The battle isn’t over: Worcester vs. the Asian Longhorned Beetle

Ginny Kingsbury, Worcester resident and self proclaimed “Advocate for the Asian Longhorned Beetle Eradication Program” has been working hard at spreading the news of the Asian Longhorned Beetle infestation in Worcester, and sent us this informative essay that we wanted to share…

Want to see 400+ pages of DESE documents and emails?

Posted by Jeremy Shulkin

We’ve posted about Muckrock.com before (and for those of you who don’t know what it is, read this handy Phoenix article) but this time it’s even more relevant.

We asked the state’s Department of Elementary and Secondary Education for more information from their investigations in MCAS testing at Belmont and Goddard through Muckrock in part because they deal with most of the hassles, but also because they post all the documents online in one neat, organized reader.

In all we received nearly 500 pages from the DESE, though 377 were in the form of a powerpoint called the “Data District Tool Kit.” As we’ve previously written about, not much came from the Belmont request but we managed a few more details out of Goddard.

You can see the workings of the DESE and DOE as they handled the Goddard issues internally, the conversation between the DESE and Superintendent Boone, where the test increases caught the DOE’s attention and a semi-handy time line of events.

Another great service from Muckrock is you can see the exact wording of my records request and compare what I asked for to what I received.

Check it all out here.