The transformative agenda the Governor has put forth proves that a shared commitment to children and a passion for education can secure Massachusetts’ standing as an education leader for the future. (Read the Boston Globe editorial on the Governor’s Readiness Project)
Jackie Jenkins Scott, president of Wheelock College, Thomas Payzant, former superintendent of the Boston Public Schools and Joe Tucci, president, chairman & CEO of EMC Corporation, agreed to chair the effort. Over the course of a year, they led a thoughtful, deliberative and inclusive process.
A leadership council of 19 and more than 200 individuals, working through 13 subcommittees, traversed the state gathering data and seeking input from education stakeholders. They held more than a dozen open meetings, town halls with the Governor, and countless smaller gatherings with parents and leading education experts.
In addition to the Project’s leadership and subcommittees, Readiness Reps – parents and concerned citizens – created a grassroots network to gather ideas and support the Project through advocacy and information sharing. The Project’s overall outreach effort, and the deliberations that followed, yielded numerous recommendations that will be reflected in the final Readiness report.
The end result is a blueprint for action that outlines the challenges, opportunities, needs and imperatives in public education in order to prepare all our children for the challenges inherent in the 21st century economy. I look forward to your comments and suggestions as the Governor rolls out the entire Readiness agenda over the next few days.
Please let me know what you think!
I will gladly provide feedback once I can read and study the whole report.
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p>I will consider it from the aspect of:
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p>1. Special education students.
2. Students in foster care
3. gifted students
4. transition to work & higher education.
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p>Looking forward to a good read and analysis once I can get my hands on the full report.
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p>I don’t want to respond to the press reviews and media spin, but rather to the work done by these 200+ dedicated folk.
I know people here and elsewhere will have a range of views on the propositions made by the project.
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p>But, commenting on the process from the outside looking in, it seems like this represents the culmination of Governor Patrick’s governing philosophy and could be a useful model (even if not at the scale of activity as for the Readiness Project) for tackling other long-term challenges facing the Commonwealth.
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p>It sets out clear aims/objectives. Provides tangible policy recommendations. Was consultative and will be deliberative. Based on evidence and findings collated quite extensively from the field. Key stakeholders were brought in throughout. All in all – this is the way strategic challenges should be grappled with. Quite an undertaking and quite impressive.
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p>And now the Governor can drive the agenda based on a very strong foundation in evidence and ideas. Not all the recommendations will come to pass but it will shape the debate for years to come. Facilitating informed dialogue is a key part of effective governance.
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p>I know a great deal of effort will be required to implement the Project’s findings and recommendations. But, I also hope that as the Administration moves to do that during the next two years, it also finds the time to examine other strategic challenges in the same deliberate and consultative manner it has with education. This is not to say the same level of resource and time can be devoted to other issues but that the same strategic outlook is applied.
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p>I think State-local relations, sustainable growth/planning reform, health care costs and preventive care, and citizenship/civic involvement would all be ripe for further strategic review and dialogue – to name a few big issues.
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or the legal system, I find it hard to believe that the project leadership would be dominated by college presidents and CEO’s of random corporations, who know little about what happens in the classroom.
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p>Education has a knowledge base in research. There are also hundreds of educational research professionals across the state. They are under-represented in the Readiness Project. What it gains in stakeholder involvement it loses in professional knowledge.
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p>Public education belongs to all of us, it is true. And politically and practically, it is important to involve the multitude of stakeholders, but why this would produce the best result is beyond me.
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p>Mark
is a Republican who is a McSame supporter. How’s that for irony?
so why don’t we think differently in addressing that issue. I would advocate a sustainable fund for education in MA, with the source of funds being a combination of the State, the Federal government, the localities (to a minor degree) and (hopefully) a substantial amount from “charitable” contributions. Initial grants from large foundations could “prime the pump” so that the continuing costs would be affordable and assisted by earnings of the fund.
with luango..while it will be interesting to read the final report and dissect and analyze the real effect of this initiative I am extremely impressed with the broad, detailed, and inclusive consultation that went in to the process. How rewarding not to have a gov’t leader telling us what is best for us but instead allowing real input from industry experts and those affected by the results. Kudos to the Gov and staff on this one.
sorry for the typo
I don’t really understand how we’re going to be able to afford to pay for the Governor’s proposal.
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p>And, if we do, will that get in the way of paying for the critical and immediate needs of this state – such as making bringing all the towns up to 17.5% with Chapter 70, making sure we can afford our teachers’ health care and benefits – without compromising the quality of them – etc. Towns across the state are shutting schools and libraries down; I’m not sure this was really the right time for new, sweeping and expensive policy proposals, especially if they’re going to be unfunded or only partially funded mandates.
