The Great Divide -- Race, class, and opportunity in Boston schools

THE GREAT DIVIDE

RACE, CLASS, AND OPPORTUNITY IN OUR SCHOOLS.

Boston’s school bathrooms are a big mess

Filthy, unsanitary, and often lacking basics like toilet paper and hot water, the bathrooms of the city’s public schools are, far too frequently, in appalling condition.

Previous coverage

The Valedictorians Project

The city’s top students from 2005 to 2007 set out to change the world. But then life happened. Explore their stories here.

Globe education coverage

Dead mice, crumbling concrete: Education reform won’t fix the sorry state of some schools

Even as local officials celebrate passage of a law that will dramatically increase spending on students, they must face a sobering truth: The extra money will probably do little to address tumbledown schools.

For low-income students, the suburbs are no sure path to college

Low-income students are only half as likely to graduate from college as their more affluent peers even when they attended top suburban high schools, according to Globe analysis of first-of-its-kind state education data.

Harvard doesn’t discriminate against Asian-Americans in admissions, judge rules

A judge ruled Tuesday that Harvard University’s admissions process does not discriminate against Asian-American applicants, in a blow to efforts to challenge affirmative action in higher education.

After years of debate, top Mass. lawmakers unveil school funding plan

House and Senate leaders on Thursday unveiled long-awaited legislation they say will overhaul the state’s antiquated school-funding formula by funneling $1.4 billion more toward cities and towns over seven years.

‘My guidance counselor didn’t do any of this’: How school counselors’ roles have evolved

Once focused largely on helping students prepare for college and careers, counselors have seen their portfolios expand to encompass a host of new responsibilities for students’ social and emotional well-being.

Knocking on doors, BPS superintendent stresses school attendance

With one out of five students in kindergarten through grade eight chronically absent from school in recent years, Brenda Cassellius has made improving student attendance one of her top priorities.

Meet the staff

Sarah Carr / Editor
Sarah Carr has covered education for the last 20 years, reporting on battles over school vouchers, efforts to educate China’s massive population of migrant children, and the explosion of charter schools in New Orleans. She has worked for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, the New Orleans Times-Picayune and The Chronicle of Higher Education, and contributed to dozens of other publications, including The Atlantic, Slate, and the Washington Post. For the last five years, she led an education reporting fellowship at Columbia Journalism School focused on race and inequality. Carr is the author Hope Against Hope, which tells the story of New Orleans schools post-Hurricane Katrina, through the eyes of a student, teacher, and principal. She serves on the board of the national Education Writers Association and authored the organization's guides to interviewing children and visiting schools.

Meghan Irons
Meghan E. Irons has long examined the intersection of race and class with education, politics, and everyday life. A 17-year veteran of the Globe, she was a lead reporter on the Globe’s Valedictorians Project, which chronicled the struggles of Boston’s top students as they entered adulthood. She provided the most in-depth look inside the iconic Boston Latin School as it reeled from allegations of racism in 2016, spending a week at the school with students and teachers. As the Globe’s City Hall bureau chief, she also led the coverage of a new Boston mayor, the first new administration in 20 years, with a focus on education, public policies and initiatives. Irons grew up in Boston’s Dorchester and Mattapan neighborhoods, and attended the Burke High School. She still lives in Boston.

Malcolm Gay
Malcolm Gay has been a staff writer at the Boston Globe since 2015, where he’s covered visual and performing arts for the paper. His work ranges from narrative projects to investigations, and in 2018 he was a lead writer and reporter on The Valedictorians Project, an innovative look at what became of the city’s best and brightest. Before joining the Globe, Gay wrote frequently for The New York Times, and he has contributed to The Atlantic, Time, Wired, and several other publications. A former Alicia Patterson Fellow, he has won numerous national journalism awards, including top honors from the James Beard Foundation, the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies, and the National Association of Black Journalists. His first book, “The Brain Electric,” which chronicles the race to merge minds with machines, was published by Farrar, Straus & Giroux in October 2015.

