NORTHAMPTON — Mitchell Chester, a career educator who had been the state’s commissioner of elementary and secondary education since 2008, died Monday night of cancer at the age of 65.
Education Secretary James Peyser said the announcement of Chester’s death at the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education’s monthly meeting Tuesday morning came as a shock. Chester had been battling cancer for several months, Peyser said.
“His accomplishments are huge and in many ways invisible to many,” board Chairman Paul Sagan said Tuesday.
In his weekly update sent out on June 16, Chester said he had cut back on his schedule in the spring to undergo medical treatment. The board on Tuesday appointed as acting commissioner Deputy Commissioner Jeff Wulfson, who had already taken on some of Chester’s duties in his absence.
With nine years on the job, Chester was the longest-serving of the country’s top state school officials. During that time, he oversaw a system that for the last three years has been ranked first in the nation in overall quality by the publication Education Week. This February, the education department announced that the state’s four-year graduation rate had increased to 87.5 percent of students who began high school in 2012 — the 10th consecutive year of improvement.
Chester was previously an elementary school teacher, middle school assistant principal and district curriculum coordinator in Connecticut, where he later oversaw state curriculum and instructional programs. After stints as executive director for accountability and assessment for Philadelphia and senior associate superintendent for policy and accountability for the Ohio Department of Education, Chester in 2008 became the first Massachusetts education commissioner from outside the state in 20 years.
Local school officials expressed condolences on hearing the news of Chester’s death on Tuesday.
“The commissioner’s passing reminds me of the losses we’ve had within our own district this year, and of the importance of family and friends during difficult times,” Northampton Superintendent John Provost said.
“Our heartfelt condolences go out to Commissioner Chester’s family,” Massachusetts Teachers Association President Barbara Madeloni, a former Northampton High School teacher, said in a statement.
“Although the MTA and the commissioner disagreed on certain education issues, we respect his service to the commonwealth. Our thoughts are with his family, friends and colleagues.”
Chester’s work took him all over the state. Sagan, the education board chairman, said when giving his weekly updates to Chester, he would find Chester wasn’t just sitting in his office crafting policy, but was traveling to visit schools across the commonwealth.
“Mitchell always reminded us that we had kids and families from Provincetown to Pittsfield, border to border, and we needed to ensure we were working for all of them,” Sagan said.
Gov. Charlie Baker, in a statement, extended his condolences to Chester’s family, friends and colleagues at the department.
“Commissioner Chester was a dedicated educator and accomplished public servant,” Baker said. “His leadership improved the lives of thousands of the commonwealth’s students and helped make our public school system a national leader.”
Locally, Chester voiced support earlier this year for the expansion of the Pioneer Valley Chinese Immersion Charter School’s enrollment, though the board ultimately voted against that recommendation.
“Our thoughts and prayers are with Commissioner Chester’s family and colleagues,” Richard Alcorn, executive director of the Pioneer Valley Chinese Immersion Charter School in Hadley, wrote in an email to the Gazette.
Peyser, the education secretary, told the Gazette that among Chester’s accomplishments were updating the state’s standardized MCAS exam and overseeing state takeovers of underperforming school systems in Lawrence, Holyoke and Southbridge.
“I think he was a humble, thoughtful and compassionate man who I think gave people the confidence that he had their best interests at heart,” Peyser said.
As commissioner in Massachusetts, Chester helped oversee an education reform law that gave state officials more power to intervene and direct turnaround efforts for failing or underperforming schools.
Chester was recently directing the state’s transition to a revamped version of the MCAS exam. The standardized test is a graduation requirement for public high school students in Massachusetts.
These initiatives weren’t free of controversy. The Massachusetts Teachers Association, for example, has criticized the 2015 decision to place Holyoke schools in receivership, which they say stripped the city of local control. The MTA has also fiercely opposed the next generation MCAS test, calling for a suspension of all high-stakes testing in the state.
Lawmakers as well as town officials in places like Leverett criticized the state’s decision to lower schools’ accountability ratings after high numbers of students opted out of standardized tests in 2016.
Dusty Christensen can be reached at dchristensen@gazettenet.com.