The Core Knowledge Blog

Massachusetts’ newly hired state education commissioner Mitchell Dan Chester tells the Boston Globe he’s “not interested in coming to Massachusetts to manage the status quo.” The state is often viewed as a bright spot, with solid numbers on the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System (MCAS), but to his credit, Chester sound utterly clear-eyed about what he’s walking into. “MCAS is an important cornerstone of the reform agenda but the MCAS has its limitations, and is irrelevant to high-achieving suburbs where MCAS is not the driving force,” he tells the paper. “Passing the MCAS doesn’t mean you’re ready for college.” The Globe reports Chester’s youngest son “a 10-year-old with limited language and socialization skills, struggles in school.”

In Pennsylvania, high school students could have to pass a new series of state exams to graduate under a plan approved Thursday by the State Board of Education. A year of hearings will come first. “As a former principal and superintendent,” the state education secretary, Gerald L. Zahorchak tells the New York Times, “I know I shook the hands of a number of students at graduation who were really receiving an empty diploma.”