The Board of Elementary and Secondary Education had their first year of 2026 fully remotely, as travel due to the weekend storm was still difficult. The agenda is here; the video of the meeting is here. The meeting opened, as always, with Board member introductions and with public comment.
Several public commenters referenced the Commissioner’s proposed goals, being considered this meeting. There were comments on gifted education, the cell phone bill, the funding of schools, graduation requirements, and literacy curriculum.
Secretary Tutwiler congratulated the state School Counselor of the Year Henry Wan of the Lexington Public Schools, saying “counselors really shape the heartbeat of a school.” He also noted that Massachusetts is on track for universal access to preschool in the Gateway Cities.
Commissioner Martinez spoke of what a highlight visiting schools is for him, and noted the 63 schools recognized recently at the State House for academic excellence and growth. He also spoke on the transition of Lawrence Public Schools to a single receiver: Lauren Woo, the Deputy Commissioner. This is designed, he said, to build capacity in the School Committee to “help them go back to a self-governing board.” He said there are now subcommittees working on the graduation council’s recommendations.
The Board first took up a presentation on educator preparation program review and approval, with a focus on early literacy. The full presentation can be found online here. There are over 1200 preparation programs with 62 sponsoring organizations; on average, there are 4300 completers of programs each year. A periodic formal review is done by DESE itself–they do not outsource this–and approval generally is for seven years.
The following slide shows what is looked for in the formal review:
The goal of educator preparation is to “well-serve all students in Massachusetts, particularly those from systemically marginalized groups and communities such that all students have equitable opportunities to excel in all content areas across all grades.”
In response to a question from Member Kristin Smidy, the Board was told that the Department was able to compare those on emergency teaching licenses due to the pandemic and those who came through educator preparation programs, and those without the educator preparation had students who did significantly worse particularly in math and science.
The Board was then given a “spotlight” update on program review for early literacy; this is an accelerated program for reviews on literacy instruction. The approval criteria cover all literacy knowledge and skills. This shortens the timeline from 8 years to 4 years in the review cycle; all will be reviewed by 2028. This measures the alignment of programs to new approval criteria, through course observation, observing the quality of placements, and using literacy-specific candidate observation. All results are published on DESE’s website.
The department has signaled that this is what is required for several years, the Board was told, in response to a question of if there is any resistance to implementation; if there is any, the accountability process would then kick in. As there is, as Chair Craven said, “a lot of professional development time that the taxpayers are supporting through local contracts,” she asked how maintaining a licenses accounts for this, which was somewhat outside the scope of the presentation today, and is handled by a different section of the Department.
Member West asked if these ratings are used by districts in hiring. While the Department encourages this, it likely varies.
Member Smidy said that the presentation came about because the Board was concerned about how educators are engaging with these programs, and said, “I don’t think I have enough information to answer that.” The Department conducts surveys of those currently enrolled with a goal is to ensure all candidate are having an equitable experience. The Commissioner closed by saying that the goal is to make these programs accessible.
The Board next took up an amendment to the Seal of Biliteracy regulations, returning to the Board for a vote after public comment. Two small changes were made to the proposed regulations in response to public comment:
- permit districts to include seal insignia and/or a line of text stating the student earned the seal and in which language it was earned
- require not only reporting annually from districts, but also the specific languages and if students earned more than one
The Board accepted the amended changes as proposed at this meeting.
The Board then took up an amendment to the student records regulations, also returning to the Board after a period of public comment. No comments were received. The Board accepted the amended regulations as proposed.
Finally, the Board received a report from their committee on the Commissioner’s evaluation. Vice Chair Hills presented the following proposed goals for the Commissioner, organized into four main areas, as highlighted here in bold:
• Policy
o Achievement. Present to Board (and receive support) a near-final plan to work collaboratively with identified districts to reduce and eliminate gaps compared to 2019 and improve achievement beyond that baseline including
buy-in from superintendents
strategies with gameplans for successful execution
role of DESE including cultural implications
overall performance metrics with timelines
key resources (financial and people) required
o Statewide Graduation Standard. Finalize with Secretary Tutwiler (and receive Board support) the recommendations for new statewide graduation standard including
all state and local elements
evidence to support links between new statewide standards/requirements and academic achievement expected for graduates
implementation timing including legislative and regulatory changes needed
resources needed for DESE and district changes
o Student Attendance. Present to Board a plan to work collaboratively with districts to improve student attendance and significantly decrease chronic absenteeism including
Buy-in from superintendents
Performance metrics with timelines
Key resources needed
o Literacy. Present to Board a plan to implement and expand literacy initiatives including
Number of students and districts with timelines
Metrics with timelines
Key resources needed
o Teacher Pipeline. Present to Board additional strategies to increase teacher pipeline overall and for teachers of color
Metrics with timelines
Key resources needed
• DESE Organization Structure. Finalize/near finalize organizational restructuring
o Alignment with reporting relationships
o Senior team
• Board and Governance.
o Continue developing collaborative and productive relationship with Secretary Tutwiler
o Continue regular communication with Board overall and individual members
• Stakeholder Relationships. Continue strengthening collaborative relationships with superintendents, school leaders, and community {amended: educator} and parent organizations
The ensuing discussion focused entirely on “educators” not being listed in the “collaborative relationships” listed in the final goal. It was amended to be included, as noted above, and the goals were approved.
The Board then briefly heard from CFO Bill Bell, who promised them a memo upon the release of the Governor’s budget, which is expected tomorrow. As such, he briefly outlined for them the state budget process.
The Board then adjourned. They are scheduled to next meeting on February 24, 2026