Gateway Cities need actionable strategies to expand access to ESOL services

The Gateway Cities Journal

The MassINC Policy Center released new research this week that finds one-in-five Gateway City workers has limited English proficiency. Helping these residents improve their English skills by just one level would inject $1.5 billion into Gateway City local and regional economies. Unfortunately, state and federal funding for ESOL services hasn’t kept pace with growth in

Massachusetts Needs an Actionable Strategy to Expand ESOL Services

Adults with limited English skills comprise one-tenth of the commonwealth’s workforce. This makes English for Speakers of Other Language (ESOL) services key to the Massachusetts economy. While the field is innovating to increase access and improve the delivery of these services, state and federal funding has declined considerably over the past two decades, relative to

Accelerating Inclusive Growth in the Pioneer Valley

A Prospectus for Transformative Economic Investment

Accelerating Inclusive Growth in the Pioneer Valley is an economic development prospectus for western Massachusetts. Prepared in partnership with Cambridge Econometrics, the analysis calls attention to the region’s competitive advantages in food science, advanced materials, and clean energy. The report makes the case for targeted state investment in the Pioneer Valley, and describes how a

In Pursuit of Greatness

Bold Strategies to Grow a Strong and Diverse Educator Workforce

The increasing diversity of students in Massachusetts makes growing a diverse educator workforce a critical policy goal for the Commonwealth. In recent years, state and local leaders have responded to this challenge with a variety of programs and policy changes. This report details these efforts and their considerable impact to date. However, the findings show

Tapping the Power of Health Pathways in Early College High Schools

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.

Early College as a Scalable Solution to the Looming Workforce Crisis

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

Event Recap | First Annual Friends of Longitudinal Data Systems Fall Symposium

On Thursday, October 27th, MassINC and the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston co-hosted the First Annual Friends of Longitudinal Data Systems Fall Symposium. The Friends of Longitudinal Data Systems (FoLDS) is a new group dedicated to advancing cutting-edge social policy research in Massachusetts. A collection of education advocates, researchers, philanthropic funders, and policymakers, FoLDS elevates

Building Stronger Community College Transfer Pathways

Evidence from Massachusetts

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

Mass Broadband poised to help Gateway Cities win the future

The Gateway Cities Journal

The Massachusetts Broadband Institute (MBI) issued a much-anticipated RFP for the Digital Equity Partnership Program last week. Drawing on resources from the state’s new Digital Equity Fund, the program will support a number of key strategies to close the digital divide, including: Digital literacy training programs to help residents build skills to use digital technologies;
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