District/School Administration Administration
Education Reform

First Annual Implementation Report

Conclusions

This report brings the 1st year's Education Reform Implementation Plan to completion. A tremendous amount has been accomplished. Beginning with the passage of the Education Reform Act in June, the Commonwealth has taken its first major steps down the long road of public education renewal. The success of these efforts can only truly be measured in decades and generations. The foundation budget, for example creates a standard for equity in school finance, but it won't be until the year 2012 that the Commonwealth can promise that 100% of its students will have received an education that meets the standards of adequate resources. The other standards will take a similar amount of time to be fully implemented.

Nonetheless, interim evaluations must be continuously made to determine if the Commonwealth remains on course. In addition to the ongoing oversight and leadership provided by the Board of Education and its Education Reform Implementation Task Force (MERIT), two other state entities are specifically charged with tracking the progress of Education Reform. As part of her efforts to create a Master Plan for Public Education, the Secretary of Education is responsible for creating an annual Report on the Conditions of Massachusetts Public Schools. The first installment of this report is expected to be completed early next Fall. A second, distinct analysis is underway by the statutorially created Education Reform Review Commission. This Commission, comprised of representatives from the public, the major statewide associations, and the University of Massachusetts has begun to build a framework ffor tracking the long-term progress of Education Reform.

Finally, although the 1st Education Reform Implementation Plan is complete, work has already begun and a new Implementation Plan for the 2nd Year of Education Reform, scheduled for completion in September. Like its predecessor, this Plan will provide a user-friendly guide to the work that is being done by the state to implement Education Reform. Not all of the activities will be preserved in their present form, but the basic structure of the Plan will remain intact.

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