Background of Education in Massachusetts

The Massachusetts Reform Act of 1993 was the first act passed in the state that shifted the burden of funding schools from the local government to the state.

In theory, this should have decreased the gap in resources between districts, and bridged the achievement gap between high and low-income neighborhoods. However, teachers and students were still faced with a very obvious and real gap.

The No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) was passed under the Bush Administration. The act primarily focused on measuring students' success through state tests and used MCAS testing to assess teachers' performance and success in the teaching curriculum.

NCLB gave the federal government a much larger role in the local school system than it previously held. The act also hoped to increase the performance of English Language Learners (ELLs), special education students, and minority students. If schools did not comply they risked the loss of Title I funding from the federal government. Under this law starting in grade 3 and continuing through high school, the school had to submit reading and writing standardized test scores as well as bring their schools to a proficiency level. The only flexibility in this being that the states could decide what tests they wanted to use and what "proficiency" looked like.

The second portion of the NCLB act that received scrutiny from union workers was the requirement of teachers to hold a bachelor's degree in their field. The state of MA ties this into the first essential element of CAP which is "Subject Matter Knowledge."

The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) was passed in 2015 under the Obama administration but did not take effect until the 2017-2018 school year. This act was passed as an attempt to fill in gaps left by the NCLBA. The ESSA also scaled back the role the federal government had in public education following NCLB.

Updates included; States having to submit an accountability form each year to the DOE, and states also must create goals that encompass student achievement for all learners, including ELLs, special education students, and minority groups. These goals also had to include proficiency on tests and graduation rates. The state then has to intervene at the bottom 5% of performance. State standardized tests such as MCAS are still used 3-12 but the data was broken down into more subgroups to help identify and work on achievement gaps. Standards for each state must also be "challenging" and seek out higher-order thinking.

Transitioning from the NCLB to the ESSA meant differences in funding. Title I funding remained intact but now was going to include ELL students to "prioritize" their achievement.