MassINC has worked to promote public policy that creates equitable pathways to opportunity for over 25 years. In the months ahead, we anticipate historic opportunities to continue to advance our mission.

Below you’ll find a brief snapshot of some of what you can currently expect from our Policy Center in 2022 across a range of topics. We look forward to working with you to ensure that our research and civic convenings stimulate inclusive, productive policy dialogue and advance equity in our Commonwealth.

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School Integration

Our first research report of the year, Choosing Integration: A Discussion Paper and Policy Primer, is a discussion paper examining strategies to increase racial, ethnic, and income integration in K-12 public schools. On January 20th, we held a virtual forum in partnership with Policy for Progress to present the findings and policy recommendations on January 20th. You can watch the event recording and download the data here.

Digital Equity

ARPA and the bipartisan federal infrastructure bill give Massachusetts a trove of resources to close the digital divide. Working with the Massachusetts Competitive Partnership, MassINC convened leaders to examine opportunities to capitalize on these funds throughout the fall. These conversations revealed many lessons from impressive efforts undertaken since the release of our December 2020 paper Going for Growth: Promoting Digital Equity in Gateway Cities. In February, we will present a new report that details these bright spots and a policy roadmap to build upon them.

Inclusive Entrepreneurship

Together with Lawyers for Civil Rights, MassINC will embark on a new research project examining strategies to help businesses of color access contracts from state and local governments and other large private institutions. This effort builds on Unleashing the Potential of Entrepreneurs of Color in Massachusetts, a policy blueprint MassINC produced in partnership with the Coalition for an Equitable Economy in 2021.

Gateway Hubs

With a generous multi-year grant from the Barr Foundation, MassINC will launch the Gateway Hubs Initiative in 2022. The successor to our Transformative Transit-Oriented Development project, this new initiative enhances our capacity to work collaboratively with Gateway City leaders to build and advance an integrated development and mobility agenda.

Early College

Collaborating with Gateway City leaders and many education policy partners, MassINC has successfully elevated Early College as a high-potential strategy to deliver large increases in college access and success.

Last year our report Early College as a Force for Equity in the Post-Pandemic Era established an expansion target of 45,000 students enrolled in these high schools by 2027. State leaders made significant progress toward this goal in 2021 by doubling state funding and providing large grants to help communities craft ambitious expansion plans. Look for several upcoming MassINC reports evaluating these efforts and informing future directions in 2022.

Higher Education

In partnership with Northeastern and the Boston Foundation, last year we produced Pathways to Economic Mobility. This groundbreaking report quantified the labor market benefits of community college education, our first research foray using longitudinal student data.

In 2022, we will build on this project with two new reports: The first will estimate return on investment in Massachusetts community colleges. This will be followed by an analysis of outcomes for students who transfer to four-year institutions from Massachusetts community colleges. Researchers at Brown University are leading this investigation.

Workforce Development

Two decades ago MassINC’s New Skills for a New Economy Initiative brought attention to the importance of pathways to education and training for newcomers. Thanks to the generous support of Eastern Bank, MassINC returns to its roots this year with an analysis of how ESOL services respond to changing post-pandemic labor market trends across different regions of the state.

The Gateway Cities Innovation Institute’s 10th Anniversary

This year marks the 10th anniversary of the founding of the Gateway Cities Innovation Institute. Always a high point in the year, we are especially excited to mark this milestone at this year’s annual Gateway Cities Innovation Awards and Summit. We look forward to seeing all that has been accomplished over the last decade on behalf of our Gateway Cities and charting a vision for what’s to come. Stay tuned for more!

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We hope you engage with our social media channels and frequent our website to stay informed about our upcoming events and report releases!

If you want to be up-to-date on Gateway City matters, sign up here for our biweekly Gateway Cities Journal.