MCAS Makeup Work
The Boston Globe
Editorial
November 26, 2003
The "underperforming" label is sure to sting educators and parents in the Holyoke and Winchendon school districts, the first school systems so designated by the state Board of Education under the Education Reform Law. But the painful mark applied yesterday is not indelible.
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The designation could be a blessing if local officials overcome defensiveness and state officials provide enough technical help and resources to turn around troubled systems. There are good signs already. A memo on underperforming schools by Education Commissioner David Driscoll speaks of the need for "additional state oversight or support." Winchendon Superintendent Robert O'Meara has welcomed the scrutiny. And Holyoke Superintendent Eduardo Carballo isn't throwing up any roadblocks.
"If they have ideas and resources to help us, come on down," says Carballo.
The coming months will reveal as much about the state's capacity to tackle the problem as they will about local districts. State evaluators relied heavily on paper reviews of the "underperforming" districts. Now they will need to find solutions as well as weaknesses. Holyoke officials, for example, are clearly at a loss about how best to educate 7,300 students in a district with a dizzying 39 percent transient rate. That phenomenon in low-income urban districts is a good challenge for Governor Romney's recently appointed task force on underperforming schools.
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Local districts can't evade responsibility. Schools serving low-income students can and do succeed. The Center for Education Research and Policy at the nonpartisan think tank MassINC recently identified common factors for success. These include consistent use of data to improve student performance, personalized instruction, and partnerships with companies and colleges. Holyoke and Winchendon with proper support should be able to shed the label and improve their schools.