Jenna Russell
Jenna Russell is an award-winning reporter for the Boston Globe whose recent work on immigration has twice been selected for publication in the Best American Newspaper Narratives anthology, published annually by the Mayborn Institute. Her previous work with the Globe Spotlight Team – a two-year investigation of the failures of the Massachusetts mental health care system - was a finalist for the 2017 Pulitzer Prize in local reporting. Jenna is a former higher education beat reporter and the co-author of two Globe books: Last Lion, a 2009 biography of Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, and Long Mile Home, about the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing.

Bianca Vázquez Toness
Bianca Vázquez Toness has long written about education, poverty, and immigration, both in this country and abroad. Most recently, she covered K-12 education for WGBH News in Boston, where her investigation of exam school admissions revealed how Boston Public School students were at a disadvantage getting into the city’s most elite public schools. She started her career in Mexico and later spent years reporting on the experience of Mexican and other Latin American immigrants in Washington state, Minnesota and Massachusetts. Her stories have aired on NPR’s Morning Edition and All Things Considered, along with PRI’s The World, and have been published in Bloomberg Businessweek, Quartz, The Christian Science Monitor and Time. She was a Knight Science Journalism Fellow at MIT in 2016-2017, and has a bachelor’s degree in cultural anthropology from Princeton University.

James Vaznis
James Vaznis likes to delve into stories that probe racial, economic, and educational disparities in public schools, especially through the lenses of students, teachers, parents, and administrators. These stories ideally examine why school systems and the state are failing to eliminate these disparities — by digging through data and documents — while holding public officials accountable for their inaction or misguided policies. Other stories highlight initiatives that are getting results with an eye towards explaining how and why these efforts are working. He is also interested in chronicling the growing attempts by educators and others to address the social and emotional well-being of students — an issue that cuts across urban, suburban, and rural lines — that is effectively turning some schools into social service agencies. James has been a reporter for The Boston Globe since 2002 and has been covering K-12 education since 2008. He has also reported on New Hampshire, the suburbs, crime, and higher education for the Globe. Previously, he worked for The Daily News of Newburyport and the Concord Monitor where he covered education and other issues.

More Globe Education Coverage

Weston man charged with defrauding high schools, international students

Keenam “Kason” Park’s company, which recently closed and officially went by the name K&B Education Group, partnered with private school in ten states, including Massachusetts, for nearly a decade, helping them to recruit students from foreign countries, particularly China. 12:18 p.m.

The state has a big new school funding law. Here’s what it means

Governor Charlie Baker on Tuesday signed into law a sweeping school funding bill that will eventually funnel an additional $1.5 billion of extra money to local districts. 6:06 p.m.

City on a Hill Charter School to close New Bedford campus and lay off staff at its Roxbury sites

A massive drop in student enrollment at City on a Hill Charter School’s campuses in Roxbury and New Bedford is prompting officials to enact mid-year budget cuts and to close its New Bedford campus at the end of the school year. 1:29 p.m.

Boston public schools lose ground on national exam

The results from the National Assessment of Educational Progress — popularly known as the Nation’s Report Card and is mandated by Congress — come as the state is conducting its first comprehensive review of the school system in a decade, a move that could result in mandates for changes from state Education Commissioner Jeffrey Riley. 8:32 p.m.

About The Great Divide

T

he Globe is launching a two-year initiative to explore the deep inequalities in our public education system, examining both the challenges and possible solutions to creating equal opportunity for all students.

The Great Divide will build on the findings of the Globe's Valedictorians Project in January, which revealed that even the best students in Boston public schools often struggle after high school. An editor and a team of four investigative reporters will examine public education in the region, with humanity and empathy, and with a goal of provoking public discussion and exploring what might be done to fix core issues of inequality, social mobility and economic opportunity.

Partial funding for this initiative is provided by the Barr Foundation, a Boston-based foundation that has made student success in high school and beyond a top priority. We are grateful to Barr for their support and for believing in the power of journalism to deepen public knowledge, inform civic leaders and policy makers, and inspire community-wide discussions on our public schools. The foundation will have no special access to Globe reporters and the Globe will maintain complete editorial control over story selection, reporting, and editing.

The Globe plans to host numerous events to introduce this initiative and the team to the public. In the mean time, we want to hear what you think are the most pressing problems in the public education system and how you think we can solve them. Please send ideas and suggestions to: thegreatdivide@globe.com

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