Latest news with #DepartmentofElementaryandSecondaryEducation
Yahoo
03-07-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Vocational school admission change quietly dropped from state budget deal
The state's new policy to use a lottery for vocational-technical (voc-tech) school admissions will remain in place for now — as an amendment that would have prevented the policy from going into effect was not included in the legislature's FY26 budget bill. The amendment, filed by Rep. Frank Moran, D-17th Essex, also called for the creation of a task force that would study and make recommendations about vocational school admissions. The amendment was included in the House of Representative's standalone bill for the FY26 budget but was not included in the final bill agreed upon by House and Senate members. Lawmakers from both chambers are expected to vote on the budget agreement Monday afternoon. 'You move forward,' Moran said about his amendment not being included. On May 20, the state's Department of Elementary and Secondary Education approved the new admissions policy, requiring voc-tech schools with more applicants than open seats to use a lottery for their admissions. The lottery system will go into effect for the 2026-2027 school year. Some advocates of voc-tech schools have said in the past that previous criteria for enrollment, such as grades and recommendations, lead to a disproportionate exclusion of special needs students, economically disadvantaged students, students of color and English language learners in schools. A federal discrimination complaint challenging the previous admission processes was filed in 2023 by students and civil rights groups who argued the processes were exclusionary. The complaint was filed on behalf of four students and the Vocational Education Justice Coalition, a group of 20 community, union and civil rights groups that have previously advocated for a lottery system, according to the coalition's website. Members of the Vocational Education Justice Coalition, including The Massachusetts Teachers Association, the Massachusetts Education Justice Alliance and the Greater Boston Building Trades Unions, did not immediately respond to requests for comments on Monday. Gov. Maura Healey's administration proposed the lottery system to the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, with members of her cabinet, including the governor herself, speaking in favor of the policy. 'While we continue to increase the number of seats in career technical education schools, we know that there are still more applicants than openings at many of the schools,' Healey said in a statement on May 20. 'Today's vote will help give all eighth graders more knowledge of their options and a better chance at being admitted to these schools.' Moran, who represents a part of Lawrence — a city that is 82% Hispanic according to the U.S. census — believes that the lottery system would be detrimental to students of color. He argued that white students are more likely to be randomly selected in the lottery because there are more of them than there are students of color. In Massachusetts, 79% of the population is white, 13.5% are Latino, 9.6% are Black, 7.9% are Asian, 2.8% are a mix of two or more races and 0.6% are American Indian, according to the U.S. census. 'I think the decision that the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education made to go forward with this change is going to be detrimental to our communities and across the Commonwealth,' Moran said. 'I think we need to explore other options and thats the reason why we wanted to put (forward) this amendment.' Moran also filed a standalone bill that seeks to establish an admissions task force. The bill is still in committee and has not been brought to the House floor for a full vote, Moran said. Timothy Murray, the CEO and president of the Worcester Chamber of Commerce, was also disappointed that Moran's amendment was not included in the final budget agreement. 'This lottery eliminates criteria like attendance, academic performance, & behavior from admissions decisions,' according to a statement from Murray that was posted on the Chamber of Commerce's X account Monday. 'It's not equity — it's a retreat from standards that help students thrive in hands-on learning environments.' Last week, the Chamber of Commerce hosted a panel that featured school and business leaders from cities including Brockton, Springfield, and Worcester. The members of the panel, which included Murray, all criticized the state's new policy, saying they preferred the previous admissions process based on interviews, grades, and recommendations. 'It is unfortunate and not where we need to be going,' Murray said. Trump admin threatens to cut all Harvard's funding over 'violent violation' As foreign students reconsider coming to Boston, local businesses prepare for fallout Trump admin appeals federal judge's decision rejecting ban of foreign Harvard students Holyoke schools, union at odds over 'exit assurances' during transition to local control A new Boston-area college president is named amid financial strain and a resignation Read the original article on MassLive.
Yahoo
08-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Holyoke schools join state career pilot program
HOLYOKE — The Holyoke School District is one of 14 chosen to join the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education's My Career and Academic Plan pilot program. The district received about $24,976 from the $281,000 in Work-Based Learning grants awarded to schools across the state last week. Gov. Maura Healey said in an announcement that work-based learning experiences are crucial for preparing students for the future. 'These grants will help support strong partnerships between schools and employers, opening doors for students in critical STEM fields like health care, manufacturing, and technology,' Healey said. The pilot program is part of the administration's Reimagining High School initiative. DESE will assist districts in integrating the program. It seeks to help middle and high school students focus on academic, personal, and career goals. In March, the Healey-Driscoll administration announced $914,385 in funding to 135 schools in 49 districts to help them adopt the career and academic plan. Over 200 schools in more than 150 districts have engaged in the program. Education Secretary Patrick Tutwiler said the goal is to connect academic learning 'with meaningful work experiences.' Grant recipients will team up with MassHire Workforce Boards and Commonwealth Corporation to create plans and resources to better link education with job training. Read the original article on MassLive.
