Commitment and Common Sense: Leading Education Reform in Massachusetts

by David P. Driscoll

Commitment and Common Sense tells the inside story of how Massachusetts became a national model for education. Twelve years after the passage of the state’s comprehensive education reform law in 1993, Bay State student scores rose to the top of “the nation’s report card” (the National Assessment of Educational Progress) in fourth- and eighth-grade reading and math—and have stayed there ever since.
 
How were state leaders able to raise student achievement to such levels and maintain them? Are there leadership lessons for others now that the spotlight on improvements in education has returned to the states under the Every Student Succeeds Act?
 
David P. Driscoll, the man put in charge of implementing the Massachusetts Education Reform Act just days after it was signed, provides answers to both questions in this provocative insider account of the key events leading up to, through, and following this pivotal period.
 
This book is full of lively anecdotes and wisdom born from experience in the trenches of education politics at local, state, and national levels. Driscoll offers unique insights for current and future education leaders interested in learning more about the keys to Massachusetts’s success and understanding of the power of state policy to effect change.
 

Genres: Nonfiction

216 pages, Paperback

Published November 7, 2017

Reviews

[David Doty · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received a signed copy of this book from a mutual colleague of the author himself, and recommend it to anyone serious about improving public education. I have studied the "Massachusetts experiment" for many years, and continue to be frustrated that more states and political leaders have not had the vision or courage to follow the Massachusetts blueprint--which has led to the highest quality public schools, and the best student outcomes, in the United States for over a decade.

David Driscoll worked as a high school teacher, superintendent, and Commissioner of Education in Massachusetts, and was the lead implementer of Massachusetts' Education Reform Act of 1993 from 1993-2007. A candid and thoughtful memoir, this book offers many insights about the realities of educational politics, and the difficult waters that educational leaders must navigate to keep the system focused on student achievement.

[Sean Kottke · Rating 3 out of 5]

David Driscoll is a top shelf raconteur, with stories to tell about life in nearly every role one could take in the educational community of Massachusetts. Many of those stories do amount to inside baseball for those of us reading from outside the last forty plus years of educational policy in America's top education state, and the story of how Massachusetts got that way isn't quite clear from first-hand witnessing. The broad and detailed context of policy decisions made and sustained over four decades occurs largely in the background, with choice moments of insight within Drixcoll's anecdotes. The Reflections and Lessons Learned portions ending each chapter are helpful morals to the story, and the final section has concrete policy considerations for other states (and a gratifying crystal ball conclusion that connects remarkably well with work my team is doing).

[Lisa Lepic · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really liked this book because it ties into what I’ve been doing most of my life and I also know the author. It was interesting to read his story. I witnessed a few of these events happen and it was good to understand the backstory and why it was relevant.

Dave Driscoll knows his stuff and I wish his predictions (in 2017) for the future all came true. There is hope, though.