The schools, 15 years later
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A NEW STUDY marking 15 years of education reform points to tough challenges in cities and towns with burgeoning enrollments of low-income students and those lacking English skills. It's a sobering report. But it's not intimidating. Education reform in Massachusetts has always been focused on elevating students in hardscrabble communities.
Lawmakers understood in 1993 that students in Chelsea, Lawrence, Holyoke, and other poor cities couldn't compete for academic honors with their suburban counterparts. But the Legislature could equalize average spending per student and ensure that every school district had sufficient resources to implement the state's new academic standards.
Fifteen years later, the study, by the think tank MassINC, finds that an achievement gap still exists between middle-class and low-income students. But the authors conclude that the gap would be wider without education reform. And many students in poor communities hold their own in a state that leads the country in performance on national standardized tests.
Given the low starting points in the early 1990s, the impact of education reform in poor communities has been nothing short of "striking," says the report. Last year, 74 percent of African-American 10th-graders passed the high-stakes MCAS exam in math and English on their first try, compared with just 37 percent in 2001. Public education remains one bright spot in a state where so many are frustrated by weaknesses in other systems, from pensions to the MBTA.
The study notes sharp increases over the past 15 years in the number of low-income students in Randolph, Everett, Brockton, and other communities increasingly abandoned by the middle class. Immigrant students with limited English skills take the empty seats. But the arrival of newcomers with lower incomes doesn't have to translate into poorly performing schools. For example, smart school systems recruit internationally for teachers capable of working interchangeably in English and a foreign language. And smart lawmakers will provide funding for such efforts.
The strategies to improve student achievement in poor communities are largely understood. Unknown is whether today's lawmakers will show the same resolve as their earlier counterparts who committed at least $1 billion in additional funding each year for K-12 education. Extending the school day with academic and enrichment programs works wonders in low-income schools. But the state Senate's current budget plan shortchanges that effort. The state still needs an incentive plan that places the most effective teachers in low-income districts. And teachers unions need to drop their outmoded resistance to merit pay for top teachers.
In a soft economy, the kids aren't getting any richer. But they can get smarter.
