. Simply put, today’s students are tomorrow’s workforce. Two reports released yesterday offer compelling proof that despite strong academic gains over the past twenty years, too many […]
In his opinion column in The New York Times, Tom Friedman wrote again about how the game has changed and how Americans have to be prepared for new jobs and new technologies. The broader theme he often touts is that the […]
Although many of us tuned in this week to learn the results of the 2012 MCAS exams and were pleased to find continued growth in the number of 10th grade students reaching proficiency in ELA (88%) and math (78%), there […]
Data is an essential tool for teachers and school leaders as they work to bring about positive student learning outcomes. Last year MBAE Board Member Beth Gamse blogged about a report from the national Data Quality Campaign (DQC) on states’ progress […]
It has become a truism to say that schools are the only sector that citizens of 2013 could visit that would look like they did 150 years ago, when fewer students graduated from high school or college. Yet today society […]
At a hearing today at the State House, MBAE Executive Director Linda Noonan testified that the Legislature should raise the cap on charter schools and extend management flexibility to leaders of all schools that perform in the lowest 20% statewide. […]
This month New York City became the first district in the nation to release reports on how teacher preparation programs relate to performance in the classroom. The Teacher Preparation Program Reports, released by the NYC Department of Education, evaluated the […]
Science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) education is a critical component to developing a globally competitive workforce. Business leaders across industries agree: Investing to ensure a pipeline of workers skilled in STEM competencies is a workforce issue, an economic development […]
According to the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, Massachusetts’ current state science standards are “clearly superior” to the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) which were issued earlier this year. The Fordham report spurred a counter-statement by the National Science Teachers Association […]