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p>I’m really concerned that there’s too much emphasis on big, revolutionary changes… and not enough on the real nuts and bolts. Let’s not forget that we already have the nation’s best educational system, but not for long if we continue to make cuts all across the state. Our focus should be on a) avoiding those cuts and b) making sure we reach every student in every district in this state. I think the Governor’s plan does a lot to do that (duel enrollment, universal pre-k, 2 yrs free cc, etc.), but there’s so much else in the plan that I’m afraid those ideas are going to be drowned out.
Municipal finance is different than corporate finance. Yet the advisory board on school finance seems to lack two vital constituencies.
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p>Municipal finance. Are there any town finance committee members on the panel? The Mass. Municipal Association can certainly recommend someone with a mix of volunteer and professional experience who is in line with the governor’s thinking.
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p>School committees. The people who have been struggling with balancing school budgets, and facing the voters with the results, are school committee members.
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p>Together we can, but only if we are together.
I want to add my perspective as a local Readiness Coordinator. In Cambridge, we have a diverse group of about 50 people: parents, teachers, academics, human service folks, elected officials, and others. We’ve had two well-attended local meetings since January, done out-reach and logistics for one of the 14 town meetings, and talked with stakeholders about the Readiness Project. There may be things in the Report that cause unhappiness among individual participants in our group, but everyone has been genuinely excited about the opportunity this initiative presents for bold, structural changes. I don’t think anyone in our group thinks that the status quo, or incremental change, is a good idea–even things that seem to be working fine now may be in crisis within ten years unless we keep moving aggressively toward the future. A real challenge for us, as a diverse grassroots group, and for everyone looking at the Readiness proposals, is to look at the package as a whole and not get fixated on the individual pieces we would do differently. At minimum, we are going to get an important policy and values dialogue about what we want public education to look like, and how we fund that vision.
Do the people of Massachusetts look like they grow wool on their backs? There’s a difference between being a grassroots movement and being a herd. This has crossed the line.
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p>There are some significant changes in those “individual pieces” that will forever alter the way the state does business. Putting teachers under the employ of the state, instead of local communities? Dozens and dozens of new Charter Schools, after the Governor promised in the campaign to freeze them? I’m supposed to ignore that in favor of the few ideas I like? Not only will I not agree to that, but I find the very fact that it was suggested offensive. No offense.
I understand that you may disagree with some of the initatives in the Readiness Project – that is fair game. But to suggest a process that included 200 dedicated members of the Readiness Committee, over 800 Readiness volunteers around the state, many town halls and public hearings and viewpoints from all sides of the education universe “has crossed the line” does a disservice to the countless hours these people dedicated to developing a consensus on the next phase of education reform.
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p>If you want to disagree around the policy, let’s have that debate. That can only sharpen the final results of the Readiness Project. But let’s not fall into the trap of denigrating the motives of the many volunteers who helped shape these important initatives by likening them to a “herd”.
Change is always difficult, but the professionals who teach on a daily basis, if they are honest with themselves and have paid attention to outcomes research, will acknowledge that change is needed badly.
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p>I’m a high school teacher in central Mass and have begun following the Readiness Project proposals with interest. Our high school is in the process of a major metamorphosis because, candidly, what we have been doing is insufficient in meeting the needs of our students as they move on to both the workplace and to post-secondary educational opportunities. Some of the reforms we are talking about (Breaking Ranks II, Coalition of Essential Schools, & 21 Century Skills) are quite scary, but the majority of the educators in our building of 700 students know change is necessary. After three months of guided self-examination and reflection, our faculty arrived at some inescapable and wholly depressing conclusions. We put a plan together and presented a lengthy rationale for reform as well as a complete five-year timeline to our school committee a few weeks ago. The take-home message? We are failing as professional educators, we are appalled that our students are faring so poorly in college, we are ultimately responsible, and we plan to make major changes to correct the situation. Thank you for your attention. G’night.
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p>These are dark and stormy nights. Only the educators who are willing to read the writing on the wall will weather the sea change ahead. And that’s okay.
But the point in which you can reach a student extends no further than the classroom – or maybe a parent’s phone. For the most part, Bay State teachers IMO do an excellent job, are well trained and try hard. Where Massachusetts fails, as a state, is in providing teachers with enough resources to reach students that are currently unreachable: mainly, the one’s we lose at home.
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p>If kids just aren’t going to do their homework, there’s not much else you can do given the current situation. I really think the only way to remedy that is to make sure all of these students can get their work done at school, before we lose them. That can only happen with extended hours, free tutoring and a larger financial and time commitment by this state.
