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High quality urban education is fundamental to Metro Boston’s future.  The current inequality in educational outcomes across the region disproportionately affects minority and low income students, and discourages middle class families of all races from living in urban communities.  Greater equity in education quality across the region means that fewer students would attend underperforming schools, more graduates would be ready to participate in the region’s high-skill economy, and families would have more choices about where to live.  Achieving this vision will require excellent teachers, capable administrators, supportive guidance, engaged families, and adequate funding.  

It is critical to build capacity within public schools through training and professional development for teachers and administrators.  The private sector has a critical role to play, through sustained partnerships that provide staff support and access to resources.  Schools also need a more graduated and responsive system of support, administrative flexibility, and state intervention that will help to reverse negative trends for schools before they are officially failing, and continuing to support them through their improvement.  Measuring student performance is necessary to document success, apply responsive curriculum, and ensure accountability, but the current system of testing fails to accomplish the objectives that a more integrated assessment method might.  

Parental engagement is a fundamental component of success, especially for low income students, students with special needs, or English language learners, all of whom face particular challenges in the classroom.  Strong parental engagement efforts can also benefit parents and families, building community fabric and increasing access to health and social services that are a precondition for educational attainment.  Finally, it is important to recognize the importance of school choice opportunities, so long as those opportunities are available to all, and do not exacerbate existing problems by drawing resources away from public school districts.  

The recommendations described here are not intended to be a comprehensive strategy for educational reform in Massachusetts.  Such efforts are already underway, both through the Governor’s Readiness Project and various private sector initiatives.  Most importantly, many urban school districts are already making strides toward improvement.  As a regional planning agency, MAPC does not possess the expertise to develop an exhaustive and definitive set of recommendations about public education.  However, MetroFuture would be deficient if it lacked some attention to the critical importance of education.  MAPC staff consulted with allied organizations, reviewed the recommendations of other recent efforts, and assessed the initial findings of the Readiness Project to identify approaches consistent with those elsewhere in the plan: develop capacity, strengthen partnerships, use data to guide policy, and address issues within a regional context.  

There are many issues that this section does not directly address: how to balance the need for assessment and monitoring in so called “core” subject like reading and math with the value of enrichment courses such as music, arts, physical education that are often eliminated or underfunded in favor of preparation for high-stakes testing; how to improve science, technology, engineering, and math performance critical to tomorrow’s economy; how to best support students with special education needs; and others.  These are critical challenges, and may benefit from regional solutions; MAPC will continue to work with allied organizations to evaluate potential solutions and advance those consistent with MetroFuture’s goals and objectives.  It should also be noted that while the recommendations focus on urban school districts, not all urban schools are underperforming, and not all suburban schools are trouble-free.  The application of these recommendations need not be limited to urban communities.

1)    Build teacher and school capacity through trainings and partnerships

2)    Modernize school administration and intervention strategies

3)    Support students and engage their parents and communities

4)    Increase school choice in underperforming districts