Blog Archive for November 2016

Regardless of how you cast your ballot on Question 2, there is one thing we can all agree on: our state cares about improving education. Although we may disagree about what method of school governance is best to accomplish this, the attention given to this ballot initiative shows us that citizens across Massachusetts consider school improvement a top priority. We need to continue this conversation about school improvement and focus on how we can scale the practices that are working in both charter and traditional public schools across the state.

In 2010, the Jeremiah E. Burke High School in Boston was failing. With over 80 percent of their students eligible for free or reduced lunch, the Burke faced many difficult challenges – a student population dealing with the effects of poverty, community violence, trauma, and homelessness. The Dorchester school had one of the highest dropout rates in Boston, was unable to meet academic goals, and was designated by the state as underperforming. A few years later, it was the first high school in Massachusetts to exit turnaround, coming out with an award for Boston’s most-improved school, EdVestors' Thomas W. Payzant School on the Move Prize.