Massachusetts Education Reform Act co-author and former Senate President Tom Birmingham praised the historic success that has been achieved since the law was enacted in 1993, but expressed concern that the Commonwealth is veering away from basic principles of the law that produced that success.
Playing the Grinch on Christmas week the U.S. Department of Education warned that Massachusetts could lose some Title 1 funding for using two assessments this spring.
Massachusetts Education Commissioner Mitchell Chester announced that he is recommending Massachusetts use a “Next Generation MCAS” a MCAS-PARCC hybrid.
Pioneer Institute: Updating MCAS would result in lower costs and more rigorous assessments that would provide better information about student performance.