Staying the Course

Massachusetts has not backed away from high standards, even as some needy schools struggle to keep up.

By John Gehring

Massachusetts has become something of an education policy star over the past decade. Its system of standards and assessment has attracted national kudos, while its political establishment has stayed the course on controversial exit exams and invested heavily in education. And though the state is still struggling to turn around numerous low-performing schools, it excels overall on such measures of student performance as the National Assessment of Educational Progress.

The progress has not come easily.

Signs of change emerged in the early 1990s, when business leaders began clamoring for high school graduates who had more than a diploma. Too many students, they said, were graduating without the kind of skills required to meet the demands of a fast-changing global economy. And many students who made it to college needed remedial classes...