Top seven moments of Tuesday's Board of Ed meeting

1.  Hampshire Regional High School's Select Chorus singing “the world is sustained by three things: justice, peace, and truth,” asserting it is a message that is important "in these times."
   
   
2. Anne T. Dunphy Principal Stacey Jenkins, responding to a question posed by the Department, testifying that there was no program or "out-of-the-box" reason that the district's chronic absenteeism rate has improved. It was an all-school focus on "how are the children?"
   
   
3. Commissioner Martinez noting how beautiful the ride west on Route 2 is this time of year. 
   
   
4. Student member Sara Khan, responding to the SIGNIFICANT new requirements being proposed by the Department for high schools, observing "this is going to be hard" for districts that don't already have MassCore or use MyCap; that her school and others are laying off teachers, not hiring them, and districts do not have the money for this.
   
   
5. Member Kristin Smidy commenting that "student buy-in" on the planning required in MyCap is a question; that its use is questionable if students don't find it meaningful or useful. 
   
   
6. Member Matt Hills considering both himself and his children in ninth grade and the degree to which this (MyCap) would have been useful/meaningful/something they were invested in and not simply a new way of tracking students.
   
   
7. Chair Katherine Craven observing that "the danger is" that districts will see all of the above as an unfunded mandate and simply not do it.

The mill village of Haydenville is where Williamsburg keeps their Dunkin'

Board of Ed for October: State Student Advisory Council

 The backup provided is here, though it doesn't tell us anything

Sara Khan speaking to this from slides that are hard to see
SSAC Summer Leadership retreat
analyzed a lot of data, data gathering and analyzing

Board of Ed for October: opening comments, coming to you from Williamsburg

 The Board of Ed is here today: 

The Anne T. Dunphy School in Williamsburg (which is northwest of Northampton; it's next on Route 9, heading west).

As always, with a board that largely lives inside of 128, the meeting is posted to start later (9:30) and is going to start later than that. Many comments about the location as people come in.

The agenda is here. 

I will update as we go here.

There is a Board of Ed meeting on Tuesday

 And you can find the agenda here.

The out-of-the-ordinary part of the piece of this is that they are meeting in Williamsburg at the Anne T. Dunphy School. For those not familiar, Williamsburg is northwest of Northampton, and it is quite lovely! I recommend visiting sometime, 'though perhaps not for a Board of Ed meeting; don't miss the general store. 

The meeting will start at 9:30, presumably so those making their way west can find it (I will observe here that the heavy traffic actually goes east, and yet, somehow, those are the meetings that start at 9).

In any case...the State Student Advisory Council is sharing their goals for the year, one assumes via student member Sara Khan, who is president of the group. Also on the agenda is the Commissioner's evaluation, and the proposed regulations on literacy.

There is also "K–12 Statewide Graduation Standards: Foundational Coursework and Postsecondary Planning" as an item. I will be interested to see if that notes that the graduation report is a proposal that requires legislative action to move forward--more on that this weekend--and not a done deal, as it has been framed by the Commissioner to date.

None of the above has any backups (which is unusual at least for the regulations, such that I wonder if that is an oversight) as of Friday evening at 6 PM. 

These are Worcester trees,
but I imagine we'll get to enjoy some pretty trees on the drive to Williamsburg.

in search of Polaris: on last night's Board of Ed meeting

 I'd like to be able to give you some sort of meaningful summary of last night's Board of Ed meeting on the DESE strategic plan (liveblog here), but it wasn't that sort of meeting.

Polaris? This is as close as we're getting around here...

Let's walk through some main points:

Bonus Board of Ed for September

 The agenda (which doesn't tell us much) is here. 
The livestream is here.

Martinez: setting new benchmarks for proficiency, lower to zero doesn't meet (I think)
he is just saying this aloud; it isn't shown or written out as to what he's saying...this is really hard to follow

Special meeting of the Board of Ed on the strategic plan

 There is a special meeting of the Board of Ed tonight at 6 PM. The agenda is here. It is fully remote.

