Mass Insight Education
Fall 2001
The useful Boston-based outfit named Mass Insight Education has issued this concise guide to helping secondary schools catch up academically. It focuses on preparing Bay State high school students to pass the state's MCAS test, which is required for graduation beginning with the class of 2003. The report distinguishes among various categories of students in need of help. It seems that Massachusetts pupils are doing a lot better in English than in math, which is especially interesting considering that NAEP and SAT data show national trends moving upward in math but not English. Not surprisingly, the most acute needs are among special ed and urban students. To address those needs, the report suggests a number of actions, most of them sound but obvious (e.g. more time, different pedagogies, better-trained staff, better tracking). As other states get closer to making their tests actually count for high-school graduation, they are apt to find this kind of analysis helpful. If you would like to see it, I suggest turning to the web: http://www.massinsight.com/meri/pdf_files/A%20New%20Commitment.pdf
