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American Citizenship, Education
March 25, 2016

Op-ed: State should revive US history requirement

To teach students how to exercise the rights and responsibilities associated with active citizenship in a democracy, Massachusetts should revive the requirement that public school students pass a US history MCAS test to graduate from high school.
Education, Opportunity
March 23, 2016

Addressing Inequality through K-12 Education in Boston

According to a new Boston Redevelopment Authority (BRA) study cited by The Boston Globe, nearly half of Boston residents make under $35,000 per year. These findings, coupled with a January Brookings Institution report ranking Boston number one nationally in income inequality, paint...
Education
March 22, 2016

Guest Opinion: Time to end Know-Nothing legacy once and for all

We should expel the Know-Nothings’ anti-Irish-Catholic amendment from the Massachusetts constitution, and remove bigoted Governor Gardner’s portrait from a position of prominence in our Statehouse.
Education
March 9, 2016

Studies: Western Mass. Charter Schools Using Data to Improve Achievement

Case Studies Describe Best Practices Of Two Successful Western Massachusetts Charter Public Schools Schools are affiliated with, use approach developed by SABIS, an education management organization BOSTON – The reasons why two western Massachusetts charter public schools that contract with a for-profit education management...
Education
January 19, 2016

Study: Charter Schools Delivering on Promise of Curricular Innovation

Mystic Valley and Advanced Math and Science Academy charter schools refine traditional curricula, adjust them to fit their students’ need and create something entirely new BOSTON – A new study profiles two high-performing charter public schools that innovate not by using different...
Education
December 7, 2015

Study: Mass. Charter Public Schools Boosting Achievement for English Language Learners

Schools using inclusion, data-driven instruction, and parent engagement to help thousands of under-served students in Chelsea, Lawrence, and Lowell BOSTON – Massachusetts K-12 education policymakers and all public schools should closely examine the best practices of charter schools in Gateway Cities that...
Education
November 12, 2015

Pioneer Statement on Next-Generation MCAS Announcement

We applaud the Baker administration for proposing that Massachusetts retain its academic independence and testing autonomy, but the Commonwealth should reject any further participation in the PARCC consortium. MCAS has served Massachusetts very well for nearly two decades. The test and the...
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...
American Citizenship, Education
October 19, 2015

Expanding Voc-Tech Education & Equality of Opportunity

Vocational-Technical Education, Equality of Educational Opportunity Are Focus of Upcoming Forum BOSTON – A century ago, African-American civil rights leaders, Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. Du Bois, framed a national debate about educational opportunity and racial uplift.  Washington believed vocational-technical education was...