This is the meeting that they scheduled on the fly during last Tuesday's meeting, when some members argued that they did not have sufficient time to discuss the strategic plan needs of the Department in light of the state accountability results. There was a request that materials be updated in light of that, though nothing has appeared online (that doesn't, of course, mean that members don't have new material; they might). 

Board of Ed: literacy law implementation

 They're now adding a meeting to Monday night at 6 PM

there's a report here but there's also a PowerPoint which I wonder if we will get
anticipate bringing regulations in October as law "is quite prescriptive"
we're doing some retrospective stuff

curricular requirements:

Board of Ed for September: opening comments

 I'm under the weather, so this one is coming to you remotely...

The agenda is here; the livestream is here. 

DESE has extended the embargo of  assessment and accountability results until 11 AM today.

The Board of Ed meets this week

 And it is MCAS and Accountability release week.

The agenda for the Board of Ed can be found here. The MCAS data will go up on the school and district profiles at 10 AM Tuesday. As a reminder, always check the accountability data, as it's much more complex than just the testing, which will inevitably grab the headlines. 

(Yes, that's why that whole section of the website will be offline starting at 3 tomorrow.)

In addition to the release of MCAS data and accountability status, the Board has some start-of-the-year housekeeping--election of the vice chair, introduction of the new student member, the appointment of subcommittees--plus something on the literacy law implementation, which expanded the Department's authorities on determining what curricula is used, a power that had belonged to school committees in Massachusetts until now. 

There's also an update on DESE's strategic plan. In one of the ongoingly places I find the relationship between the Commissioner and Board confusing, it appears the Commissioner is simply announcing it, not presenting it for approval, despite (I'd assume?) the Board being in charge of setting of goals and overall direction. 

June 2026 Board of Ed: State Student Advisory Council

 State Student Advisory Council 
for some reason, they never link to the presentation from the SSAC on these...I wish they would

used extensive amounts of data in their work
host successful regional and statewide stakeholder engagement events

It's a two meeting week for the Board of Ed

 As a reminder: the Board has a special meeting tonight (Monday) at 5 PM virtually, specifically on the recently released graduation report. 

They have their regular June meeting tomorrow at 9 AM (yes, both agendas are a single page) in Everett. That agenda includes the end of the school year things--the Mitchell Chester award, the end of year report from the student rep from the State Student Advisory Council--along with some end of year informational reports (off agenda) including both the chronically underperforming schools report, and the non-operating school districts report (my personal favorite Massachusetts education trivia question!). 

There is also a report on civics education (you might remember this was a request of the chair at the last meeting) and a report on the operating conditions of Pioneer Valley Chinese Immersion Charter School, who the Commissioner is recommending being released from their current conditions but:

 While I recommend that the Board remove the current conditions, concerns remain about the board’s governance practices, such as an Open Meeting Law violation and other deficiencies in complying with the Open Meeting Law; inconsistent implementation of the board’s review and approval processes; and, based on review of board and committee meeting minutes and observations of board meetings, indications that board trainings have not led to improved governance practices or a clearer understanding of the role and responsibilities of the governing body. 

This is pretty interesting, as (as you would see if you searched their history on this blog), PVCICS has had what I'd call a storied history when it comes to their relationship with the state that charters them. Among other interchanges, they're the only example I remember of Paul Sagan, when he was chair, being utterly exasperated by something publicly, when they applied over the head of the Commissioner for an expansion that had been refused by the Commissioner. I would say that they have a culture of going their own way, so to speak. Speaking so directly to their governance is interesting. 

There are also two rounds of regulations up for vote: special education (which is aligning regulations with state and federal law) and interpretation and translation. I did a brief thread on my own comment on the proposed regs yesterday on Bluesky, but I do recommend reading the public comment summary overall. 

I won't be on for tonight's meeting, but I'll be posting tomorrow from Everett. 

Do they read all the comments? Yes! There's mine.

The graduation report is out

 ...and now rather than talking about what people think it might say, it can be read. You can find the whole thing here. (I haven't read it yet.)

