Mass. Education Receives Low Marks for Policy

While few Harvard professors will give their pupils below a C-, the National Council on Teacher Quality was not afraid to give Massachusetts a near-failing grade in its latest state survey on education policy.

According to the report, Massachusetts received an overall grade of D, which was below the national average of D+. South Carolina received the highest overall score, with a B-.

The council evaluated each state in terms of 15 goals, broken up into three sub-areas.

Massachusetts state policy received a D- for identifying effective teachers, a D+ for retaining effective teachers, and a D+ for dismissing ineffective teachers.

According to the report, Massachusetts “completely missed seven goals, met a small portion of four, partially met one, and nearly met one and fully met two.”

One of the goals that Massachusetts met was establishing teacher induction programs in which new teachers are assigned a mentor. Massachusetts also fared well in increasing the salaries of teachers who teach in shortage subject areas or work at schools that are classified as “high needs.”

However, the report also notes that there are a number of areas in which Massachusetts can make significant improvements. These areas include making tenure decisions meaningful, setting clear penalties for teachers with unsatisfactory evaluations, and ensuring a fair pension system.

Sandi Jacobs, vice president for policy at the National Council on Teacher Quality, said the study was conducted because state policy has a real impact on teacher quality and student achievement.

“A lot of policies are more harmful to teacher quality than they are helpful,” she said.

Jacobs said that although the poor results were not surprising to the Council, she is confident that if states institute the report’s regulatory recommendations, teacher quality and student performance can improve.

“We’re pretty confident that we’re not proposing pie in the sky recommendations that cannot be implemented at the state level,” she said.

Jonathan E. Palumbo, education press secretary of the Massachusetts Governor’s office, said that the administration is aware that the educational system has problems.

“We recognize that we need to work harder, work stronger, and do a lot more to making the teaching profession more attractive in Massachusetts,” he said.

—Staff writer Sofia E. Groopman can be reached at segroopm@fas.harvard.edu.