The Massachusetts Board of Elementary and Secondary Education
Joint Meeting with the Board of Higher Education
The first two hours of our April 28th meeting will be a joint meeting between the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education (BESE) and the Board of Higher Education (BHE). The BHE chairman, recently appointed by Governor Baker, is Chris Gabrieli. Chris is well known to us in the K-12 sector for his work on extended learning time programs and, most recently, the development of the Springfield Empowerment Zone proposal. We will also be joined by staff from the Department of Higher Education (DHE), headed by Commissioner Richard Freeland. Commissioner Freeland is retiring from his position at the end of this academic year, after six years of leading the Commonwealth's higher education system.
The last meeting between the BESE and the BHE was held in January 2013. At that meeting the two boards agreed on a definition of college readiness; reviewed the recommendations of the Task Force for the Integration of College and Career Readiness (ICCR); and received a progress report on the implementation of the MassCore initiative. Since that time, collaboration has continued at the staff level. In particular, Commissioner Freeland has played a major leadership role in the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) project, helping to ensure that the test reflects our expectations for incoming college students.
The upcoming joint meeting on April 28th will be a good opportunity to review and discuss our cross-sector educational initiatives to create a seamless pathway from K-12 to higher education and the workforce. In addition to PARCC, these joint initiatives include: supporting the transition from high school to college; creating career pathways; providing feedback from colleges to high schools; preparing our future teachers for careers in education; and delivering professional development to the current teaching workforce.
Chairman Sagan, Chairman Gabrieli, and Secretary Peyser have outlined three goals for the joint meeting:
- to brief all board members on the various joint initiatives already in place;
- to review the respective roles of the two boards in the PARCC decision-making process, the timeline for decision-making, and the information that is expected to be available to support the decision-making; and
- to identify and discuss possible additional areas of collaboration between the two sectors.
Enclosures