Commitment and Common Sense

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.