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

A few thoughts on Tuesday's Board meeting

 This is my ongoing reminder that the only thing you see here is me thinking about things; no one else's policy or position is here.

• While getting to Methuen was a bit of a pain, it's nice for the Board to meet somewhere other than DESE's office. The degree to which the Board is very removed from schools is not helpful.
  
  
• We now have regulations that adhere to the mess of a law the November ballot question left us with, pending further action--eventually?--by legislators, which I guess are going to be informed by the Statewide Graduation Council. I've already noted that I am dubious about this group and its makeup, and I'm even more dubious about the work of any group this large writing a report. Plus, I don't think the Legislature should be the body deciding what it takes to graduate from high school. 
  But obviously, no one asked me.

May Board of Ed: vocational admission

Tutwiler: never been about casting aspersions on career-tech leaders or educators

Methuen High School auditorium

"has been about advancing values that reflect that every student" warrants a chance to pursue access

recommending one minor change to the middle school access, and three substantive changes to the weighted lottery
heard "loud and clear" the demand for more seats

May Board of Ed: opening comments

Today's meeting is being hosted by Methuen High (which has a stunning auditorium, and I'd quite like to have a box seat for Board of Ed meetings always, thank you). The agenda, which is regulation central, can be found here. 

If this box seat had an electrical outlet, it would be close to perfect.

updating as we go once they start...this will not start on time. 

Attorney General Campbell does not have time for this nonsense

Please note that the above post title is very much my paraphrase.

Attorney General Andrea Campbell, who is busy suing the Trump administration more than a dozen times* in the first 100 days of this administration, weighed in on the regulations regarding vocational admission in a letter to the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education. The letter, dated April 18, was released today via State House News Service, which covers it here (which is paywalled and so far no one seems to have picked it up).

She opens right up with her own reason to be at this table: "As Attorney General, I am committed to upholding equal educational opportunity for all students in Massachusetts." This is, of course, literally part of her job.

Board of Ed for April: opening comments

 The agenda is here. 

view of the Malden River from the Board of Ed meeting room

So far the Board is lacking a quorum, and my understanding is that there is a traffic jam, so we may be a bit. I will update as we go.

Opening with the people who are here, it seems.

Board of Elementary and Secondary Education for March: opening comments

 The agenda is here. The livestream is here.
I'm covering this one remotely because seven hours of the public hearing yesterday WORE ME OUT!

I would assume today will include many nice words about Russell Johnston, as this is his last meeting. He has borne out my experience with MA Commissioners: our interim commissioners are our best ones.

Joint Committee on Ways and Means hearing on education and local aid

 

sign from Amherst Regional

Coming to you live today from the Joint Committee on Ways and Means hearing at UMass Amherst. A number of the surrounding districts are here--Quabbin Regional brought a bus; Amherst Regional walked over--and I just hope someone told all these people that they don't take public testimony. If you're here and need power, by the way, I have a power strip at one of the outlets, so come over if you need it.

I'll post as we go. Note that they have us in what is the airplane hanger of an auditorium on the first floor of the Campus Center, so I can barely see the committee members; I'm making no promises on being able to identify speakers.

They'll start with intros then have the Secretary with the three Commissioners.

Special meeting of the Board of Ed: March 10 CTE regulations

 Just saying up front: I'm not planning on liveblogging public comments. The news tonight is the question of acting Commissioner. Agenda is here. Note that the regulations proposed have been updated since the last meeting; they can be found here. 

Updating as we go

February Board of Ed: CTE admissions

 Sorry, my laptop ran out of charge during this part...moving tweets from my phone over!

proposed amendments can be found here

Johnston: public comment will be strengthen further 

February Board of Ed: opening comments

 The Board of Ed meets today at nine. You can find the agenda here. You can find a livestream here. 

Please enjoy this photo of swans preening on the Malden River this morning.

