Commonwealth Beacon | Massachusetts needs to rethink how it improves schools. Here is a blueprint for doing it.
Posted on: October 14, 2026
By Chad d’Entremont
Salem Public Schools shows what is possible. The district created a dean of innovation position and, with the WPS Institute, launched a pilot to rethink middle school around a simple question: What if students genuinely didn’t want to miss school?
Students learned in the community, tackled hands-on projects, and had greater flexibility in how and where they learned. In its first year, the percentage of participating students who said they loved school doubled, chronic absenteeism declined by more than half, and the cohort outperformed school peers on state assessments.