This isn’t about homework. I’m not talking about kids with significant social issues or disengaged or challenged parents. I’m talking about the appalling numbers of our graduates who are attempting to make it through college and failing. I’m talking about the average kid who gets As and Bs, does the homework, but still scores below the state average on the SAT. All our kids pass that MCAS, though, which tells those who are teaching high school just how immaterial that assessment is. :snark:
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p>The instructional strategies and methodologies employed by many teachers in the Commonwealth are outdated and ineffective. The same is even more true for teachers in other states. The days of teaching a discrete body of knowledge the way we did 50 years ago are gone. We can no longer afford to be content-driven in our approach. And this is where the rubber meets the road, given the nature of teaching and the insular classroom in an era of growing indifference to professional development as a budgeted priority. As a profession, we are just now beginning to realize and appreciate the societal influences that are changing the manner in which students learn as well as the skills they will need to be successful in a 21st century society and marketplace.
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p>Massachusetts is making progress, and, indeed, is in the vanguard in recalibrating to the realities our students will face. The English and Math frameworks are in the process of being rewritten with the Partnership’s skill sets at the foundation. The traditional curriculum will be expanded to these core subjects:
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p>English, reading or language arts
World languages
Arts
Mathematics
Economics
Science
Geography
History
Government and Civics
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p>and these core themes:
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p>Global awareness
Financial, economic, business and entrepreneurial literacy
Civic literacy
Health literacy
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p>Skill-based instruction is at the fore, and that’s a good thing. Massachusetts joins Maine, North Carolina, South Dakota, West Virginia, Wisconsin, Iowa, Kansas, and New Jersey in recognizing that the traditional models are not meeting students’ needs, and the professional educators in the state who are paying attention and putting students first are looking forward to revised curricula that is relevant and meaningful.
in that case… I think there’s something to the fact that for 18 years of a kid’s life, we pamper them, help them, we tell them when to go to sleep at night, then suddenly they’re sent off to college with lots of expectations and little direction. The work they do is completely different than the work they did in school. It’s all too much, too soon for many, and the pressure gets to them. Stress, high demands, alcohol, drugs, being alone, depression, obnoxious roommates and bad relationships… I’ve seen all of those either make people end up going to college longer or outright dropout. All of them.
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p>As someone who was a TA at college for Internation Relations, tutoring dozens of people with their IR papers among many other things, I will say that I was shocked at how atrocious some people were at writing: I had a few people who were so bad, I had to refer them to the Reading and Writing Center. I didn’t even know where to begin!
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p>I’ll also state that in Eng 101, I was fairly horrified by the fact the prof actually had teach the structure of a thesis paper and how to write one, because there were legitimately people that didn’t know how. The level of difficulty in that class was around what I was doing in the 7th or 8th grade, and the grading was far easier. And half the class needed it!
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p>So, yes, I will agree that our educational system is failing in some regard, disproportionately so in many communities. Of course, I can make assumptions that we’re failing to reach those kids, but you’re probably right: we’re probably just not teaching them what they need to know. Here’s the relevant questions for this thread, though: is there anything in the Readiness Project that would go a long way toward universally solving that gap? And how many of these failures are due to a lack of learning at the K-12 level versus the high expectations, stress and strife college students face as they’re alone for the first times in their lives?
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p>I’ve not studied the fine detail of the RP, but I believe the pedagogical observations from what I’ve skimmed are spot on. Every time you read a reference to the 21st century, be aware that the Patrick committee is invoking the Partnership, whose principles are informing the new state frameworks. Just about everything we are doing in our school is based on the Partnership’s core subjects and themes (in conjuction with Brown University’s Education Alliance and the Coalition For Essential Schools). In truth, one cannot, absolutely cannot, have an informed dialogue about instructional integrity and efficacy if one is not fully steeped in the core concepts put forth by these three organizations. So to the extent that the instructional model put forth in the Project’s outline is consistent with the Partnership’s model, I believe this is a huge step in the right direction. An associates degree is the new high school diploma, but nearly 60 percent of community college students drop out. And 30 to 40 percent of high school students are unsuccessful in their four-year post-secondary educational endeavors. This is appalling.
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p>It’s not college life that is causing students to bail; they are bailing because they are unprepared for the rigors of college-level instruction. They do not have the skill sets, never mind the core content knowledge, to sustain them in acquiring the core knowledge they lack. That is the problem, and the Patrick administration seems to get that as one of the factors needing remediation if we are to remain competetive in a global marketplace. Instructional methodology must change; it is no longer effective or relevant. Were students to leave high schools more prepared for authentic inquiry, collaborative teaming, problem solving, and critical thinking in the literacies required, they would not struggle so desperately in college.
America has made life more expensive and more difficult for poor and middle class people the past three decades. it’s tough to stay in college if you’ve got massive debt from health problems, or have to move from apartment to apartment.
The data we’ve collected from a variety of sources, the demographics of the students, and the reports of students themselves indicate that the majority of our, i.e., my high school, students are leaving not because of money but because they find college too hard and frustrating.