The report says it is to the Governor and "Legislative Colleagues," but the first formal discussion will take place at a special evening meeting of the Board of Ed on Monday evening at 5 PM. The agenda isn't up yet, but the livestreams come over this YouTube channel. 

State House News (link via WGBH) reports that two things of note for those who have been following this: 

1. This isn't going to happen right away: "The report proposes the implementation of the first MassCore cohort entering 9th grade in 2027-2028, and the implementation of the other requirements the next school year with incoming freshmen."

2. The Council appears to have doubled-down on the recommendations that the state-administered final exams count when it comes to graduation: 
   

   The report recommends one state-designed exam in English language arts, one in mathematics and one in science, while also encouraging further exploration of a history and social science assessment. The tests would be designed, administered and scored by the state and taken when students complete specific courses.
   Unlike the December recommendations, however, the final report explicitly states that "Performance on the EOC assessments will meaningfully count toward students' academic record and path to graduation." 

   Exactly how much those exams would matter remains on open question. 

   The report says, "Following additional planning and engagement of stakeholders, the Council co-chairs will determine the specific role that EOCs will play in students' academic record and graduation." 

   That language leaves unanswered whether graduation could ultimately depend on passing the exams, and seems to contemplate a significant role for test performance.

   As a number of us have been consistently noting: the state is the entity required to ensure there is a public education system that fulfills its constitutional obligation to each student. 

Board of Ed for May: Opening comments

 The Board today is meeting at Hudson High School, the school of student member Isabella Chamberlain. The agenda is here; the livestream will go up here. 

chalking outside of Hudson High School today

There is a good chance this will start late. 

April 2026 Board of Ed: opening comments and Miliken Award

The Board of Ed has their regular April meeting today beginning at 9 AM. The agenda is here; the livestream will come up on their channel over here. 

flowers in downtown Boston yesterday

Today is the first meeting at which the new Secretary, Steve Zrike, will be present in that capacity. As a reminder, Zrike was Salem superintendent, though most of his appearances at the Board of Ed previously were in his prior-to-that position as Holyoke receiver. As an offhand observation, today is the eleventh anniversary of the Board voting the Holyoke Public Schools into receivership; I don't know if there's a balance to that or not. 

Also as a reminder, the Secretary is a single member and a single vote on the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education (as well as the two other education boards, Early Ed and Care, and Higher Ed), serving at the pleasure of the Governor, who appoints him*

I will update this post as we go

And then a discussion about school committee authority broke out

 Something happened at last Tuesday's Board of Ed which doesn't happen at 99.9% of Massachusetts Board of Education meetings¹: someone not only mentioned school committees, but there was even a smidge of a discussion about them.

This came in response to a (properly posted) update from the Commissioner on Fall River. You may have seen that the Fall River School Committee recently moved to fire their superintendent without cause; she resigned. At the request of the Mayor, the Department is completing a targeted review of district governance.

Fall River Public Schools had their last comprehensive district review in 2025, as required by MGL Ch. 15, sec. 55A, under state regulations 603 CMR 2.03. Those regulations, passed by the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education, require that the review include: Leadership and Governance, alongside Curriculum and Instruction; Assessment; Human Resources and Professional Development; Student Support; and Financial and Asset Management. Those are always the areas reviewed for every district.²

Within that last report for Fall River, released in November 2024, within the Governance analysis, DESE reported the following: 

According to focus groups, working relationships between district leaders and school committee members are still in early stages and are sometimes tense. As mentioned above, the superintendent is new to her role and began leading the district in July 2024 and, as such, a formal evaluation has not yet been completed. According to interviews, the superintendent is still working through her formal entry plan into the district and trying to “build a little bit more of a network and relationships with the school committee.” However, district leaders also reported that the current superintendent faced opposition from several members of the school committee upon her promotion to superintendent from her previous role as assistant superintendent and chief academic officer. Currently, there are still reported tensions between the school committee and the district superintendent, and both agreed that there was occasionally “strain” in the relationship regarding the best way to collaboratively fulfill their responsibilities and benefit the district. Despite this, in interviews and focus groups, both parties reiterated their commitment to Fall River and their desire to collaborate effectively to improve the district and outcomes for all students. Building rapport between both parties is an area for growth in Fall River.

