It outlined a seven-year plan designed to toughen standards for students and teachers. For districts considered under-performing, the state's educational bureaucracy would take over some of the school committee's duties.
The bill also abolished the "general track system," where all students took similar courses, regardless of aptitude or ability.
A New Agenda
Turkel says the Committee has struggled to define a role for itself in light of the 1993 reform.
"There are rules [now] that didn't exist [before]," she says. "How we respond to these issues is important."
As the school committees have been restricted, school principals have gained power.
The responsibility for hiring and firing teachers now lies largely with the principals, who in Cambridge are overseen by appointed School Superintendent Bobbie D'Alessandro.
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