The Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System (MCAS) is a statewide standardized test used by school districts and teachers to identify areas where students need more help, refine lesson plans, and even select different curriculum resources to help students reach higher expectations. This upcoming year of 2019 brings some changes to the traditional pen-and-paper style of the MCAS, requiring that students take it online. To make the transition as seamless as possible, the Department is still making paper-based versions available during the transition period and will offer them on an ongoing basis as an accommodation for some students.

Rachel Otty, a recent winner of the Fulbright Teachers for Global Classrooms Award, a grant recognizing excellence in teaching, will be spending three weeks in India this summer to build a deeper understanding of the differences between the education systems in India and the United States.

On Friday, March 15th, 2019, students all over the world left school midday and gathered in throngs at state buildings and other public spaces. This global action was intended to make a statement to world leaders who continually turn a blind eye to the increasingly pressing climate issues the world is facing.

Throughout the afternoon on Tuesday, February 12th, a handful of CRLS students and staff worked tirelessly to implement the final steps of a project that had been brewing for months. While walking through the hallway, ceiling tiles are almost always easily ignored. However, as students and staff trickled into school one morning, they noticed that over 50 ceiling tiles throughout the school had been swapped for new tiles emblazoned with colorful messages concerning climate change and the grim future of our environment.