FYI from BSF, 07.28.23
Summer Reading
There is a debate about school funding on Beacon Hill that is getting very little public attention.
Read this oped in Commonwealth that explains why moving the lottery online - even if it means more money for some schools - is the wrong way to go.
Boston School Committee met on Wednesday. Agenda and materials here, focused on the annual evaluation of Superintendent Skipper. The Committee is still short one member; the application and nomination process is open.
How do Boston families think about back-to-school shopping?
The Massachusetts Teachers Association has developed ballot language to eliminate the MCAS graduation requirement. A new poll shows most Massachusetts voters do not agree.
Federal money is coming to address lead pipes in Massachusetts schools.
WalletHub continues its annual tradition of naming Massachusetts as the state with the best public schools.
This story zeroes in on a trend in polling/public opinion since the start of the pandemic: families are satisfied with their schools, others are not.
Public schools are underenrolled in 42 states - what does that mean when the federal stimulus dollars run out next year?
The “homework gap,” explained and graphed.
There has been a dramatic increase in “dual enrollment,” high school students enrolling in community colleges for postsecondary experience and credits. Massachusetts only topped Oregon in its program size.
Another jawdropping report from Opportunity Insights. It is reasonable to assume that high school students coming from families with high incomes had good SAT scores. It’s another thing to know that their wealth breaks a tie with an equally strong middle and low-income peer.
Harvard’s legacy admissions practices are now officially under review by the US Department of Education.
Has AI eaten the college term paper?
The American Federation of Teachers is now sounding the alarm around learning disrupted by social media.