It is a "something for nearly everyone" agenda today--vocational admission! charter schools! teacher licensure! graduation requirements! who is going to be the Commissioner, anyway!--and there is a full room (the usual DESE staff in the back of the room are, I assume, watching from their offices), so I assume public comment will go on awhile.

I will further observe that we are getting another good "who has access" view, where Lynn (bless them) has packed the room, and the Pioneer Valley, which is just as outraged, is not as represented, because do you know how hard it is to get here from Hadley for 9 AM??

Big news on voke admission

 When the Board of Ed meets next week, they'll be voting to send out for public comment a revision to vocational school admission regulation that, to use the Boston Globe summary: 

...that would bar the schools from ranking students based on selective criteria like grades, recommendations from guidance counselors, and personal interviews. Instead, they would be limited to using attendance and discipline as screening criteria for students to enter the lottery pool.

It has certainly seemed to me, as one who has been watching this closely, that the sense was that the state would lose a discrimination case on this. Nonetheless, an important step.

January Board of Ed: vocational admission

 admission to career and technical education
West: three meetings of subcommittee so far

possible approaches to admission revision

understanding by process of learning about, apply to and enroll in schools

vocational schools "struggle to gain access" to middle school students
application process is resource intensive for sending as well as vocational districts
schools have their own processes and regional agreements

often see disparities between applicants and admitted students
looked a specific selection criteria; which ones play most significant role in creating disparities
can now task DESE with draft revisions in this area
"may be even to review and send out for public comment" in February

based on what recommendations?

West: fairly naturally from our conversation
"any selective criteria need to be essential to the success of the school if they are having any disparate impact" on protected classes
that's my emphasis
for example: evaluative interview that is rated
could there be a broader way of expressing interest?

Moriarty speaks of visiting a school during the eighth grade visit

Board of Elementary and Secondary Education for January: opening comments

 The Board of Elementary and Secondary Education holds their regular monthly meeting today in Everett. The agenda can be found here. There will be a livestream here.

We're awaiting a quorum in a Board meeting room that is overcapacity (they just started sending DESE folks to their desks to watch), and the press thinks the news today is cell phones. It is enough to make one despair. 

Updating as we go

Board of Ed: CTE admission subcommittee

 chaired by West who starts by thanking everyone
"are changes needed to promote more access" to vocational schools in the Commonwealth
this is West, Fisher, Rocha, Hills

Board of Ed for December: opening comments

 The Board of Elementary and Secondary Education meets today in Everett at 9 AM. You can find the agenda here. 

It is a positive FESTIVAL of faces here at the meeting today...MA Teacher of the year, past student rep Ela Gardiner (home from college! Yay, Ela!), loads of voke superintendents, an MTA group (and that's just who I recognize)...

November Board of Ed in Holyoke: opening comments

 Coming to you live today from Holyoke High School, home of the Knights, making a nice change from the last time I was at a Board of Ed meeting in Holyoke when they were voting on receivership.

The agenda for today is here; don't expect it to start on time.
The high school (not uncommonly!) has social media blocked, so I am going to update here rather than try to update on social media.

updating as we go...

Board of Ed meets Monday and Tuesday

 and met Friday...this schedule is unsustainable. Monday's agenda (online only) is here; Tuesday's in Holyoke is here.

The extra meetings are the vocational admissions study sessions, and, while I did not see Friday's, my understanding is that it got...heated. The stats that DESE staff brought forward last month were not only eye-opening; they made it clear that we have a segregated system that is perpetuated by the admissions process. 

Here are the most noteworthy slides again:

October Board of Elementary and Secondary Education meeting: opening comments

 The agenda is here; livestream is here

My notes from last night are here

and the meeting has started, but there is no sound on the broadcast...

Special meeting of the Board of Ed: voke admissions (part I)

 The agenda is here; the livestream is going to go up here.

Meeting opened by Vice Chair Hills (with an amazing amount of noise behind him)
Johnston opens by saying it will be looking at the impact of the last engineering change
quotes “Every system is perfectly designed to get the result that it does.” (W. Edwards Deming)

Tonight's agenda: