MBAE on Boston Network News
March 27, 2014Linda Noonan, Guest Opinion: Time to take a new educational approach in Massachusetts
April 1, 2014Originally published in Education Week | April 1, 2014. By Sean Cavanagh.
Even though Massachusetts is one of the highest-flying states by academic reputation and test-score rankings, it needs to shake up how it operates and push ahead with a series of ambitious changes to its education system to avoid slipping into complacency, contends a new report released last week.
Commissioned by a leading business organization in the state, the document offers the latest and one of the most elaborate arguments to date that education systems in the United States, even high-performing ones, need to judge themselves against academically stellar foreign nations, whose practices are examined throughout the report.
The argument for educational changes comes from the Massachusetts Business Alliance for Education, which was a lead player in the state’s efforts to establish strong academic standards and other policies in the early 1990s, steps that some argue helped pave the way for years of academic gains.