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Welcome
January 2010
Lifting up our children with better schools
On Jan. 18, 2010, Gov. Patrick signed legislation to update the state’s 1993 education law and thereby add another success to his growing list of reform initiatives. We need the new law: the recent success of Massachusetts students on national and global test scores is wonderful, but it has hidden an educational system failing in our cities that almost no one likes to discuss.
Over the past six months, we discussed and debated this problem in the legislature, and now we have a new law that should rectify it.
The problem in short is our inability to educate all of the children in our inner-city schools. Compared to others in our Commonwealth, city kids aren’t learning as much. They haven’t achieved in school the levels of learning that others throughout the Commonwealth have attained.
“Massachusetts has one of the largest and most persistent achievement gaps of any state in our nation” said House Education Committee Chairwoman Martha Walz. “Nothing short of dramatic and disruptive change will solve this problem. Immediate intervention in schools and districts that are repeatedly, and egregiously, failing our students is what we need, and that is exactly what this new law will do.”
The legislation provides the state’s education commissioner more authority to take control of underperforming schools in cities where the achievement gap is starkest. In schools performing in the lowest 3 percent statewide, the commissioner will be able to develop turnaround plans that involve the state’s social service agencies, in order to address the outside of school challenges so many impoverished, non-native English speaking, and needy children face. The new law also could lead to modification of local collective bargaining agreements in order to put struggling schools on the path to success.
There are three other goals of the new law: lift the cap on charter schools in the lowest performing school districts, facilitate the creation of “innovation schools,” and win funding from President Obama’s $4 billion “Race to the Top” initiative, which could see Massachusetts win up to $250 million in federal aid.
Why more charter schools? In part, because charter school advocates have been clamoring for more, and point toward waiting lists more than 10,000 as evidence of unmet demand. In part, because a ballot initiative was likely to pass this coming November to expand the number of charter schools in the state, but without any legislative guidance to address some charter school shortcomings.
The new law allows for more charter schools in districts performing in the lowest 10 percent of districts statewide, and thus uses charter school initiatives as one method for narrowing the achievement gap without having an impact beyond the lowest performing districts. The bill also establishes strict guidelines regulating the recruitment and retention of students at charter schools, ensuring that charter school student populations reflect the district as a whole. Furthermore, only those operators who have demonstrated a track record of success with children at most risk for underperformance will be permitted to open new charter schools in previously capped districts.
The new law also helps create innovation schools, which will offer alternative education models via collaboration between teachers, administrators and outside entities in an effort to provide new, creative options for the state’s children. Innovation schools will be allowed greater flexibility than other schools on curriculum, length and number of school days, staffing policies (including potential waivers from collective bargaining), and budget.
I supported the final legislation in the state House of Representatives because I believe it successfully strikes a balance between respecting teachers’ rights and providing needy students around the Commonwealth with the best educational opportunities possible. I strongly support teachers, commend their performance, uphold their rights and protections, while acknowledging a need for innovation in our educational system in order to address the pernicious achievement gap in our state.
Many constituents contacted me regarding this issue, both in favor of preserving collective bargaining rights for teachers, and in favor of lifting the cap on charter schools. I believe that the final legislation achieved both of these ends, while strengthening the entirety of the Commonwealth’s educational system by improving schools that are now underperforming.
As an effort first and foremost to support all of our children and their future educational opportunities, this education law is a great success.
Office Hours for February 2010
Friday, February 12th
Please join me at office hours in the district:
- Lincoln Public Library, 3:00 - 3:30 (Tarbell Room)
- Sudbury's Goodnow Library, 4:00 - 4:30 (2nd Floor)
- Wayland Public Library, 5:00 - 5:30 (Raytheon Room
*No appointments are necessary. First come, first serve.
“Ask the Rep”
Wednesday, February 10th at 7:00 PM
Call in during the live show (508-358-3472) or email questions to thomas.conroy@state.ma.us prior to February 9th.
Ask questions... get engaged... start a dialogue!