Worcester Business Journal

FOCUS: Health care What's behind Bay State's slower growth in exports? 9 Experts point to product mix, stronger dollar in efforts to sell overseas. Hospitals, care providers go with the flow in information technology. WBJ >> To Subscribe Q&A with Christopher Provo of Provo Financial Services, Shrewsbury Shop Talk 8 Central Massachusetts' Source for Business News March 2, 2015 Volume 26 Number 5 www.wbjournal.com $2.00 12 I n a back room of the American Antiquarian Society in Worcester, teams work at cata- loging and digitizing the orga- nization's collection of American printed artifacts. This project, while digitally preserv- ing important pieces of the country's history, also contributes $1.5 million a year to the organization's budget. It's just one example of a group of Central Massachusetts nonprofits that use business ventures to round out grant and foundational funds as part of their revenue mix. The American Antiquarian Society (AAS) has been leasing rights to the use of documents in its collection of pre-1876 historical items to outside companies since the 1950s. The docu- ments, which include historical dia- ries and out-of-print books, are then made available to academic libraries for a price. With the advent of digiti- zation, AAS President Ellen Dunlap saw an opportunity to dive deeper into a model that preserves a delicate collection, with digital copies coming under AAS ownership after a lease expires, while bringing in revenue. In 2006, she brought in a consultant to help establish contracts and negoti- ate deals with publishers. "I realized that aggressive negotiations of con- tracts, licenses and business deals was not what I was put on earth to do," Dunlap said. "It shouldn't be under- Some Central Mass. nonprofits supplement grants and donations with their own revenue-generating ventures BY SAM BONACCI Worcester Business Journal Staff Writer >> Continued on Page 10 Business grade on MCAS: Fail! By CAROL McDONALD Worcester Business Journal Staff Writer Group says switching tests will better prepare future workers F or years, MCAS was the assessment test that ruled Massachusetts schools. But when it comes to real- world skills, it's not measuring up, said a recent report from the Massachusetts Business Alliance for Education (MBAE). Those real-world skills — talents that can represent genuine excellence and verve such as critical thinking, effective communication and problem solving — can translate into all kinds of success in the years after one's schooling. But they don't necessarily lend themselves to the testing focus of the MCAS, as the Mass achus etts C omprehensive Assessment System is more widely known. The report supports the adoption of a new test: the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers, or PARCC. Businesses and colleges have long been sounding concerns. PARCC, or The Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers, is a group of 11 states — including Massachusetts — and the District of Columbia that have devel- oped a set of assessments to measure whether students are on track to suc- ceed in college and their careers. The PARCC tests were made available for states to administer during the current academic year. How is it administered? Via com- puter. PARCC says questions deter- mine whether students have mastered the fundamentals, as well as higher- order skills such as critical thinking, problem-solving, and analyzing sourc- es to write arguments and essays. Source: PARCC What is PARCC? Where profit is a 'nice to have' >> Continued on Page 20 Douglas Cregar, of Innovative Digital Imaging, digitizes a book at the American Antiquarian Society. P H O T O / S A M B O N A C C I

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