Mass is #1 in Education. Can We Keep It?

In the latest CNBC States for Business Rankings, Massachusetts rose to first place for education. It’s a bump that reflects our state’s competitive school system and rigorous academic standards.

But getting to first place is only half the battle. The challenge is maintaining our education standards long term and finding ways to increase opportunities for students across the Commonwealth.

State Ramps Up Efforts to Increase Literacy

The Massachusetts legislature recently passed a bill aimed at increasing literacy rates. The bill, which was signed into law by Governor Healey last month, requires school districts to “adopt evidence-based reading curriculum,” require universal literacy screening, and expand teacher training, among other protocols meant to track student progress. Massachusetts is one of more than 40 states so far to rethink its early reading instruction and adopt similar standards.

Despite strong push back from the Massachusetts Teachers Association (MTA) – which claimed the policies would “undermine” teachers – voters strongly support the new law. In a recent MOA poll, 92% of respondents said they support these efforts to reform literacy practices in the state.

The reform could not come soon enough. Even though Massachusetts students lead the nation in reading, their scores have not recovered to pre-pandemic levels. Other states have also struggled to catch up after school closures and other education disruptions, but recent studies have shown Massachusetts has seen one of the largest learning gaps.

According to a recent study led by Harvard and Stanford researchers, Massachusetts students lost about “two-thirds of a typical year of math learning and two-fifths of a year in reading from 2019 to 2022.” For low-income students in poorer districts, many have actually seen their achievement gap widen compared to before the pandemic hit.

For lawmakers and voters, this law is a step in the right direction to closing that gap and getting our students on the right path.

Keeping Our Educational Edge

The Commonwealth’s world-class education system didn’t happen by accident. It was largely a result of the 1993 Massachusetts Education Reform Act, a sweeping reform that established high-quality academic standards and testing while providing more state funding for local school districts.

To keep true to the policies that initially strengthened our school system, we must stay committed to rigorous standards. The Governor recently took an important step in that direction, recommending a new statewide graduation framework that will set meaningful, objective standards for student achievement.

But policymakers can only do so much. The state’s teachers union also plays a role in helping – or hindering – schools.

Historically, the MTA has dispensed a lot of time and energy on political advocacy, sometimes on issues that have little bearing on education standards or the hard-working teachers they represent. For example, the union’s leadership was a vocal opponent of the recently proposed state income tax cut, despite 78% of teachers supporting it.

The union has also taken controversial stances on policies designed to help students and enforce learning standards. In addition to the MTA’s opposition to the new literacy standards, the union also fought to remove the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System (MCAS) test that up until 2024 students were required to pass to graduate high school. The state is still grappling to instate another way to assess graduation readiness, despite 80% of parents supporting standardized tests as a way to gauge student performance.

This summer, newly elected leaders took the helm at the union, and voters have a clear directive for them. Our latest polling shows only 5% of respondents think political advocacy should be a focus of the union’s new slate of leaders. Instead, respondents were interested in a union that prioritizes recruiting and retaining quality teachers and improving academic performance.

Conclusion

Talented, creative, and well-educated students are Massachusetts’ greatest competitive advantage. They are the future entrepreneurs, researchers, and skilled workers who will drive our economy.

For decades our state has led on education, but it’s not a strength we can take for granted. Other states like Mississippi and Texas have embraced ambitious reforms and are beginning to close the learning gap. Meanwhile, much of New England has followed a downward trend.

But the Commonwealth has every reason to remain optimistic. The new literacy reforms represent a renewed commitment to evidence-based instruction, and overwhelming public support suggests Massachusetts families are united around the goal of helping students succeed.

Sustaining our educational edge will require more than a single policy change. It will require keeping student achievement at the center of education decisions and holding ourselves to the high standards that made Massachusetts the nation’s education leader in the first place.