Why Is MA Educational System Better?

Why has MA been the national leader in educational reform? Because every district in the state had to implement clear and consistent standards that ensured a high quality education for every student. Then it created an assessment based on the standards that measured the equalized results. 

MA established universal standards specific to its own demographics, so of course the results met clear and relevant expectations. 

There's a difference between WHO, WHAT, and HOW. 

The MA standards were identified at the state level (WHO), and the assessments were based on the standards. The individual districts developed curriculum that conformed with the state standards (WHAT) and they did it by engaging the teachers in identifying (HOW) the essential student learnings that conformed with the standards as well as the desired outcomes, the performance tasks, the benchmarks, and the evaluation methods that gave them the tools to perform their miracles in the classroom . 

In RI, the state imposed the nationally developed Common Core curriculum willy-nilly on the individual districts. 

Expedited curriculum development sometimes resulted in radical changes that created gaps in logical development.  For example, math concepts previously taught at the upper middle school level were arbitrarily moved down to the upper elementary level, creating gap years. (A high school science teacher said it was necessary to spend a lot of the first quarter teaching the math that previous students had already learned.)

The Common Core is a compilation of the standards of all the states without regard for demographic differences. Subsequently the state of RI selected and mandated a national assessment that seemed compatible with the Common Core.

Without assessment based on specific and demographically-appropriate uniform standards, curriculum developed by the classroom teachers was still based on the uncoordinated expectations of individual district administrators. 

No clear and appropriate standards - no statewide coordination - no legitimate way to compare performance - meaningless results.

Now that RI has adopted the MCAS (MA Comprehensive Assessment System), it needs to adopt the MA standards if it hopes to improve RI results.