Harvard on Common Core

In this issue:  Harvard Study Shows Educator Support for Common Core | MBAE Supports Vocational-Technical Education Proposals | News Worth Highlighting

“I firmly believe that the Common Core State Standards provide a strong foundation for a high quality STEM education,” Revere High School math teacher Will Schwartz, also a recipient of the National Science Foundation’s Robert Noyce Teaching Fellowship, told the Joint Committee on Education at a Public Hearing on March 7th.

In this issue, read about his and other educators’ testimony, a new Harvard study that shows educator support for the Common Core, and MBAE support for the Governor’s vocational technical education budget proposals.

Harvard Study Shows Educator Support for Common Core

A new study from Harvard University’s Center for Education Policy Research that examined educators’ perspectives on Common Core in five states including Massachusetts found that 73% of teachers have embraced the standards.  Teaching Higher: Educators’ Perspective on Common Core Implementation also found “Teachers aren’t the only ones who have embraced the Common Core; more than two thirds of principals believe that the new standards will lead to improved student learning.”

At a Joint Education Committee Hearing on March 7, teachers testified that a ballot initiative that would repeal the state’s adoption of the Common Core standards “would be a terrible move backwards for Massachusetts students and teachers alike” and “disruptive and demoralizing for educators.”

Cambridge Rindge and Latin School English teacher Ariel Maloney said, “In many ways, the Common Core has revolutionized my teaching,” and stated concern about the “instructional limbo” teachers would be left in should the standards be repealed.

In written testimony, Excel Academy teacher Krista Finke wrote, “In my five years at Excel, we have seen each new batch of 5^th graders come in more prepared to tackle complex, conceptual math problems.  We believe this is directly attributed to the Common Core.”

Superintendents also spoke against the ballot measure.  Superintendent Roy Belson from Medford said the common core standards are an “important response to the new realities of our economy.”

The Harvard research shows teachers have made “large adjustments to their instruction to meet these new demands.  In fact, four out of five mathematics teachers (82%) and three out of four English teachers (72%) reported that they have changed more than half of their instructional materials in response to new standards.”    Efforts that would be wasted if the ballot measure to end the common core passes.

Click here to read MBAE Board member Joe Esposito’s testimony.

MBAE Supports Vocational-Technical Education Proposals

Over the coming weeks, MBAE, as a member of the Alliance for Vocational Technical Education, will urge members of the House Ways and Means Committee to support Governor Baker’s $83.5 million proposal to expand access to high quality vocational-technical education.  The Alliance for Vocational Technical Education is a group that believes every child should have access to high-quality career vocational-technical education (CVTE) programs and that CVTE programs should satisfy the short-term and long-term needs of Massachusetts employers.

The Governor’s proposed investments, through the FY 2017 budget and his economic development bill, are critical to addressing a large and growing workforce skills gap.  MBAE, and the employers we represent, agree with these priorities in the budget proposal:

• $75 million over five years for a new grant program for workforce development training equipment that will help ensure the more than 20,000 students in vocational-technical programs in Massachusetts are training on up-to-date equipment.
• $7.5 million for work-based learning grants that includes significant increases in the dollars spent to provide more access for students to employment opportunities, particularly in STEM fields, and doubling support for Dual Enrollment programs that allow students to earn college credits while still in high school.  The expansion of the dual enrollment program would target cohorts of students in low-income communities.
• $1 million in new Career Technical Partnership Grants, funded through the federal Perkins Act grant funding, to strengthen relationships between vocational schools, comprehensive high schools, and employers.

MBAE, through our Future Ready initiative, will work with the Alliance for Vocational Technical Education to support these proposals and increased investment in regional collaboration, alignment with local economic and workforce development needs, and employer partnerships.

News Worth Highlighting

Amid growing debate about school funding in Boston and elsewhere, a Boston Globe editorial, Budget cuts don’t have to reach the classroom, concludes “BPS will get more sympathy from Beacon Hill and the public when it builds more confidence in its management practices.”

The Boston Globe also makes a strong case why funding charter schools through a separate budget line item is a bad idea. Pointing out that the guiding principle “has always been that funding follows students”, the editorial argues that the debate should focus on how to meet the demand for charter seats.