Max Larkin
WBUR
Cambridge, MA, United States
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Past articles by Max:
Bay State College loses accreditation, plans to appeal
Staff at the small, for-profit college say even accelerated action on behalf of the accrediting agency came too late. → Read More
From ‘Big Party’ to ‘Toy Mania,’ how 'Christmas In The City' kept the holiday spirit going despite challenges
The long-running charity has learned that its strength lies in its ability to weather painful losses -- and adapt to serve families in need. → Read More
Claudine Gay selected as Harvard's next president
Claudine Gay will become Harvard's 30th president in July and the first Black person to take on the role. → Read More
State officials have made it harder to pass the MCAS
The state will raise the passing score on the 10th-grade MCAS English exam starting with freshmen incoming this fall, and again — in both English and math — for the class of 2031. → Read More
Boston's incoming superintendent will earn $300,000, per proposed contract
The Boston School Committee presented the deal as competitive, fair and designed to keep Mary Skipper in place as the district leader for the foreseeable future. → Read More
The high-stakes MCAS is back — and may get harder. Critics ask if we need it at all
Some critics of the MCAS say the pandemic gave Massachusetts a rare opportunity to leave its high-stakes "exit exam" behind. → Read More
4 takeaways from the last-minute deal between Boston Public Schools and state officials
The new "systemic improvement plan" includes key benchmarks and target dates for improvements covering areas such as student safety, transportation, facilities, data collection, special education services and more. It expires in three years, on June 30, 2025. → Read More
Two local finalists emerge to become Boston's next superintendent of schools
Mary Skipper has served as superintendent the Somerville Public Schools since 2015 — the same year Tommy Welch, now a regional superintendent focused on East Boston, Charlestown and the North End, came to the district from Los Angeles. → Read More
Child care is in crisis. Here's what's being done about it
The pandemic has made child care problems harder to ignore. Business leaders and politicians began to see them not as a private burden for families, but as an urgent public problem. → Read More
After allegations of bullying and official neglect, Boston's Mission Hill School will close this summer
The closure will mark the end of the school’s eccentric 24-year history — and of a twilight marked by misconduct revelations, interventions by Boston Public Schools administrators and community outcry. → Read More
Mass. will stop requiring masks in public schools. It's an uneasy milestone for many
State officials are phasing out the mask mandate in Massachusetts public schools — and reactions are reliably mixed. → Read More
After years of deliberation, 3 Boston schools will close this summer
In recent years, BPS’ plans to close schools have inspired fiery resistance. But there was almost no outcry before the vote Wednesday night — in part because these closures were so long in coming. → Read More
COVID-19 case numbers are surging in Mass. public schools
In the past week public school districts told the state’s Department of Elementary and Secondary Education of 6,817 new cases among students and 1,012 among staff — a record one-week high, by a wide margin. → Read More
Harvard's fight to keep photos of enslaved people goes to the Massachusetts high court
Harvard has declined to relinquish the images to plaintiff Tamara Lanier, saying she has not proven her relationship to the people pictured — and wouldn’t have a legal claim on the images even if she had. → Read More
Amherst College drops admissions preference for children of alumni
Amherst College will no longer give admissions preference to the children of alumni, the school announced Wednesday, ending a practice that has been criticized for giving an additional advantage to students from wealthier families. → Read More
WBUR poll: Boston voters support elected school board
Likely Boston voters overwhelmingly support the idea of switching from an appointed to an elected school board. The poll also found most voters want schools to focus equally on catching students up academically this year and helping children deal with the personal impact of the pandemic. → Read More
Boston University Will Require Vaccination For Faculty, Staff On Campus This Fall
Brown wrote that his administration had hoped to achieve "the safe repopulation of our campuses" without the mandate, but is now responding by a fear that too few faculty and staff were or planned to be vaccinated voluntarily before an August deadline. → Read More
Students Say They Spotted Repeats On This Year's Physics MCAS Test
One student says she was relieved to see familiar questions again — but troubled by the implications: “It just gave my whole class leverage. I think it’s definitely unfair.” → Read More
Second Boston School Committee Member Resigns Following Leaked Text Messages
Alexandra Oliver-Dávila — the committee’s chair and a member since 2016 — submitted her resignation to Acting Mayor Kim Janey on Monday, following Dr. Lorna Rivera, who resigned on Friday. → Read More
After Text Messages Leak, Another Leaves Boston's School Committee
Sociologist Lorna Rivera resigned from Boston’s school committee, after critical text messages she exchanged with another committee member were made public. → Read More