Massachusetts is rightly recognized as having one of the best public education systems in the country, thanks to the high standards established in the 1990s and the talent and hard-work of our teachers and school leaders. Nevertheless, elementary reading scores have stagnated or fallen, large numbers of high school graduates are not prepared for college or the workforce, and we continue to see staggering achievement gaps between communities and across student sub-groups. There is no silver bullet to fix these persistent problems, but there are promising strategies that are working here and around the country that we should adopt or expand.

First, we need to redouble our commitment to high expectations and accountability for results by ensuring that Massachusetts continues to have world-class academic standards and assessments (see question 3, below). Second, we need to directly and urgently address the needs of students who are stuck in the Commonwealth’s lowest performing schools and districts by expanding the DESE’s capacity to intervene effectively with a comprehensive strategy for whole-system change, building on our recent success in Lawrence (see question 1, above). Third, we need to help districts restructure their central offices and administrative functions in order to reduce overhead, empower school-level leadership, and free-up resources for increased student learning opportunities, including early education and extended day programs (see question 1, above). Fourth, we must strengthen our successful career and technical schools, expanding their capacity and increasing the impact of partnerships with employers, while creating opportunities for all students to develop critical workplace skills with real work experience before they graduate from high school (see question 5, below). Finally, we need to build on the tremendous success of our charter schools by removing the arbitrary restrictions that prevent the growth of successful charters and block the introduction of new talent and innovative school models (see question 4, below).

By the end of my first term, I hope to see the following results from the education reform initiatives described above: