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This team chaired by Council Vice Chair Jeff Ray, CEO of SolidWorks, is overseeing the following initiatives to build a well-educated regional workforce and to attract and retain working families in the globally competitive technology sector. These efforts build on the Council’s historic advocacy for legislation and regulations that strengthen the region’s P-16 education delivery system, and promote innovative structures, greater accountability, and an increased focus on STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math).
Public Policy
The Council has made the Massachusetts Mathematics and Science Initiative (MMSI) the major focus of the Council’s 2011 public policy agenda. MMSI is dramatically expanding access to Advanced Placement courses in 46 districts across the Commonwealth, and in 2010 helped to double the number of passing scores on college-level AP exams in 21 schools in which achievement gaps in race, ethnicity, and gender were additionally narrowed. Since 2008, this program has increased enrollments in participating schools from about 4,000 to nearly 9,000. MMSI, run by MassInsight Education, is seeking state support as part of its public-private funding strategy. The Council will also continue to work with partners on related public policy efforts including promoting greater ability of cities and towns to design their own health plans outside of collective bargaining to prevent state education funds from being unduly spent on runaway health care costs. The Council also is a member of the Put Students First Coalition that is advocating for a more streamlined and innovative teachers contract in the Boston Public Schools and will continue to participate in the STEM Business Leaders Group, Early Education for All campaign, and related efforts.
As part of its commitment to help implement the Achievement Gap Act of 2010 on whose passage the Council played a key role, the Council is spearheading an initiative by which 12 of its members and partners are serving as non-academic professional development mentors to principals in the 12 Boston Public Schools designated as “turnaround schools.” Volunteers include representatives from Boston University, Choate Hall & Stewart, ConnectEDU, Entegris, Fidelity, FIRST, IBM, MassInsight, Myomo, Northeastern University, Senior Aerospace Metal Bellows, SolidWorks, PTC, and Zoran. The Council hopes to help facilitate best practice learning and application across these schools and through wider networks like those nurtured by the Lynch Leadership Academy at Boston College which brings together principals across public, charter, and parochial schools.
Best Practices and Public Service
The Council is spearheading an initiative by which 12 of its members and partners are serving as non-academic professional development mentors to principals in the 12 Boston Public Schools designated as “turnaround schools.” Volunteers include representatives from Boston University, Choate Hall & Stewart, ConnectEDU, Entegris, Fidelity, FIRST, IBM, MassInsight, Myomo, Northeastern University, Senior Aerospace Metal Bellows, SolidWorks, PTC, and Zoran. The Council hopes to help facilitate best practice learning and application across these schools and through wider networks like those nurtured by the Lynch Leadership Academy at Boston College which brings together principals across public, charter, and parochial schools.
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