An unusual species of shark — at least for Cape Cod — was spotted earlier this month in Massachusetts waters.
The Atlantic White Shark conservancy shared photos of the shark in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter, last week indi…
Massachusetts
Scattered rain to persist through midweek with rising humidity
An upper level low pressure system continues to sit over New England Monday. This was the storm that developed offshore to our south over the weekend.
Then, it pushed in clouds and some showers towards the south coast late day Sunday. The wind…
Pride flags, banner outside of Natick church vandalized, minister says
Pride flags and a banner outside of the First Congregational Church of Natick were vandalized, the church’s reverend said Sunday.
The rainbow-colored flag, the pastel transgender flag and the green mental health flag were found “cr…
Parent, teacher featured in new MCAS ads
The campaign opposing a ballot initiative to eliminate the use of statewide tests as a graduation requirement is rolling out an advertising blitz, hitting airwaves with the slogan “Protect Our Kids’ Future.”
“Standards are especially different for my son,” says Concord mother Jill Norton in one of the TV ads. “He has learning differences. Reducing the expectations for him is harmful. And now an effort to undermine those standards is threatening what worked for my son.”
The Massachusetts Teachers Association is backing an initiative petition — Question 2 on this November’s ballot — to eliminate the use of the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System, or MCAS, as a graduation requirement for all public school students. The union says the test takes away from classroom time, overly stresses students, and prevents about 700 students every year from graduating.
Under Question 2, students would still take the statewide exams throughout their school careers, but the test taken in 10th grade would not be used as a requirement to graduate. Instead, individual districts would come up with their own standards for graduation.
Opponents of the ballot question say it would deplete the value of a Massachusetts diploma, and create an environment where districts would have different standards, potentially furthering the divide between high- and low-income districts.
In an interview with State House News Service, Norton said that MCAS data helped her identify that her son had learning differences that needed to be addressed.
“We were in close contact with my son’s teachers, and monitoring, but we didn’t have a sense of where he was compared with grade-level peers,” she said. “We knew his teachers loved him and had a great relationship with him, so the MCAS score was one of the only objective measures that we had.”
In addition to a 15- and 30-second ad spot with Norton, the opposition campaign is also running two ads featuring a Revere teacher. The ads cost the Protect Our Kids’ Future: Vote No On 2 campaign $250,000. Key contributors include Analog Devices-founder Raymond Stata and nonprofit Education Reform Now.
The other ad features James Conway, a history teacher at Revere High School and member of the MTA, who says the graduation requirement is necessary to ensure all kids are held to the same high standards.
“We get judged as teachers on whether we’re holding all of our kids to high expectations, whether we’re meeting the needs of diverse learners,” he said in an interview. “This is assessing what they already know. What we should have already taught, right? So this is sort of our way of being held accountable as teachers, but also sort of a measure of where there’s gaps with our students.”
Brian Wynne, president of Opinion Diagnostics and one of the campaign managers, said the two ads are meant to target voters who could be persuaded to vote “yes.”
“We want them to hear our very simple argument,” Wynne said. “It would drop key educational standards… We want to take head-on those individuals that the MTA believes will be a yes, and we want to make sure they understand the full implication.”
The MTA and other groups that support replacing the MCAS graduation requirement standard with district-level standards have begun onboarding nearly 85 educators to canvass, organize events and knock on doors for their statewide campaign.
“We are one step closer to replacing the punitive graduation requirement with a renewed focus on our best-in-the-nation state standards and academic frameworks,” MTA President Max Page said this month when state officials certified the union had enough signatures to get the question on the ballot. “This certification reflects the power of collective action; union educators, parents and community allies united to gather 170,000 signatures — more than any other ballot initiative this cycle and far exceeding the requirements to get on the ballot.”
‘It’s just very worrisome’: Family from Lynn continues to search for missing 17-year-old
A family in Lynn, Massachusetts, continues to search for a 17-year-old boy who went missing last week.
Brian Lopez hasn’t been seen since Friday, according to Lynn police. His family says he’s scheduled to graduate from Lynn Class…
$30M in state funds going to support Steward Health Care hospitals, court docs say
The state of Massachusetts will provide $30 million to support Steward Health Care hospitals that are transitioning to new owners, according to court documents, as well as keeping Carney Hospital and Nashoba Valley Medical Center operating for the next month.
This was detailed in an emergency motion filed in Steward Health Care’s bankruptcy case.
It still needs to be approved but with the “commitment” outlined in the filing, it appears the first payment of just over $11 million would be made Thursday, with the second payment of nearly $19 million to be made in mid-August.
State House News Service reports that Gov. Maura Healey’s office described the payments as “advances” on Medicaid funds that the state owes Steward and they said they’re contingent upon an orderly movement toward new ownership, and cannot be used for rental payments, debt service or management fees.
As announced Friday, Nashoba Valley and Carney hospitals are slated to close by Aug. 31, while Stewards remaining six hospitals have “reputable bidders.”
“Steward is not going to be able to walk away from this without, at a minimum, a plan in place that describes what patients can expect once the closure is complete,” said Massachusetts Congresswoman Lori Trahan.
“It’s awful and it’s too bad that Steward and Ralph de la Torre have put us in this position, where these are hospitals that unfortunately may not make it and we continue to press to do everything we can to ensure patient safety, to protect jobs, to ensure the stability of the healthcare system,” said Lt. Gov. Kim Driscoll.
Sen. Ed Markey, Congressman Stephen Lynch and Mayor Michelle Wu will hold a press conference at 10:30 a.m. Monday at Carney Hospital to discuss the closures there and at Nashoba Valley.
