Massachusetts
State Coordinators:
Resources:
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Feb. 2013:
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Sept. 2011: FairTest Written Testimony to the MA House on School-to-Prison-Pipeline Bills.
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Flawed Massachusetts Teacher Evaluation Proposal Risks Further Damage to Teaching and Learning, by a FairTest working group; report and summary are here.
- See Monty Neill's second written testimony to Mass Bd of Ed on teacher evaluation
- FairTest and allies testified to Mass Board of Education against proposed educator evaluation proposals; their spoken comments are here.
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FairTest Written Testimony to Mass Board of Education against using
student scores to judge teachers.
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See legislative testimony by FairTest's Monty Neill and others in support of a bill to overhaul assessment.
- 2009 Legislation to overhaul state MCAS testing program is here. This bill is supported by Citizens for Public Schools and is based on proposals by CARE: http://www.fairtest.org/call-authentic-state-wide-assessment-system
- Citizens for Public Schools maintains an open listserv addressing assessment and other issues. To subscribe, send a blank message to care-subscribe@yahoogroups.com; or go to http://groups.yahoo.com/group/care/ and sign up from there.
- Tufts University student James Gerber's video on how Massachusetts' MCAS standardized history test will undermine Boston Arts Academy's in-depth and multifaceted approach to teaching art and history. It is in two parts, part I http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Mh5GonqJoQ and part II http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hVI6BfBZGPg&NR=1
- A useful MA website is http://www.massparents.org
- New June 2008 - FairTest's Lisa Guisbond participated in the MCAS and Assessments subcommittee of Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick's Readiness Project. Here is a one-page summary of the subcommittee report."
- Coalition for the Education of the Whole Child report proposes major changes in state testing and accountability.
- Massparents site features Research Showing that MA Dept. of Education inflates MCAS pass rates for classes of 2005 and 2006, masking wide opportunity and achievement gaps.
FairTest finds that nearly 850 four-year colleges do not use the SAT I or ACT to admit substantial numbers of bachelor degree applicants.