Editorial: State teacher honor reflects Lowell High’s diverse excellence
Dec. 7—Getting your Trinity Audio player ready…
You won’t see Lowell High School — or any public urban high school other than exam or charter schools — in any state top 10 academic list.
Boston Latin and affluent suburbs usually dominate the state’s “best” high school rankings, thanks to a generally upscale, homogeneous demographic and the financial means that allow for low teacher-student ratios.
Lowell High, composed of a majority-minority student body — one-third English language learners — doesn’t fit that description.
But in spite of these perceived handicaps, extraordinary learning opportunities — taught by extraordinary teachers — are commonplace inside this historic downtown institution.
Thanks to a recently bestowed, prestigious honor, the rest of the commonwealth now knows of LHS’ efforts to excel.
Tara Goodhue, a science teacher at Lowell High School, earned the state’s Teacher of the Year Award, distinguishing herself from a field of 200 nominees.
Her notable achievement was recognized during a ceremony in the high school’s Riddick Athletic Center Tuesday morning, before a packed gymnasium of students, colleagues and administrative staff.
Teacher of the Year, the state’s top award for educators, annually recognizes excellence in teaching through the selection of an educator who exemplifies the dedication, commitment and positive contributions of educators statewide.
From those 200 nominees, the field was narrowed to eight semifinalists, then winnowed again to four finalists. The selection panel then recommended two names to Education Commissioner Pedro Martinez, who made the final call.
Apparently, it wasn’t a difficult decision.
“When I first met her, I told her that I wish I would have had a science teacher like her when I was growing up,” Martinez told the newspaper before the ceremony.
“She is a science teacher who brings her students out to nature and helps them to understand their environment.”
Also in the audience was Goodhue’s family, including her father, William, whom she credited with being her first teacher.
“My dad gave me my love of science,” she said.
Goodhue also gave an emotional remembrance to her late mother, Kathleen Goodhue, who taught French at LHS.
“She instilled her passion for teaching and her love for Lowell students in me,” she said. “I feel her every day when I’m here.”
After the event, Goodhue said she couldn’t wait to get back to class and keep learning with her students.
“Being able to spend time with the best kids in the state, makes me look forward to coming to work every day and has given my life meaning in ways that are difficult to articulate,” she said.
As the 64th recipient of this award, Goodhue now becomes the state’s candidate for the National Teacher of the Year award.
Before coming to LHS in 2022, she taught at Greater Lowell Technical High School for 14 years.
Previously recognized as a top-notch instructor, the National Association of Biology Teachers named her Environmental Educator of the Year in 2020.
We also wish to congratulate Tara Goodhue. Her award serves not only as a unique professional accomplishment, but as a symbol of this multicultural, urban high school’s commitment to academic excellence.
Report: Minute by minute, Mass. losing population
A new report by the National Taxpayers Union Foundation reinforces what we’re experiencing in Massachusetts: the net migration of residents from high cost-of-living states to more affordable locations.
The NTUF report breaks down winning and losing states by how many residents they lose or gain in minute increments.
States with residents leaving the fastest include:
—California (every 1 minute, 44 seconds);
—New York (every 2 minutes, 23 seconds);
—Illinois (6 minutes, 4 seconds);
—Massachusetts (11 minutes, 38 seconds);
—New Jersey (14 minutes, 14 seconds).
And you can color all these losing states blue.
Contrast the losers with the gainers:
—Florida (2 minutes, 9 seconds);
—Texas (2 minutes, 53 seconds);
—North Carolina (6 minutes, 21 seconds);
—South Carolina (7 minutes, 30 seconds);
—Tennessee (8 minutes, 42 seconds).
All these lower-taxed, lower-regulated, business friendly states — except for purple North Carolina — happen to be red.
“… While many politicians and pundits claim that tax-and-spend policies are what Americans want, the reality is that year after year, there is steady movement from high-tax states to more fiscally responsible ones,” said Andrew Wilford, director of NTUF’s Interstate Commerce Initiative and author of the report.
“Interstate movement is proof that Americans want lower taxes and limited government, and you can measure it with your watch,” Wilford said.
The NTUF report draws on IRS data that tracks how many taxpayers move into and out of a state each year.
If states are the “laboratories of democracy,” some laboratories are proving to be more attractive than others. NTUF’s series of reports on interstate migration of taxpayers shows that clearly.
Numbers, when they reach a certain number of digits, can be hard to put into perspective.
For example, the latest IRS migration data release, covering residency changes between 2021 and 2022, shows that California lost 302,543 residents, on net, to other states. That certainly sounds like a lot of people, but if the number was 352,000, or 392,000, would it resonate any differently?
This real-time breakdown of residents’ comings and goings gives both clarity and context.
Unfortunately, in Massachusetts’ case, it’s nothing that we haven’t seen before.
© 2025 Sentinel & Enterprise, Fitchburg, Mass.. Visit www.sentinelandenterprise.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
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