New Report Raises Stakes for Education in Massachusetts

While Massachusetts is touted as a national leader on education, the state is still a long way from ensuring all students are on track to succeed. Significant readiness and performance gaps persist at every phase along the education pipeline, from birth through college and career. To help inform education leaders and policy makers about what we are doing well and where we need to improve, the Rennie Center for Education Research & Policy recently launched its Condition of Education in the Commonwealth project, which Barr helped to fund. An annual review of student progress and proficiency in Massachusetts, the project will monitor four critical stages in student learning and development:

1. School readiness and early learning
2. Student performance and engagement
3. Successful preparation for and transitions to post-secondary education
4. Postsecondary progress and attainment

The project also tracks the preparedness and effectiveness of teachers in the Commonwealth.

For school readiness and early learning, for example, here are the indicators for 2013:

To see how Massachusetts fared on the other indicators in 2013, and to track future reports, which will take deeper dives into the data and provide policy recommendations, visit the Rennie Center.

Barr’s goal for public education is to eliminate achievement gaps in Boston. Though the Condition of Education provides a statewide assessment, we saw it as a critical input for education leaders fashioning the next generation of education policies that will impact students in Boston and across the commonwealth.