MCAS this year? OK, question 1: Why . . . just, why?
Updated February 19, 2021, 2:30 a.m.
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We donât need an assessment to see what schools, students are missing
Re âMassachusetts needs to test students to diagnose COVID-19 learning slideâ (Editorial, Feb. 17): Once again, the Globe aligns with the commissioner of education in the mandating of testing as a way to advance education. I have a few test questions of my own:
Might the education community already be aware that the pandemic has exacerbated existing socioeconomic and racial achievement gaps? Do schools need tests to âdiagnose any learning deficitsâ and decide how to use federal money? The editorial says, âPerhaps the results will only reinforce the obvious.â Anyone with the common sense of a middle school student would conclude that.
BOSTON Enrollment in early college programs in Massachusetts has continually increased over the past three years, even while the COVID-19 pandemic has thrown many teenagers post-high school planning into flux.
Data presented to state education officials Thursday showed a total of 2,864 students enrolled in early college programs in 2021, up from 2,512 last year and 1,140 in 2019.
The Baker administration began officially designating early college programs, partnerships that allow students to take college courses and earn the accompanying credits while still in high school, in 2018.
Members of the Board of Higher Education and Board of Elementary and Secondary Education reviewed statistics on early college enrollment and outcomes at an early college joint committee meeting held by videoconference.
By State House News Service
Enrollment in early college programs in Massachusetts has continually increased over the past three years, even while the COVID-19 pandemic has thrown many teenagers post-high school planning into flux.
Data presented to state education officials Thursday showed a total of 2,864 students enrolled in early college programs in 2021, up from 2,512 last year and 1,140 in 2019.
The Baker administration began officially designating early college programs, partnerships that allow students to take college courses and earn the accompanying credits while still in high school, in 2018.
Members of the Board of Higher Education and Board of Elementary and Secondary Education reviewed statistics on early college enrollment and outcomes at an early college joint committee meeting held by videoconference.
More than 300 days have passed since public schools in Massachusetts had to close due to the coronavirus pandemic, resorting instead to remote or hybrid learning programs that have proved inferior for many students. Yet, at least in Massachusetts, there isn’t reliable data to assess the stunted progress and outright learning loss that many students have experienced during this time.
That’s why the announcement last month that a modified version of the MCAS will be administered this year is welcome. Although the MCAS is typically a graduation requirement for individual students and a way of measuring the performance of districts, it won’t serve either of those purposes this year. Instead, state Commissioner of Education Jeffrey Riley told the Globe the test is needed this year to diagnose any learning deficits. “Right now we are hypothesizing that students learning exclusively remotely are probably going to have more gaps than students who are in-person (full time) or in hybr