Adult and Community Learning Services (ACLS)

Year 1 of Race to the Top in Massachusetts: By the Numbers

Overview

• $250 million over four years (through school year 2013-14)
• 258 participating districts, including 1,309 schools, 52,000 educators, and 675,000 students
• 86% of students in poverty are enrolled in districts participating in the program.
• 50% of the award goes directly to participating districts. An additional 10% is available as competitive grants. The remainder supports state systems that will benefit all districts.

Build a workforce of effective educators

• The state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education approved a new regulatory framework for educator evaluation, designed to place student learning at the center of evaluation while providing meaningful feedback to educators about their practice. The new framework will be implemented in Level 4 (underperforming) schools and early adopter districts in 2011-12 and in the remainder of Race to the Top districts in 2012-13.
• 53 superintendents new to the role or their district are participating in our New Superintendent Induction Program to prepare a new generation of leaders to take on this complex role.

Provide curriculum and instruction resources

• The state adopted new curriculum frameworks in English language arts and mathematics, incorporating the Common Core State Standards. 80,000 copies of the frameworks were delivered to educators, and the state held numerous workshops to familiarize educators with the new standards.
• 175 Massachusetts educators are working with the state to develop and test content for a new statewide teaching and learning system, including model curriculum units and curriculum-embedded performance assessments to measure student progress.

Prepare students for college and career

• Districts established six STEM Early College High Schools to provide pathways to college for populations traditionally underserved in higher education and STEM careers.
• Nearly 500 middle and high school teachers have participated in training to increase the rigor and quality of courses preparing students to take AP coursework in the junior and senior year.
• 26 districts received planning grants to develop Innovation Schools: in-district, charter-like schools that operate with greater autonomy and flexibility with regard to curriculum, staffing, budget, schedule/calendar, professional development, and district policies.

Use data to improve instruction

• Over 1,700 educators participated in state-sponsored training on effective use of data to drive instruction.
• The state implemented the Schools Interoperability Framework in 65 districts, automating state data reporting and allowing districts access to data in our state Education Data Warehouse in near real time.

Turn around our lowest performing schools

• The state identified the 35 lowest performing, slowest growing schools in the state as Level 4 (underperforming) schools and provided them with substantial resources to drive improvement.
• 22 of these schools made combined gains in English language arts and mathematics of 5 percentage points or more in the percent of students scoring proficient or higher between 2010 and 2011.