The MTA submitted public comment on the proposed amendments to the school and district accountability regulations on May 18, 2018.
The Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) released proposed amendments to 603 CMR 2.00: Accountability and Assistance for School Districts and Schools. We are not really sure what the new accountability system will look like in practice because the proposed regulation change are pretty generic. The DESE released several versions of a PowerPoint presentation over the past few months:
- December 18, 2017 version.
- January 2018 version (with weighting information).
- Spring 2018 version.
- School and District Accountability and Assistance Advisory Council on May 8, 2018 version.
- Board of Elementary and Secondary Education (BESE) special meeting on May 14, 2018.
Apparently, the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education (BESE) intends to vote both on the proposed regulatory changes and the accountability system based on what is detailed in whatever version of the PowerPoint is shared at the June 26, 2018 BESE meeting. ¯_(ツ)_/¯
The Massachusetts Teachers association submitted public comment on May 18, 2018 on behalf of the 110,00 MTA members. The MTA’s public comment calls for the approact to school and district support to be flipped:
Spend more time on assistance and resources to create high-quality schools and less time on complicated and inscrutable metrics designed to categorize them. We should not embark on another magical metrical tour that does not address how to provide assistance to struggling schools.