top of page

Background of Education in Massachusetts 

Massachusetts Ed Reform Act of 1993

Every Student Succeeds Act

Using MBAE's Every Child a Winner report's framework, MERA created a significant change to the support and delivery of Massachusetts' public school and education system. In implementation, MERA proved new financial support to allow this system to establish high standards for its students to meet, a method of assessing the progress towards these standards, and modes of accountability for the schools and districts aiming to reach these standards. 

​

To achieve this, MERA listened to teachers within the state and experts in the education field to develop a curriculum framework that aimed to ensure students would be ready for college. It assessed the curriculum of English literature, math, science, and history fields, creating the MCAS tests as a way to assess progression on these topics. MERA's success was seen clearly in the years to follow, "By 2005, Massachusetts students became the first to score best in the nation in all four major NAEP categories (fourth- and eighth-grade reading and math). Since then, they have repeated the feat on every subsequent administration of NAEP except one." (2)

"The (ESSA) was signed by President Obama on December 10, 2015," (3) and as a bipartisan measure aimed to reauthorize ESEA and revise NCLB's requirements to be more workable to attain the goal of making students ready for college and careers. 

​

Some core provisions of ESSA include: Advancing equity for disadvantaged and high-need students; Requires that all students are taught to meet the same high academic standards; Statewide assessments to ensure vital information is provided to the right persons; Support interventions meant to forward the academic success of students; Increase access to high-quality preschool; Ensure all parts of the education system are held accountable in taking action towards positive change.

Massachusetts Business Aliance for Education (MBAE)

Massachusetts Ed Reform Act of 1993 (MERA)

Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System (MCAS)

National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP)

Citations: 1, 2

Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA)

Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA)

No Child Left Behind (NCLB)
 

Citations

  1. Chester, M. D. (2014, November). Building on 20 year of Massachusetts Education Reform. Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. Retrieved 2022, from https://www.doe.mass.edu/commissioner/BuildingOnReform.pdf

  2. Chieppo, C., & Gass, J. (2021, February 15). How Massachusetts Showed the Way on Education Reform. Pioneer Institute. Retrieved 2022, from https://pioneerinstitute.org/common_core/how-massachusetts-showed-the-way-on-education-reform/

  3. Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA). U.S. Department of Education. (n.d.). Retrieved 2022, from https://www.ed.gov/essa?src=rn

  4. Fries, L., Son, J.Y., Givvin, K.B. et al. (2020, August 17). Practicing Connections: A Framework to Guide Instructional Design for Developing Understanding in Complex Domains. Educ Psychol Rev 33, 739–762 (2021). Retrieved 2023, from https://doi.org/10.1007/s10648-020-09561-x

 
bottom of page