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It's STEM Week in Massachusetts, an annual effort to “boost the interest, awareness and ability for all learners to envision themselves in STEM education and employment opportunities.” On Thursday, October 20 at noon, MBAE will host a virtual event with state and industry leaders to announce a new STEM pathway that will focus on graduating high school students with Associate Degrees and credentials in priority industry sectors. We hope you will join us. Please register in advance.  

MCAS Results Show Need for Research-Backed Strategies

2022 MCAS scores released in September show some improvement in math and science from 2021 levels, but ELA scores declined over that period and all scores were below pre-pandemic levels.

In a Boston Globe news story, Commissioner Jeff Riley warned it could take five years to recover lost learning. That’s a long time in the kindergarten through twelfth grade experience of a student and many who were in middle and high school grades during the pandemic don’t have that kind of time to wait.

Because we know from Brown University research that MCAS is predictive of attainment and labor market success, we know that pandemic learning loss, if not urgently addressed, could impact the economic well-being of today’s students for the rest of their lives. Districts must act with great urgency to leverage the significant federal funds they’ve received to invest in research-backed strategies as well as long overdue innovation.  

Early College Innovations in the North Shore and Merrimack Valley aimed at Helping Students Acquire More College Credit

Two exciting and innovative Early College programs being offered in communities in the North Shore and Merrimack Valley were the subject of an MA4EC event co-hosted by MBAE on Monday, October 17th that celebrated the increased investments the administration and legislature have secured to make growth and innovation possible. 

This Fall, Lynn Public Schools launched the first Early College High School to be located on a college campus in Massachusetts. Through this partnership with North Shore Community College, 75 Lynn Public Schools freshmen are the first to attend the new school whose ultimate goal is for students to graduate with a high school diploma and associate degree, saving them considerable time and cost to degree completion.

Meanwhile, public school districts in Haverhill, Lawrence, Lowell, Lynn, and Salem are partnering with their local colleges to pilot Early College Promise (ECP), a pilot program designed to enable students to earn an associate degree or 60 transferable credits by high school graduation. Under the ECP model, students in state-designated Early College programs can opt to defer high school graduation to have an extra year during which students take a full schedule of college courses while continuing to receive the wraparound support available through their high school and college partnership. Springfield and New Heights Charter School in Brockton are also participating in the ECP pilot.

MBAE Membership Continues to Grow

MBAE is pleased to announce Suffolk as our latest Premium Business member, as the company joins a growing list of organizations representing the diversity of our business community, united in our shared goal to improve public education and eliminate achievement and opportunity gaps for all students. Suffolk is a titan of our corporate community and model of civic leadership in the places where it does business. "As we contemplate our industry's current and future talent pipeline, now is the perfect time to invest in a partnership with MBAE. MBAE's advocacy efforts match our own priorities and values very well, particularly its initiatives focused on expanding career-connected learning opportunities for students,” said Patricia Filippone, Suffolk's Vice President of Business Development. As MBAE expands our advocacy and policy agenda, we look forward to amplifying the essential voice of employers like Suffolk in the education policy discussion. 

Recommended Reading

A new report from the Massachusetts Education Equity Partnership, There is no Excellence Without Equity, issues a call to action, asking that we “seize this moment with federal and state funding, a greater public demand for change than we have seen in years to call on current and future state leaders to make tackling the Commonwealth’s long-standing educational inequities a top priority.”