As they were doing a report early on in a new superintendent administration, this is a measured, but early warning, view of what the Department saw then. Then the Fall River School Committee underwent an election last fall in which three of the six seats changed (the seventh member, the mayor, stayed the same), with the above being the outfall.

What I found most odd about the above bit of discussion in the meeting, beyond it happening at all, was the common concern of Chair Katherine Craven and Vice-chair Matt Hills: they were very concerned about the Department's relationship with the "democratically-elected school committee."

While I agree that the lines of authority are always³worth keeping an eye on, it's very odd to hear this from the Board leadership, which in its tenure, has not expressed all that much concern about the very removal of school committee authority that state receivership is. The school committees in receivership districts are also democratically-elected, and yet it has been from the successor of Commissioners after Jeff Riley that the impetus has come to return them to local authority. That could have come from this chair and vice chair at any time in their tenure. Instead, it took Russell Johnston as acting receiver to finally move. That, mercifully, has continued forward. 

The Commissioner is appointed by and evaluated by the Board. If "democratically-elected" school committees having authority was this much of a concern, Craven and Hills had ample opportunity and reason to speak earlier. They did not. 

Interesting time to speak up. 

¹I have been to almost every one for fifteen years. Take it from me.
²You can find the list of district review reports on the Department's website here. They are not always right (in my view) but they are always worth reviewing.
³not just in the 0.1% of the time they deign to remember that school committees exist, let's say.  

March Board of Elementary and Secondary Education: opening comments

 The Board of Ed meets today at nine. Their agenda is here; the livestream is here. 

I'm joining this one remotely, as I spent yesterday at the Fordham Education Law Symposium, which was great, and maybe I will write about that here at some point. 

Three takeaways from this week's Board of Ed meeting

 Three things that stuck with me from this meeting: 

1. Both the Commissioner and CFO Bell gave a "yikes*" when it comes to federal grants during the budget update. While the federal entitlement grants were level funded by Congress, they're reallocated by state and then by district each year by demographic information. The state and districts may see less money this year.
   
   
2. Depending on what language the conference committee on the literacy bills comes out with**, the Department may end up in the awkward position of enforcing something that doesn't exist. In the literacy discussion, they were careful to note that their standard for "high-quality instructional materials" isn't "evidence-based" because "very few materials on the market have evidence of efficacy." This is, of course, more evidence (hmph) that the Legislature shouldn't be involved in this, but should be leaving this to the level of authorities who are doing the actual reading on this.
   
   
3. Speaking of not doing the reading, it was alarming to hear, in response to a question posed during the interpretation and translation regulation discussion, that the only guidance or recommendation coming from the Department on the use of AI in translation was that translations be checked by a person. So we're okay with teachers and others just dumping, say, an IEP into a chatbot where it then becomes part of the universe on which everything draws?
   FERPA, people.***
   Let's please do more reading about how this stuff works before turning our core responsibilities over in such ways.

__________________________

*not actually; my interpretation 
**assuming it comes out at all? Is it possible this terrible idea will just die there?
***when it comes out for public comment--it hasn't yet--this would be a very good comment to offer

This is not really related to the above but I thought it was funny.
source

Board of Ed for February: opening comments

 The agenda is here. The livestream is here. The meeting is fully remote.

tree in my backyard
why they are fully remote

Today will be (I believe) the sole appearance of  Amy Kershaw, as Acting Secretary of Education, as Steve Zrike will have started before their March meeting. 

Board of Ed meets Tuesday

 ...and because it is school vacation week, you might miss it, but the agenda is here.

I suspect they'll be spending much of their time on the update on early literacy (the free space the bingo board for this meeting is for "high quality instructional materials"), and the regulations bear review, but I'm looking forward to the only Board of Elementary and Secondary Education appearance of current Acting Secretary Amy Kershaw, who is the Early Education and Care Commissioner.