Mass. will lead effort to develop new tests - The Boston Globe

Mass. will lead effort to develop new tests

Impact on MCAS remains uncertain

Globe Staff / September 3, 2010

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In another signal that the future of the MCAS could be in doubt, a consortium of states led by Massachusetts and Florida received a $170 million federal grant yesterday to design a standardized testing system that is intended to replace a patchwork of tests used by individual states.

The new testing system — vehemently opposed by Governor Deval Patrick’s challengers in the gubernatorial race — is expected to be ready by the 2014-15 school year. It will measure how much students are learning under a new set of national academic standards in English and math that Massachusetts adopted in July.

Like the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System, the program would assess students in grades 3-8 and the 10th grade, and would add grades 9 and 11.

Boston University launches its first capital campaign

This summer the Boston University trustees quietly green-lit the university’s first-ever, big-time fund-raising campaign. It sounds like a small thing, but it is a big thing. Unlike almost every other university its size, BU has never clamped a full-court press on all of its alumni for a billion-dollar capital campaign. (By Alex Beam, Globe Columnist)

Mass. school districts reap benefits of federal funding, but some feel short-changed

While some local school officials are welcoming a pair of recent federal funding awards, several are contending that their districts were shortchanged. (By John Laidler, Globe Correspondent)

Magazine ranks Westwood High School 11th best in state

Westwood High School, Dedham High School, and 10 other public high schools in the suburbs south of Boston have made Boston Magazine’s list of the 50 best public high schools. (By Michele Morgan Bolton, Globe Correspondent)

Citing misconduct inquiry, Harvard professor cancels classes

Harvard psychology professor Marc Hauser canceled a Harvard Extension School class on cognitive evolution that he was scheduled to start teaching yesterday and dropped plans to offer a spring class called “The Moral Sense: From Genes to Law.’’ (By Carolyn Y. Johnson, Globe Staff)

Friday, September 3, 2010