I attended the November Regional Student Advisory Council (RSAC) meeting on Wednesday, November 3rd and learned a lot about education, state laws, and student rights.

After an energizer of “sticky elbows,” the morning kicked off with a very informative presentation by State Student Advisory Council Chair and Student Representative on the Massachusetts Board of Education, Michael D’Ortenzio, Jr.

Massachusetts is the only state in the country to have a student representative on the State Board of Education with full voting rights who is democratically elected. At the RSAC orientation in May, representatives elect representatives for the State Board. From there, a chair of this council is elected who then sits on the Board of Education.

D’Ortenzio discussed topics like budgeting, charter schools, and CCS (Common Core Standards.) CCS, proposed by the Obama administration, would create a national standardized testing system that may be implemented by the 2014-2015 school year. This test would include English, English based History questions, and Math. Massachusett’s MCAS test is an exemplary system and is a model for this national system.  The Massachusetts Board of Education voted to adopt this system.  Details regarding this are still pending.