Yahoo
04-06-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Incoming education commissioner outlines priorities
BOSTON (SHNS) – Literacy, teacher recruitment and retention, and promoting bilingual education are at the top of the priority list for the state's new K-12 commissioner of education. Pedro Martinez will begin running Massachusetts's Department of Elementary and Secondary Education on July 1, after former Commissioner Jeff Riley stepped down in March 2024 and over a year of interim leadership. Speaking at his first public event in Massachusetts since he was chosen for the role, Martinez outlined some of his priority goals on Tuesday at a Massachusetts Business Alliance for Education event in Boston. Among them is getting students back on track when it comes to reading. 'This issue has been front and center for students, as students return from the pandemic. And by the way this is national. Anybody who was a parent of a young child remembers, and remember our third and fourth graders today, those were children that were going to start their education during the pandemic period. So it's not a coincidence,' Martinez said. Teachers, education advocates and state officials in Massachusetts have been talking about improving student literacy for years, as young people have struggled with reading and writing after the pandemic. On last year's state testing, 41% of third through eighth graders scored in the 'meeting or exceeding expectations' range for English Language Arts. Currently the superintendent of Chicago Public Schools, Martinez said that in the city 'we realized that the only way to really solve this is we had to go back to the basics.' 'So we had to bring them in as soon as possible,' he said. 'So we expanded universal preschool across every one of the 77 communities. Free, full-day preschool. There we started laying the foundations.' In Chicago, they began 'implementing the foundational skills from pre-K through fifth grade — some people call it the 'science of reading,' ' he said. 'The instruction incorporates best practices such as abundant reading of diverse texts, frequent opportunities for students to write about what they read, and teaching students how to communicate with digital environments.' Science of reading is not one specific curriculum program that districts can buy, but a collection of research based on phonics, vocabulary, fluency and comprehension. The approach to teaching reading differs from past approaches partially by emphasizing phonics instruction — teaching students to understand how letters and groups of letters link to sounds and spelling patterns — though it is not wholly based on phonics. The term science of reading has been around for over a century, but has recently become shorthand to discuss using cognitive research on how children's brains work while reading, and using more classroom time on learning to sound out words and work on comprehension. 'I'll tell you, going into classrooms and seeing kindergartners write about something they've read, it's priceless, especially in high-poverty communities,' Martinez said. Gov. Maura Healey launched a program dubbed 'Literacy Launch' last year that secured $20 million in the state budget, in addition to $38 million in federal literacy grants, focused on getting higher-quality literacy materials into dozens of districts, which they're hoping will translate into improved reading scores and an improvement in the foundational skill on which all other learning depends. 'I know that Massachusetts recently adopted a long-term plan to improve literacy as well. I commit to you I will do everything in my power to ensure that that plan is successful,' Martinez said. In addition to literacy, Martinez said he'd be focused on recruiting and retaining high qualified educators. He shared a story about a teacher who he said changed the trajectory of his life. His sixth grade teacher in the Chicago Public Schools, Mr. Asher, 'was the first teacher that told me I was actually below grade level. He was actually the first teacher that said, 'I'm going to hold you accountable and you're going to make sure that you're going to rise up to that challenge.'' Martinez credited Mr. Asher with his coming out of 6th grade above grade level, and eventually becoming the first in his family to graduate high school and finish college. 'Mr. Asher changed my life,' he said. 'A highly qualified educator is the number one way to really close achievement gaps, and therefore, how we recruit, how we retain teachers — there are proven strategies across the country — and that's what I really want to look at.' He recommended a few ideas, including teacher residency and internal recruitment programs. In Chicago, he said, the district created a program called Teach Chicago Tomorrow. 'We're always complaining that we can't find highly qualified teachers, but guess where the students start? They start in K-12, right? In the districts. And so in Chicago we started working with the higher ed community, identifying students that had a passion for education, giving them really a clear path for them to be able to not only get support financially, get mentorship all the way through finishing to become teachers in our schools,' Martinez said. He added that thousands of paraprofessionals also moved into teacher roles through a similar program. Another priority Martinez highlighted Tuesday was bilingual education. 'I think we need to go even deeper in Massachusetts,' he said. 'One of the blessings that I feel is to be bicultural, to be bilingual is such a gift. It is such a gift. And so why wouldn't we want that for all of our children in Massachusetts? Why wouldn't we want all of our children to have access to multiple languages? Martinez immigrated to Illinois from Mexico when he was five years old. The last priority he highlighted was helping connect Massachusetts students to higher education. He talked about working in the San Antonio school district in Texas, where he saw people move from out of state to take advantage of Texas's strong economy while local students struggled to get jobs. 