Condition of Education in the Commonwealth Report Release

Thursday, January 19, 2017 - 8:30 AM

Omni Parker House, Rooftop Ballroom, Boston

Nearly 200 state education leaders, legislators, and educators joined us for the annual review of the Condition of Education in the Commonwealth, featuring the release of our 2017 Data Report and Action Guide. The Condition of Education provides a "state of the state" on key education trends, bringing together a wide-ranging set of indicators to illuminate areas of success and areas for continued improvement across the education pipeline.

This year's Action Guide looked at the concept of student-centered learning and how, as a state, we can move toward a comprehensive vision of education that makes students the unit of change.

The event featured remarks from Secretary of Education James Peyser as well as a keynote address from Andres Antonio Alonso, Professor of Practice at the Harvard Graduate School of Education/former CEO of Baltimore City Public Schools. A panel discussion featured Chris Gabrieli, Chair of the Board of Higher Education, Paul Sagan, Chair of the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education, and Mary Walachy of the Board of Early Education and Care.

Blog

Rethinking Grading

March 28, 2024

Schools have assessed student learning and growth with essentially the same grading system for more than a century. Since this system was created, the field has learned so much more about the way students learn, the systemic inequities embedded in the design of traditional grading and assessment, and what type of learning leads to success in life. Grading should be aligned with what we know about the learning process, child and adolescent development, and the demands of career, college, and community life. But traditional grading is so deeply ingrained in our culture, that making changes to this system can seem like an insurmountable task. That’s why we partnered with DESE and reDesign to support five unique high schools as they interrogate their traditional grading practices and make shifts toward new systems that better measure student learning and growth.