District/School Administration Administration
The Massachusetts Board of Elementary and Secondary Education

Testimony on the FY10 Elementary and Secondary Education Budget Senate and House Committees on Ways and Means

March 9, 2009

Vice-chairman Kulik, Senator Downing, members of the Joint Senate and House Committees on Ways and Means, thank you for the opportunity to testify on behalf of the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education's Fiscal Year 2010 Budget. For the record, my name is Mitchell Chester, and I am the Commissioner of Elementary and Secondary Education.

I am nearing my one-year anniversary here in the Commonwealth, and can see why Massachusetts is the envy of the nation. Our students are engaged, our parents are involved, and our teachers and administrators are working together to move their schools into the 21st century through innovative teaching and learning strategies.

Fiscally, we are in the midst of the most difficult economic crisis of our lifetime. Recognizing the state and nation's grim fiscal forecast, I remain convinced that there is no better way to spend our limited dollars than on programs to specifically address the needs of our students. It is our responsibility to ensure that each of the Commonwealth's nearly one million students - regardless of race, ethnicity or zip code - has access to and receives the tools and support they need to graduate from high school, and be successful in college, career and beyond.

The investment in education that the General Court has made over the past 15 years has yielded great dividends. The proof is in the results: Our students lead the nation on the National Assessment of Educational Progress and on the SAT exams. In September we announced continued progress on the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System exams, particularly in Mathematics; and in December we announced that our state outscored most of the world on the Trends in International Math and Science Study (TIMSS).

With the overall goal of ensuring that all students receive an education that prepares them for success after high school in the 21st Century, I have worked with the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education and my staff to set several goals for our work this year and next:

• Curriculum and Instruction: As part of a reorganization of the Department we have created a new Center for Curriculum and Instruction, which includes the Offices of Humanities, History and Social Science; Mathematics, Science, Technology & Engineering, Literacy, English Language Acquisition, and Instructional Technology. We are reviewing and updating the curriculum frameworks in English Language Arts, and Mathematics and are scheduled to begin Science next. In addition, the Center will provide teachers and administrators with access to curriculum resources and models of best practice.

• Educator Quality: Without question, the key to good instruction is having top notch educators in the classroom and enthusiastic and engaged administrators running our schools and districts. I thank you for the support you have given the Department in the past for professional development, particularly in math and science; as evidenced by this year's TIMSS results, this support is making a difference.

  Going forward we plan to create a professional development delivery system to provide educators with tools to identify their professional growth needs and offer regionally based opportunities for teachers to enhance their content knowledge and instructional practice. Your continued support will allow us to continue this important work, which will benefit not only our teachers, but our students, and ultimately the economy of Massachusetts.

• Turnaround of Low Performing Schools and Districts: Last summer the Legislature placed the work of the former EQA into the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. To meet the requirements of the law, we now have two centers: the Center for School and District Accountability and the Center for Targeted Assistance. We are working to restructure the way we identify, support and help turn around our lowest performing schools and districts.

• Student Support Services: We are committed to ensuring that the non-academic supports for students - social, emotional, health - are deliberate and aligned with the academic program. By working with other state agencies that support children and families, we are implementing a number of initiatives that are designed to ensure the coherence of the services so that students are accessible for learning.

This work will undoubtedly benefit from President Obama's American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, which will provide many of our local school districts with a significant infusion of additional money over the next two years. Much of this funding will flow through the existing Title I and IDEA formulas, with smaller amounts available for a number of other programs, including technology, and McKinney-Vento.

We expect to receive final allocation amounts and regulatory guidance from the US Department of Education shortly. As soon as we have that information, we will notify districts of the amount they can expect to receive and the procedures for accessing and spending those funds.

We recognize that a portion of these federal dollars will be used by local districts to maintain existing services and avoid excessive layoffs. At the same time, because these funds will only be available for two years, it is important that they be used for strategic investments to provide long-term benefits that can be sustained once the stimulus funds expire, such as increased capacity, cost savings, and improved services.

I am grateful to Governor Patrick and Secretary Reville for working to shield K-12 education as much as possible from the difficult 9C cuts that were made to the FY09 budget this year. I am also grateful to the Governor for managing to hold Chapter 70 harmless in the midst of this difficult budget cycle. This effort to shield our schools from the budget axe did not go unnoticed.

The Governor's House I budget, while austere, maintains critical programs and services. By consolidating line items in House I, Governor Patrick has provided the Department with the opportunity to determine where we most need to direct our limited resources. This is an important distinction to past budgets, and I would encourage you to support this method, at least until the economy improves and we have more flexibility with our spending.

Thank you again for your time today, and I will be pleased to respond to your questions.