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Education
November 10, 2015

Study: Poor Performance of Other States in PARCC Consortium Would Translate to Lower Standards for Mass.

Attacks on MCAS for not producing “college-ready” graduates demonstrates lack of understanding of test’s purpose BOSTON – Political realities dictate that, as with any tests, passing scores on those developed by the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC)...
Education
November 4, 2015

What True Education Reform Leaders Think About MCAS & Charters

An op-ed in Tuesday’s Boston Globe urges Massachusetts policymakers to adopt the Common Core-aligned PARCC test because MCAS is supposedly too outdated to help prepare our schoolchildren for future success. But as Pioneer has argued in our recent book, and numerous reports,...
Education
October 27, 2015

Testing the Tests: Why MCAS Is Better Than PARCC

Study:  MCAS Less Expensive, More Rigorous and Provides Better Information than PARCC  Authors call for state to phase out both PARCC and Common Core BOSTON – In the wake of an apparent shift by Commissioner of Elementary and Secondary Education Mitchell Chester making...
Education
September 28, 2015

New Book: “Drilling through the Core: Why Common Core is Bad for American Education”

With Common Core Collapsing, New Scholarly Book Informs Debate about Academic Quality, Cost, and Illegal Federal Role in K-12 Education “Drilling through the Core: Why Common Core is Bad for American Education” (377 pp, Pioneer Institute, Boston, $9.95) BOSTON – The Common...
Education
September 23, 2015

Statement on 2015 MCAS Results and Preliminary, Incomplete 2015 PARCC Results

The release of 2015 MCAS results together with a patchwork of preliminary 2015 PARCC testing results provides little new information to help Massachusetts choose between the two tests. PARCC supporters claim the test’s rigor is evidenced by the fact that fewer students...
Education
September 1, 2015

Op-ed: Big money pushes PARCC and Common Core

Each year, much is written and said about K-12 education when students head back to school. That will be especially true this fall, as the education policy community eagerly awaits a decision by the state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education about whether to...
Education
August 18, 2015

How Massachusetts Promoted Achievement Before Common Core & PARCC

Before the Massachusetts Board of Elementary and Secondary Education (BESE) officially decides to adopt PARCC’s testing system in place of the testing system that the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) developed in the 1990s and early 2000s, local school committees,...
Education
July 22, 2015

Study: Common Core & 2 Testing Consortia Violate Federal Laws, Unlikely to Improve Academic Achievement

Study: Common Core and Two Testing Consortia Violate Federal Laws, Are Unlikely to Improve Academic Achievement “Competitive federalism” doesn’t run afoul of federal law, would produce better results Contact Jamie Gass, 617-723-2277 ext. 210 or jgass@pioneerinstitute.org BOSTON – In the wake of...
Education
July 7, 2015

Education Commissioner Mitchell Chester Should Recuse Himself from Upcoming Decision on PARCC & MCAS

BOSTON – Commissioner of Elementary and Secondary Education Mitchell Chester, who later this year will make a recommendation to the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education (the board) about whether to replace MCAS tests with those developed by the Partnership for the...
Education
June 29, 2015

Pioneer Institute Statement on MBAE PARCC/MCAS Study

Recently, the Massachusetts Business Alliance for Education (MBAE) continued its advocacy for Common Core and the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC), a federally funded testing consortium, with the release of a study concluding that the Massachusetts Comprehensive...