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The Great Divide

Race, class, and opportunity in our schools

‘My heart was in my throat.’ Hoax shooting calls send dozens of Mass. schools into lockdown after Nashville

The FBI estimates there are thousands of hoax cases nationwide each year. Swatting can be traumatizing, even though the threat isn’t real.

‘This has been devastating’: Wayland is divided over racism allegations after Black superintendent is placed on leave

A series of controversies has erupted since Omar Easy, a former NFL player and Everett school administrator, became the first Black school superintendent in Wayland a year and a half ago.
After being placed on leave, Wayland superintendent files discrimination complaint against School Committee

Fewer Boston high school graduates are enrolling in college, while completion rates stagnate

The downward trend, beginning before the pandemic, is erasing one of the more impressive accomplishments for Boston Public Schools, which had relatively high college enrollment rates.

Boston School Committee approves budget, school building, bus contract at contentious meeting

Boston school officials voted Wednesday night on a slate of high-profile items with reverberations for years to come as the district tries to turn itself around.
BPS leaders unveil $1.4 billion budget, an increase of $65 million. Here’s how they’ll spend it.

‘Asians are an afterthought’: Asian American students at BPS report feeling less safe, more undervalued

“The dominant narrative out there in Boston Public Schools, as well as many other places, is that Asian students are doing fine,” said former BPS teacher Go Sasaki. “Based on our experiences and anecdotes, we know that is not the case.”

Everett superintendent files suit against mayor, School Committee, alleging racism, sexism, and retaliation

Everett Superintendent Priya Tahiliani filed a lawsuit Tuesday against Mayor Carlo DeMaria and several other School Committee members accusing them of racism and discrimination after they voted two weeks prior not to renew her contract.

Boston hit an all-time graduation high in 2022, but can the rate be trusted?

Massachusetts students saw an uptick in graduation rates after the MCAS exams were canceled due to the pandemic. But Boston’s graduation rates remain unreliable after being faulted for wrongly removing students from would-be graduating classes.

Boston to seek state funding for new building for merged Shaw, Taylor schools

Everett School Committee won’t renew contract of superintendent who accused mayor of racism

State inspector general instructs Boston schools to crack down on late buses

Visit our archive of all stories from The Great Divide team

A mother's journey, helping families navigate BPS and protecting her own from it

Boston schools lost 15,000 Black students in the past 20 years. Where did they go, and will they ever return?

In a dramatic reshaping of its makeup, Boston Public Schools has lost half its Black student population in the last two decades, as Black enrollment fell from from 29,300 in the 2002-2003 school year to 14,600 last year.

COMMUNITY SPOTLIGHT

‘That looks like what I eat at home’: City Fresh Foods makes meals for BPS students, by Bostonians
The Roxbury-based food producers in May were awarded a $17 million contract, the largest non-construction contract ever given to a certified Black-owned business by the city.

Globe Magazine

‘The Mary Lyon way’: A Boston inclusion school’s successful approach to re-engagement
The full-inclusion school in the Boston system could have fallen apart during the pandemic. Here’s why it soared instead.

BPS defies federal court order for English learners, civil rights group says

Boston Public Schools recently stopped complying with a decades-old federal court order related to how it supports English language learners, refusing to allow a designated monitor to review the district’s finances.

BPS bus failures violated rights of special education students, state finds

In a Friday letter to Superintendent Mary Skipper, state officials said the district's dysfunctional transportation system put an undue burden on families.

‘You can’t survive on this’: Public schools rely on paraprofessionals but pay meager wages

In many Massachusetts school districts, the hourly wages for paraprofessionals start below the state minimum wage.

Boston Public Schools routinely overestimates future enrollment. Here’s why it matters.

The district has put off hard decisions to close schools, even though it knew it already had excess space.

Report finds BPS data is inaccurate and incomplete, with wide-ranging consequences

The review by Ernst and Young consultants largely confirmed state concerns about district data, such as undercounting late buses and possibly overestimating high school graduation rates.

Mayor Michelle Wu vetoes elected School Committee bill

The bill would have stripped Mayor Michelle Wu of much of her power over the district.

Boston Public Schools quietly negotiating with city police to formalize relationship

Amid recent high-profile violent incidents at schools, some city councilors and families have called for police to return to schools, while other parents and education advocates want alternatives to keep students safe.

More school coverage

‘This has been devastating’: Wayland is divided over racism allegations after Black superintendent is placed on leave

A series of controversies has erupted since Omar Easy, a former NFL player and Everett school administrator, became the first Black school superintendent in Wayland a year and a half ago.

‘My heart was in my throat.’ Hoax shooting calls send dozens of Mass. schools into lockdown after Nashville

The FBI estimates there are thousands of hoax cases nationwide each year. Swatting can be traumatizing, even though the threat isn’t real.

State renews charter of Malden school often found at center of controversy

Critics for years have alleged the school culture at Mystic Valley Regional is racist, intolerant, and harmful to students, and among the 18 charters up that were up for renewal, it was the only one that drew opposition against it.

Mass. schools increasingly are becoming targets of swatting. How do we talk to kids about the issue?

Swatting involves hoax calls made to 911 to illicit heavy police response to a targeted location.

