Notes going up: Ed Reform at 17

I took notes at yesterday's "Education Reform at Seventeen" panel put on by the Worcester Education Collaborative. (There's links up there now...telling.) They are notes (so, not complete sentences), and I'll be posting them in chronological order.

A few thoughts: it was a very controlled presentation (the panelists apparently were each given an assignment; questions were largely asked by WEC, rather than the audience). There was also a single version of the history of the creation of the original ed reform bill in 1993, which largely left out--'though to Secretary Reville's credit, he did mention--that the state was being sued by districts, including Worcester, for underfunding education, and fixing that was a major motivation in getting the bill passed. That the Massachusetts Business Alliance for Education (among others) pushed to be certain that something they regarded as "accountability for increased spending" got into the bill was not the first motivation for getting it done.
Also, the state continues its slow-but-sure de-emphasis of adequate yearly progress (despite this being a tenet of NCLB, which remains in force until ESEA is re-authorized). AYP is not how schools in Massachusetts are being catagorized, as of the new ed reform act in January.