Connected Communities

Providing Affordable Housing Residents with Unfettered Access to Digital Opportunity in Massachusetts

Ben Forman
Connected Communities explores strategies to close the digital divide in Massachusetts through targeted investments in affordable housing developments. Prepared in collaboration with the Massachusetts Competitive Partnership (MACP), the report builds on the 2022 MassINC-MACP digital equity action plan with a deeper look at the unique opportunities and challenges for these efforts in the affordable housing read more
Topic(s): Education, Housing

Tapping the Power of Health Pathways in Early College High Schools

Ben Forman and Simone Ngongi-Lukula
In a complementary discussion paper, we suggest Massachusetts can meet a growing need for skilled workers by weaving more robust career pathways into Early College programs. To demonstrate what this approach might look like in practical terms, MassINC partnered with the Massachusetts Business Alliance for Education to produce this blueprint for Early College health pathways. read more
Topic(s): Education, Jobs and Economic Security

Early College as a Scalable Solution to the Looming Workforce Crisis

Ben Forman and Simone Ngongi-Lukula
Previous MassINC research shows Massachusetts’s relatively young Early College programs are demonstrating impressive performance increasing college access and persistence. This discussion paper looks at the potential to build on this success, leveraging Early College as a strategy to meet our growing need for skilled workers. We explore this opportunity through the lenses of developmental psychology read more
Topic(s): Education, Jobs and Economic Security

Getting Question 1 Right: Investment Options for Equity in Public Higher Education

Ben Forman and J. Oliver Schak
Since voters approved Question 1 in November 2022, several proposals to invest the surtax revenue in higher education have been presented. Legislators tasked with quickly allocating the proceeds from the ballot initiative in the FY 2024 budget have difficult choices to make. Their decisions will have long-term implications for higher education, and by extension, the read more
Topic(s): Education

New Data Shows Early College is Delivering as Promised for Massachusetts

Ben Forman and Simone Ngongi-Lukula
Massachusetts’ Early College initiative is quietly establishing a new standard for rigorously evaluating a strategic effort that aspires to increase educational outcomes for students across the state. This research brief sheds light on this evaluation framework and the impressive performance that the methods reveal to date. We then surface unanswered research questions and evaluation challenges read more
Topic(s): Education

Building Stronger Community College Transfer Pathways

Evidence from Massachusetts

Richard J. Murnane, John B. Willett, John P. Papay, Ann Mantil, Preeya P. Mbekeani and Aubrey McDonough
Produced by the research–practice partnership, Educational Opportunity in Massachusetts, this study explores transfer patterns for 10 cohorts of students entering community colleges soon after high school. The findings provide evidence of how policies adopted to make the transfer process more transparent and predictable have impacted different subgroups of students, both in terms of the probability read more
Topic(s): Education, Jobs and Economic Security

Connecting Communities through Digital Equity

An Action Plan for State, Community, and Private and Institutional Partners

Ben Forman and April Anderson
The COVID-19 pandemic brought much-needed attention to the digital divide and its profound implications for social and economic opportunity in our commonwealth. Across a range of sectors, public and private, leaders committed to addressing this challenge once and for all. Massachusetts has made progress over the past two years, but considerable work remains. Fortunately, leaders read more
Topic(s): Education

Sizing Up Massachusetts’ Looming Skilled-Worker Shortage

Ben Forman and Simone Ngongi-Lukula
In an extensive 2014 report with the UMass Donahue Institute, MassINC predicted the 2020’s would be the first decade in Massachusetts history to post a reduction in the state’s working-age, college-educated population. Drawing on the limited data available, this research brief explores how the COVID-19 pandemic disruption could impact our previous estimate. The analysis surfaces read more
Topic(s): Education, Jobs and Economic Security

Investing in Success

Findings From a Cost–Benefit Analysis of Massachusetts Community Colleges

Ben Forman and Simone Ngongi-Lukula
Building on 2021 MassINC research, this new report provides a rigorous and comprehensive cost-benefit analysis of Massachusetts community colleges. The findings document large returns to students who graduate with certificates or degrees. While taxpayers also realize substantial fiscal benefits on a per-degree basis, low graduation rates mean returns on state expenditure are minimal in the read more
Topic(s): Education

Choosing Integration

A Discussion Paper and Policy Primer

economic segregation, school integration
Ben Forman and Simone Ngongi-Lukula
Choosing Integration describes how economic segregation leads to high levels of racial and ethnic inequality in Massachusetts and contrasts this serious structural issue with the significant benefits that all students realize when they attend schools that are fully integrated by race, ethnicity, and income. The analysis, funded by Policy for Progress, shows Massachusetts has seen read more
Topic(s): Education
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