Posted inEducation

Putting standardized testing to the test

WITH SPRING COMES the annual ritual of MCAS testing in Massachusetts schools. It’s how we gauge the performance of individual students as well as schools and districts. The assessment of basic skills in math, English, and, more recently, science offers a snapshot of academic achievement levels, and it is the central measure used in the […]

Posted inEducation

Homing in on new Boston superintendent

THREE FINALISTS HAVE BEEN NAMED in the search for a new Boston school superintendent, but it’s hard not to wonder whether home field advantage will be what matters in the end. Look no further than the front page of today’s Boston Herald, where Boston Latin graduate and local school leader Oscar Santos gazes earnestly at […]

Posted inThe Download

Homing in on new Boston superintendent

Three finalists have been named in the search for a new Boston school superintendent, but it’s hard not to wonder whether home field advantage will be what matters in the end. Look no further than the front page of today’s Boston Herald, where Boston Latin graduate and local school leader Oscar Santos gazes earnestly at […]

Posted inEducation

Charters facing backlash all over country

IT ALWAYS SEEMS to come back to charter schools. Los Angeles teachers went on strike for just over a week and the strike ended with the teachers getting much of what they wanted — smaller class sizes, full-time nurses at every campus, librarians at every secondary school, additional counselors at high schools, a 6 percent […]

Posted inEducation

Trying times for Hampshire College

IT WAS STILL very much the thick of Eisenhower-era conformity, in 1958, when the presidents of Amherst College, Smith College, Mount Holyoke College, and the University of Massachusetts Amherst put together a document called The New College Plan. It envisioned a fifth college in the Pioneer Valley that would break from the conventional norms of […]

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