Summary

Massachusetts HB 3539 (Open States or Massachusetts Legislature) establishes a pilot college and career readiness program for the 2013-2014 school year that includes among other things, a requirement that the students receive online education services necessary for the student to demonstrate postsecondary and workforce readiness.

Legislative Analysis

HB 3539 establishes the Uniform College and Career Readiness pilot program, which will take place during the 2013-2014 school year. The purpose of the program is to reduce the need for remediation following matriculation into a postsecondary setting. The Department of Elementary and Secondary Education is appropriated $30,000 to administer the program.

The program will be administered to approximately 750 eleventh grade students in school districts, charter schools, and innovation schools in gateway cities. It will consist of:

• placement tests;
• diagnostic assessment tests;
• intervention programs administered to students over a 10-week period as indicated by a student’s score on the diagnostic assessment test, to ensure that the student receives online education services necessary to demonstrate postsecondary and workforce readiness with either a reduced or eliminated need for remediation; and
• second placement tests following the delivery of any intervention services in order to collect data necessary to determine the pilot program’s efficacy

The placement and diagnostic assessment tests used will be ones commonly administered by public institutions of higher education. The selected school districts, charter schools, or innovation schools will receive funding to administer the tests and deliver the diagnosed remediation services.

At the end of the pilot program, participating schools will provide a report to the Department that includes data addressing the efficacy of the schools’ program efforts by comparing the pre- and post-intervention placement test results. The Department will submit the report to the House and Senate committees on Ways and Means, the Joint Committee on Education, and the Joint Committee on Higher Education by August 1, 2014 to determine whether the pilot program should be more broadly implemented.

This pilot program may promote digital learning by illustrating how online intervention programs can be used to help reduce the need for post-secondary remediation and support student success.

Legislative History

Detailed Vote History: Legiscan |  Open States

Approved by Governor Deval Patrick on 7/11/2013