Massachusetts has a responsibility to support schools and districts to improve educational experiences for students. However, the state uses two interconnected strategies – state takeovers of schools and districts and standardized testing – both in high stakes ways that do the opposite. High-stakes standardized testing harms all students by narrowing the curriculum and, for some students, disrupts their future lives. State takeovers disrupt whole communities’ educational programming and school-to-community connections. Both are political strategies, not education strategies, and they're based in part in distrust of teachers and undermining of the teaching profession.

The Thrive Act (H.495/ S.246), filed by State Representatives Jim Hawkins and Sam Montaño, and State Senators Jo Comerford, Liz Miranda, and Adam Gomez, offers an alternative vision. It replaces the failed receivership model with comprehensive support and improvement (CSI) plans that address root causes with a whole child approach and clear accountability and benchmarks. And it makes graduation dependent on successful completion of coursework, which is a predictor of future learning and life success, rather than standardized test scores.

Learn more at https://www.progressivemass.com/issues/thrive-act.