The Condition of Education initiative is a pivotal piece of how the Rennie Center delivers on its mission, seeking to build a more coherent vision of a public education that can guide shared efforts and put every child in Massachusetts on a path to college, careers, and life success.
This annual series examines broader patterns in Massachusetts’ public schools and recommends areas for action that are well supported by research and data. This gives state leaders a clear, concise view of student progress across the state, while pointing to areas where greater investment and strategic expansion of effective practices can bring us closer to achieving the state’s vision of strong, equitable outcomes for all students.
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Data Dashboard
Our data dashboard compiles state-level indicators of school performance each year to illuminate areas of success and areas for continued improvement. These indicators focus on critical stages in learning and development from school readiness and early learning to the emergence of a strong and productive workforce. This report provides a critical overview of our public education system, while presenting data and information to encourage more nuanced discussions of potential strategies for improving student learning outcomes.
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Action Guide
In this report, we take the analysis a step further, formulating research-informed recommendations for statewide actions—policies, investments, and expansion of best practices—that have potential to address performance gaps and contribute to broad improvement in student outcomes. Over the past seven years, this report has looked at the role of community partnerships in addressing learning gaps (2015), social-emotional learning (2016), and student-centered learning (2017), continuous improvement (2018), the power of student voice (2019), measuring student success (2020), and school-community partnerships (2021).