THE GREAT DIVIDE

RACE, CLASS, AND OPPORTUNITY IN OUR SCHOOLS.

Neighboring schools, worlds apart

The two schools are practically neighbors — just three miles apart — but Newton South and Brighton high schools might as well be on different planets. Newton South is a sterling suburban high school that routinely sends graduates to the country’s elite universities. Brighton High is a floundering Boston school where fewer than 30 percent of graduates earn a college degree or other credential within six years of graduation. Globe reporters spent weeks last spring at the two schools — both public — to try to understand how they could produce such staggeringly different results. What were the obstacles to success? What were the suburban advantages? What could be done — and how much would it cost — to bridge the yawning gulf that divides them? The answers go far beyond money, touching on some of the deepest inequalities in our society.

Coming this week: The decline of college advising in public high schools

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.

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.

Globe education coverage

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.

Suit challenges school-funding formula, but it’s unclear if it will spur Legislature to act

Legal and education experts differ on what impact, if any, the case would have in getting a school-funding bill passed on Beacon Hill.

Two new Boston school buildings on the horizon, as 17 schools add sixth grade

Boston school officials say they have reached significant milestones in their effort to overhaul the system’s aging buildings.

Boston Teachers Union contract deal garners praise and criticism

Some advocates say the deal doesn’t go far enough in meeting the social, emotional, and physical well-being of the system’s approximately 55,000 students.

Next BPS contract must address achievement gap

Student needs and advancing teacher effectiveness must be a top priority as school leaders negotiate with the BTU.

New BPS superintendent has tough decisions ahead

If Brenda Cassellius is going to be effective, she’ll have to be as bold as she is politic.

About The Great Divide

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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