Newton School Committee votes down controversial advisory panel, calling it ‘a Trojan horse’

Backers of the measure say it’s needed to improve communication between parents and the schools, but critics argue it is a veiled effort to dismantle a district racial equity policy.

Revere students march against city council’s decision to kill a new high school at Wonderland

Dozens of students marched through Revere Monday to demand City Council definitively declare Wonderland dog track as the site for a new high school.

Fewer Boston high school graduates are enrolling in college, while completion rates stagnate

The downward trend, beginning before the pandemic, is erasing one of the more impressive accomplishments for Boston Public Schools, which had relatively high college enrollment rates.

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March 29: Wayland divided over racism allegationsMarch 22: Asian American students at BPS report feeling more undervaluedMarch 15: Boston to seek state funding for new building for new elementary school

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Past virtual events

The Great Divide hosted a series of virtual events, with an emphasis on student voices, during the pandemic. Watch some of our past events:
All in this together? How to minimize harm in reopening schoolsGlobeDocs presents: 'My voice matters': Brighton Debate en Español teamThe Digital Divide: Education, Race and Virtual LearningGreat Divide Town Hall: What will it take for you to feel safe when schools reopen?

About The Great Divide

The Great Divide is a reporting effort dedicated to investigating race, class, and inequality in Boston-area schools. It is jointly funded by the Globe and the Barr Foundation, a Boston-based foundation that has prioritized student success in high school and beyond. The Globe maintains editorial control and independence over the project.

Here’s why Boston doesn’t have an elected school committee

A new proposal to return to the days of an elected School Committee has reignited a long-simmering debate. It's not clear how viable the proposal actually is, but the debate has strong historical echoes.
THE GREAT DIVIDE

Inside the forgotten story of the Chinatown mothers who mobilized during the Boston busing crisis

The story of Boston’s busing crisis, the one memorialized in books, films, and podcasts, is typically characterized as a Black and white struggle. What is less known is the story of the Chinese immigrant women who organized a three-day school boycott in 1975 that would change the balance of power in Chinatown for decades to come.

Academics and Learning

MCAS scores for schools across the state

Massachusetts students hit 19-year low on national reading, math exams

Massachusetts is no longer top of the class on national report card, falling behind Wyoming in fourth grade math and New Jersey in eighth grade reading.
Pandemic learning losses could cost Massachusetts students $21 billion in future earnings

Nation’s Report Card spells out urgency for local, state leaders to address learning losses
Reading and math scores fell district, state, and nationwide in the National Assessment of Educational Progress, made public Monday. State and district leaders said the scores reinforce the need to work quickly to catch students up.

Key things that schools can do to fight learning loss, according to experts

New MCAS data underscore missed learning of the pandemic. What if kids can’t catch up?
With the MCAS reinforcing prior data indicating many students are more than half a school year behind, the state and districts risk moving too slowly to make up that time.

2022 MCAS scores show slow progress in student academic performance

Equity and Access

‘I feel like I’m on an even playing field with everybody else’: BDEA 2.0 takes emancipatory approach to educating most vulnerable students

The program, founded in 2018, was designed to help more Black and Latino male students graduate, though a handful of female students also are finding success through it.

Mass. vocational schools policy violates student civil rights, complaint says
The complaint calls for the US Office of Civil Rights to withhold all federal funding for the state’s vocational programs until the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education prohibits criteria-based admissions.

US Court of Appeals takes up Boston exam school case

New admission process may give more disadvantaged students a shot at Metco
The changes come amid growing efforts in Boston and around the nation to reshape admission processes for public school programs to ensure disadvantaged students have a fair chance against those from more affluent families.

Race and Diversity

Busing doesn’t improve academic outcomes for Boston students of color, study finds

Not everyone is convinced by the research — which looks narrowly at test scores and college enrollment — but for others, it serves as further evidence that it may be time for Boston to consider abandoning the busing system.

Black male teachers can make a big difference in the lives of their students — why are they so rare?
Statewide, just 1 percent of public school teachers are Black men. Even in Boston, which has the highest number of Black male educators, the proportion is just 7 percent.

BPS added more positions. But they don’t have enough people to fill them. The result? 800 vacancies

Boston Public Schools launches investigation into allegations of discrimination against administrators of color
The retired administrators contend district leaders appear to be disproportionately placing high-ranking officials of color on leave and subjecting them to a process known as investigatory meetings in an effort to terminate them or force them to resign.

Money and Facilities

Key things to know about the Green New Deal for Boston Public Schools

The Green New Deal for BPS would greatly accelerate the pace of construction in a school system that has built fewer than a dozen new schools over the last 40 years, and where some buildings date to the 1800s.

Digital hall passes: ‘Bathroom Big Brother’ or solution to antsy students?

The technology — which tracks how often and how long students are out of class — has been touted as a remedy to bad bathroom behavior by some and labeled an invasion of privacy by others.

School bathroom closures statewide drive rising tensions, pushback
Driven by efforts to curtail teen vaping, and prevent outbreaks of vandalism sparked by copycat trends on social media, the widespread crackdowns on bathroom access have left students in some schools with little access.