I remembered your recommendation of “Out Stealing Horses” a while back. I happened across it a couple of days ago at Barnes and noble and picked it up. I wanted to thank you for mentioning it. It is just a fantastic book. Probably my favorite since Life of Pi.
I loved Life of Pi as well, as did my son, so we named our rescued mutt from the pound Richard Parker. 😉 Glad you enjoyed Out Stealing Horses; it’s so quiet, dignified, and elegant–a rare treat these days.
One anecdote for sure, but, part time I teach college math courses at community colleges.
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p>The level of knowlege of simple mathematic functions with fractions with this year’s Freshmen is simply appalling. Fractions! Adding, substracting…
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p>Multiplication. It’s not unusual, in the process of solving some equation for a student to not know that 8 x 9 is 72.
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p>Regardless if you believe that more money will solve that issue or not, the cost of college is NOT the problem, and making Commnuity College free, is not the solution. i.e. if someone doesn’t know how to do basic mathematics after 12 years, why will they know it after 4 more?
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p>Further, I’m not going to guess what the eduction solution is, but an entry level commnunity college Freshman ought to know fractions and they ought to know the multiplication tables.
I said that suggesting we don’t criticize singular policies because there are other good policies in it is offensive.
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p>Also, that wasn’t directed toward you or the administration, but a singular poster who suggested we remain silent on issues we don’t support, because there are other ones we do.
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p>You’ll note that I left some fairly friendly critics for you in a different post on this thread.
http://hubpolitics.com/2008/06…
Yes, I am sticking around. Now, that may be a good thing or a bad thing, depending upon how you feel things have been going. But yes, nothing to that rumor.
The proposal to consider consolidating school districts is a very good one that should be pursued despite all possible opposition from superintendents and some real estate professionals.
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p>As a resident of Maynard Massachusetts I live in a town where it would make sense to regionalize but neighboring towns refuse to do so out of terror that a consolidated school district might very slightly reduce average SATs to the point where no one could get into college and then utterly run real estate values forever. These fears are vastly overblown and real estate values should not be a major guide to educational policy or funding.
I hope this idea gets a fair hearing and lots of support.
With very tight budgets regionalization of some services is well worth considering if this can reduce administrative costs and improve the offering of services.
In Massachusetts, regionalization is like a marriage. You want a wealthier and more beautiful spouse, and face it. When you are surrounded by Concord-Carlisle, Lincoln-Sudbury, and Acton-Boxborough, you are not the beautiful bride. You don’t have the tax base, and there’s no incentive for them to bring you into the fold.
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p>Regional school districts were created before Proposition 2.5 and education reform. Many of the promises (increased local aid, 100% transportation reimbursement) have not been fulfilled. There is little incentive for communities to regionalize, and the confusing funding formula under ed reform does nothing but encourage arguments between member towns.
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p>There will need to be a significant change in the way regional districts are organized and governed before municipalities will voluntarily create new or expanded regions.
For those interested, you can view Governor Patrick’s address on the Readiness Project, and view the entire report, here.
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p>The speech was delivered on June 25 at the JFK Library. The Governor and Secretary-designate Paul Reville used the occasion to bring together for the first time in our state’s history the four boards charged with overseeing our entire public school system.
Hi Doug:
The Governor deserves credit for breaking a cycle of confusion and complacency around a statewide education agenda and for outlining a vision that puts the best interests of students at its center. I am, however, concerned about the political tea leaves and what they suggest about the Governor’s ability to realize any new objectives.
1. Despite the legitimacy an inclusive process affords, the Readiness Project was riven with frustrations and participants had little connection to the end product. At the end of the day, most of these stakeholders will defend their own turf. With a vision as ambitious as that outlined in the report, how will you narrow the agenda to ensure that you’re fighting a limited number of constituencies at a time? Fortunately, there’s some low-hanging fruit in the pipeline which the Governor can capitalize on in the short term. But what happens next?
2. Preliminary signs from the Governor’s office suggest a lack of strategic political planning. Yesterday, State House News reported that Senate President Murray says she was not briefed on the Readiness Project; and appointees to the Readiness Finance Commission seem to be too thin in regards to, as Pablo noted, subject matter expertise as well as people willing and able to help carry the water on this with the Legislature. If the Governor is serious about realizing even a quarter of these objectives, please better cover the political bases.
3. The Readiness Project is valuable in its own right, but it also served another purpose — it allowed the Governor to buy time (a lot of time). By design every short-term objective hinges on a tight FY10, when the Governor will be running for reelection (presumably). How will a bold and contentious education agenda get sufficient attention from him? How will election baggage impact his political capital and ability to translate a vision into reality?
I don’t expect that you have ready answers for these questions, but I hope that someone of your caliber is thinking about them. Thanks for reaching out for input.