Should MCAS Be Required for
High School Graduation?
Thursday, November 9, 2023 | 4:00 - 5:00 PM EST | Hosted Online Only
Join us on Thursday, November 9, 2023, for a debate between Edward M. Lambert, Jr., Executive Director, Massachusetts Business Alliance for Education , and Max Page, President of the Massachusetts Teachers Association, moderated by Mandy McLaren, Reporter, The Great Divide, The Boston Globe, on whether teachers should have the right to strike in Massachusetts.
Speaker Bios:
Mandy McLaren (moderator) is a reporter for The Great Divide, an investigative team focused on educational inequities. She formerly reported for the Louisville Courier Journal where her investigation into the improper use of mental health assessments by Kentucky's largest school district was named the best investigative reporting of 2020 by the National Awards for Education Reporting. Before becoming a reporter, McLaren was a public school teacher and administrator in New Orleans.
Edward M. Lambert, Jr. is the Executive Director of the Massachusetts Business Alliance for Education. Before joining MBAE in January of 2019, Lambert served as vice chancellor for university relations at UMass Boston. He was founding director of the Urban Initiative of UMass Dartmouth, a research center focusing on urban policy and leadership issues.
Lambert was the former Mayor of Fall River and a 22-year member of the Fall River School Committee, earning the Massachusetts Association of School Committees Lifetime Achievement Award. He previously served as a State Representative where, as a member of the Education Committee, he assisted in the creation and passage of the 1993 Education Reform Act.
Max Page is President of the Massachusetts Teachers Association, the largest union in New England, representing 115,000 public school and college educators in Massachusetts. As an MTA leader, Page helped organize members to ensure passage of the Student Opportunity Act. As president, he is continuing to fight for similar legislation to increase funding for public higher education, with the goal of making it debt-free for students. Page is also professor of architecture at UMass Amherst.