EDUCATION
CommonWealth Beacon explores the dynamics of the state’s K-12 and higher education systems, from their foundational pillars to current debates over how to ensure quality educational opportunity for all.
Push for the ‘right to read’ landing at State House
Just 42 percent of 3rd grade students were proficient in English on the 2024 MCAS. The numbers are far worse for student groups on the bottom end of the state’s yawning achievement gap. Only 24 percent of low-income 3rd graders are proficient in reading, and only 27 percent of Black students and 22 percent of…
Mass. education secretary’s votes reflect growing Democratic hostility toward charter schools
Growing Democratic opposition to charter schools was cast in sharp relief at February’s state education board meeting, where Gov. Maura Healey’s education secretary, Patrick Tutwiler, voted against all five proposals for expansion of charter schools.
Voc-tech admissions saga zigzags toward finish line
A nearly decade-long debate over admission policies at the state’s vocational high schools seems to be nearing a conclusion, but it’s been a tortured path and there is plenty of discontent with the likely outcome on both sides.
Mass. education secretary casts string of anti-charter school votes
In one vote after another, Massachusetts Education Secretary Patrick Tutwiler turned thumbs down on recommendations from the state’s acting education commissioner to allow expansion of five Massachusetts charter schools and to modify the area served by a sixth one.
Is Harvard responsible for the alleged sale of body parts from its medical school morgue?
It remains still unclear if the behavior of a Harvard morgue manager who allegedly ran a multi-state human remains scheme – “ghoulish” in the words of a Supreme Judicial Court justice considering the case – means that the Ivy League school is also on the hook.
National scores show Mass. students leading – with big asterisks
Massachusetts 4th and 8th grade students placed first in the nation in math and reading, but that doesn’t change the fact that our scores have been sliding for years.
State graduation requirement a muddled mess
Massachusetts students no longer have to pass 10th grade MCAS tests in English, math, and science to graduate from high school. But determining exactly what they do need to do to secure a diploma is proving to be a high-stakes test of its own for state officials.
With DEI in the cross-hairs, higher ed cannot be reserved ‘for the smart and for the wealthy’
Several of Massachusetts’ diversity goals in higher education could face a headlong collision with President Donald Trump’s current anti-diversity and immigration actions.
The dividing line on millionaires tax money
One of the main backers of the 2022 ballot question says a split between education and transportation shouldn’t be locked in.
Canales stepping down as president of Barr Foundation
JIM CANALES, who has overseen a more than doubling of annual giving at the Barr Foundation while presiding over its emergence as a major civic player in Greater Boston, plans to step down as the foundation’s president later this year. The foundation, which focuses its philanthropic giving on education, climate change, and the arts, said…
With new term dawning, Spilka eyes K-12 funding reform, primary care overhaul
A newly reelected Senate President Karen Spilka previewed some of her legislative priorities for the 2025-2026 session: reexamining the state’s education funding formula, pressing for primary health care delivery reform, and pushing again to expand juvenile court jurisdiction to include young adults aged 18.
The top ten CommonWealth Beacon stories of 2024
ALL ROADS lead to home, or perhaps the nearest T station. Housing and transportation are both issues that roiled policymakers on and off Beacon Hill, as state officials sought to navigate crises on both fronts by passing a multibillion housing bond bill and debating ways to fund transportation as the MBTA faces a yawning budget…
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