Massachusetts 2025-2026 Regular Session

Massachusetts House Bill H659 Compare Versions

Only one version of the bill is available at this time.

Old	New	Differences
1	1	1 of 1
2	2	HOUSE DOCKET, NO. 90 FILED ON: 1/6/2025
3	3	HOUSE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . No. 659
4	4	The Commonwealth of Massachusetts
5	5	_________________
6	6	PRESENTED BY:
7	7	Kelly W. Pease
8	8	_________________
9	9	To the Honorable Senate and House of Representatives of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in General
10	10	Court assembled:
11	11	The undersigned legislators and/or citizens respectfully petition for the adoption of the accompanying bill:
12	12	An Act relative to equity and inclusion in education.
13	13	_______________
14	14	PETITION OF:
15	15	NAME:DISTRICT/ADDRESS :DATE ADDED:Kelly W. Pease4th Hampden1/6/2025 1 of 3
16	16	HOUSE DOCKET, NO. 90 FILED ON: 1/6/2025
17	17	HOUSE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . No. 659
18	18	By Representative Pease of Westfield, a petition (accompanied by bill, House, No. 659) of Kelly
19	19	W. Pease relative to equity and inclusion in education. Education.
20	20	The Commonwealth of Massachusetts
21	21	_______________
22	22	In the One Hundred and Ninety-Fourth General Court
23	23	(2025-2026)
24	24	_______________
25	25	An Act relative to equity and inclusion in education.
26	26	Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Court assembled, and by the authority
27	27	of the same, as follows:
28	28	1 Section 1 of Chapter 69 of the General laws, as appearing in the 2020 Official Edition, is
29	29	2hereby amended by striking out item (4) and inserting in place thereof the following words,
30	30	3effective July 1, 2023:
31	31	4 “(4) an effective mechanism in the form of a computer-adaptive assessment with a high
32	32	5enough ceiling and low enough floor to monitor the actual progress of individual students’
33	33	6mastery through the various K-12 learning standards in English, Mathematics, Science and
34	34	7Social Studies; which mechanism seeks to identify, on an annual basis, the learning standards
35	35	8students likely have already mastered and those which they haven’t, for the purposes of
36	36	9identifying all students’ authentic growth, ensuring their continuous progress through those
37	37	10learning standards, identifying directly the actual level of each student’s learning readiness in the
38	38	11public classrooms of the Commonwealth, and of holding educators more accurately and fairly
39	39	12accountable through such authentic measure of students’ achievement and growth.” 2 of 3
40	40	13 Section 1B of Chapter 69 of the General Laws as appearing in the 2020 Official Edition
41	41	14is hereby amended by inserting the following paragraphs after the first paragraph:
42	42	15 For the purposes of this section the term “school age child” shall mean every child
43	43	16between the minimum age established by regulations created pursuant to chapter 76 section 1
44	44	17and through age 21, who has not attained a high school diploma or its equivalent, and those who
45	45	18are age 19 or below on July 1 of any year, if they have attained a high school diploma.
46	46	19 The board of elementary and secondary education shall establish regulations, to become
47	47	20effective no later than July 1, 2023, to establish an education system that will engage each school
48	48	21age child in learning at a level commensurate with their prior demonstrated achievement, and at a
49	49	22pace which is suitable for each, within the K-12 education program in all public schools in the
50	50	23Commonwealth.
51	51	24 The board of elementary and secondary education, by July 1, 2025, shall develop or
52	52	25procure and distribute to districts, formative and computer-adaptive interim assessments to
53	53	26measure each of the K-12 learning standards; and shall expand the state-wide student-level
54	54	27information data system to include individual student data from those assessments, along with
55	55	28the data from the annual summative accountability assessment.
56	56	29 The board of elementary and secondary education shall ensure that all assessment data
57	57	30collected on children is analyzed to determine, for each, the appropriate level of instruction in
58	58	31each of the content areas, and that the Department will deliver the results to schools.
59	59	32 Section 1I of Chapter 69 of the General Laws, as appearing in the 2020 Official Edition,
60	60	33is hereby amended by replacing the fourth sentence of the second paragraph with the following
61	61	34sentence, effective July 1, 2023: 3 of 3
62	62	35 “Such instruments shall be criterion-referenced and flexible enough to assess which
63	63	36levels of the various academic standards described in this chapter students are meeting.”
64	64	37 Section 5 of Chapter 76 of the General Laws, as appearing in the 2020 Official Edition, is
65	65	38hereby amended by inserting at the end thereof, the following sentence:
66	66	39 “No person admitted to any public school shall be discriminated against in obtaining the
67	67	40advantages, privileges and courses of study of such public school on account of age.”