'Texas imports a lot of their labor, and then we have individuals that grew up in Texas, and there was a mixed bag. And so my question in Massachusetts, how do we make sure that it's our students that live in Massachusetts? How do we make sure that it's our students that are taking advantage of the amazing, amazing higher ed infrastructure that exists in the state?' he said. He added that 'one thing that I'm really anxious to talk to everyone about is, how do we get rid of this conversation of careers or college? That's not a thing everybody.' Martinez proposed working with community colleges and creating pathways in manufacturing, technology and health care to connect higher education and career opportunities for students after high school. 'I can't help but just recognize where I'm at in Massachusetts. This is a rich history, as everybody talked about, of education here,' he said. 'I can just imagine in 1993 when many fine individuals in this room came together to pass the Massachusetts Education Reform Act that has now put Massachusetts, in my opinion, number one in the nation. So think of this moment now. This is a time when we can come together, we can build a similar bold vision about what we expect our students to be able to do after high school.' WWLP-22News, an NBC affiliate, began broadcasting in March 1953 to provide local news, network, syndicated, and local programming to western Massachusetts. Watch the 22News Digital Edition weekdays at 4 p.m. on Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
02-06-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Mass. asks public how to replace MCAS grad requirement. How to respond
An online survey launched Monday will expand public input opportunities for people to share ideas on the future of a new statewide high school graduation requirement in Massachusetts. The survey, along with listening sessions being held across the state, come after voters last November opted to do away with the requirement that public high school students must pass three MCAS tests in language arts, mathematics and science in order to achieve a diploma. It was one of the most hotly contested ballot questions the state had seen in years — the Massachusetts Teachers Union led the charge to get rid of the MCAS requirement, while many state officials, including Gov. Maura Healey, strongly opposed it. Now, after the voters have spoken — passing the measure by a wide margin — education officials are assessing what a future requirement may look like to ensure graduates are demonstrating learning and readiness for college, careers and civic life. The public has until June 30 to complete the online survey, which is available in six languages. Read more: Springfield invites former students who failed MCAS to apply for a diploma Secretary of Education Dr. Patrick Tutwiler said listening sessions held so far in Taunton, Worcester and Somerville have provided 'deeply meaningful feedback' and that additional public feedback 'is only going to strength these efforts. 'I encourage everyone to fill out the survey and look forward to engaging with more residents at the remaining listening sessions,' he said. The last listening sessions will be held in Holyoke and Barnstable on June 5 and 9, respectively. There will be a virtual one, as well, on June 3. Until the state develops a new statewide requirement, school districts are resorting to local graduation standards and competency determinations set by school committees. Controversial guidance previously issued by the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education said school districts can still use MCAS scores as part of their local graduation requirements. The leaders of the Massachusetts Teachers Association said the guidance circumvented the intention of Question 2 and, ultimately, the will of the voters. Similarly, the state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education recently approved the 'limited use' of MCAS scores to determine if students are satisfying the competency determination for a high school diploma, also drawing blowback from the teachers union. Springfield invites former students who failed MCAS to apply for a diploma Teachers union urges public to stay informed, speak up about changing ed regs Springfield schools weigh graduation requirements after MCAS test dropped Everything you need to know about MCAS heading into 2025 Read the original article on MassLive.
Yahoo
14-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
East Elementary named one of eight Missouri Gold Star Schools
OZARK, Mo. — The Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) has announced eight Missouri Gold Star Schools for 2025. East Elementary in the Ozark School District has been named one of the eight Gold Star schools. The other seven schools announced were: Collegiate School of Medicine and Bioscience, St. Louis Public Schools Conway Elementary, Ladue School District Eugene Field Elementary, Poplar Bluff School District Green Forest Elementary, Green Forest R-II School District James Walker, Blue Springs School District Marion County Elementary, Marion County R-II Schools Steam Academy Middle School, Ferguson-Florissant School District The program, which aligns with the National Blue Ribbon Schools Program sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education, recognizes schools for outstanding academic achievement or for performing at high levels while serving a significant proportion of disadvantaged students. The U.S. Department of Education's Blue Ribbon Schools will be announced this fall. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
