The Board of Elementary and Secondary Education met for their regular September meeting on September 22. The agenda can be found here; a video of the meeting is available here. During the meeting, the public release of 2026 assessment and accountability results took place; those can be found through the School and District Profile page.
The Board opened with public comment, which addressed eighth graders’ admission to high school; implementation of the PROTECT Act; MCAS results; the literacy law. Chair Craven welcomed the new student representative Sara Khan of Milton High School. Both Secretary Zrike and Commissioner Martinez related their experiences across the state with the opening of school; both also recognized the important work of implementing the PROTECT Act in districts.
Member Matt Hills was re-elected as vice-chair.
Craven initially discussed subcommittee appointments, which will be forthcoming.
Commissioner Martinez opened the discussion of 2026 assessment and accountability results with a series of presentations from schools and districts with improved results, including a panel from Arlington Public Schools and a discussion with the Southbridge Public Schools. Among the common themes that emerged from the presentations were that of common planning time for teachers; of long-serving staff; of elevating student voice; of relationships with families; of supporting students.
The results for MCAS were summarized as follows:
There is some evidence that the majority of schools have stabilized across the last two years.
In nearly all cases, results for meeting or exceeding expectations hover around the 40% for every subject in every grade in which there are results.
The presentation also stressed the importance of attendance; significant work was done to bring chronic absenteeism down this year, and it does make a difference:
In terms of stabilization (not improving over prior), there is hope in the results:
In terms of accountability results: of those schools receiving classifications (for which there is sufficient data to classify), 80% were classified as not requiring assistance or intervention; the remaining 20% require assistance or intervention. The Commissioner is not at this time making any announcements regarding changes in status.
The Commissioner said that this comes down to solutions-based orientation, of what actions need to be taken. He plans to set as a watermark new goals to be met by 2031.
Board members spoke of the sense of urgency these results give them, of wanting both a short-term and a long-term strategy, and agreed to postpone their discussion, given the time, of the strategic plan, to a special meeting called for next Monday, September 28 at 6 PM. Repeatedly mentioned was the need for intervention in schools and districts, and of the role of the Department in setting guardrails and guidance in improving students to grade level.
The Board next turned to the Department’s role in implementing the new literacy law:
The part that will most concern School Committees is the adoption of curriculum, as all districts must have curriculum that meets the requirements by fall of 2027:
DESE anticipates having that list available by October.
Districts then will have a choice of three options:
- adopt one off the list
- use the new DESE curriculum (that doesn’t exist yet)
- get a waiver to use something else
As part of this, the Department anticipates bringing forward regulations as following:
