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The Great Divide

Race, class, and opportunity in our schools

Digital divide remains wide for some

Despite stepped-up efforts to improve technology and Internet access for Boston’s 51,000 students, some are still slipping through the cracks.

Boston’s exam schools adopt stricter camera mandates, frustrating some students

Some students fear the new policy puts a heavier burden on low-income students, who are more likely to live in small, crowded homes with unreliable Internet service.

For schoolchildren struggling to read, COVID-19 has been a wrecking ball

Kids in need of remedial reading support were already vulnerable before the pandemic. Now they’re facing educational ruin.

Asian families say they feel invisible in dealing with BPS

This year, the relationship has come under increased strain after a series of episodes that have left Asian American parents and students feeling left out of big policy and programmatic changes, including a historic revamp of the admissions process for the city’s exam schools that will likely lead to fewer seats for Asian students.

Free meal or attend class? School schedules force some low-income families to choose

Many low-income families across Massachusetts have struggled to receive their promised free school breakfasts and lunches during the pandemic because of school schedules. It’s another way the pandemic is widening existing racial and socioeconomic inequities in education.

Visit our archive of all stories from The Great Divide team

This special series features student essays, poems and artwork on living and learning during a pandemic.
A typical remote school day
Shakeem Despignes, a sophomore at Madison Park Technical Vocational High School, takes us inside a day in his remote school life. (Video courtesy of Shakeem Despignes)

The lines blend between remote school and the other parts of life

Spending hours on Zoom calls throughout the week while I still have homework that was due last month.

I am homeschooled. But COVID hit me hard, too

Many people get the impression that my way of learning and life in general has not changed since the COVID-19 outbreak, but that is completely untrue.

• Holyoke high school senior juggles remote learning during the pandemic with a full-time job at a nursing facility

• A high school senior asks: How can I learn when the world is crumbling?

• Silence creeps through classrooms that are stuck — frozen in time

• ‘Without human connection, school is a shadow’

Opinion

EDITORIAL
Biden’s education secretary nominee is the right choice to lead on school reopenings
Miguel Cardona has the requisite sensitivity and proven expertise to guide schools through the coronavirus pandemic.

How many coronavirus cases have been reported in Mass. schools? Check our map

The number of coronavirus cases reported in schools has been steadily rising since the late fall and early winter.
Mass. reports 544 new coronavirus cases among public school students, 390 among school staff membersWhen will educators get vaccinated?

CDC officials say schools can be safe if precautions are taken in the community

On Tuesday, federal health officials weighed in with a call for returning children to the nation’s classrooms as soon as possible, saying the “preponderance of available evidence” indicates that in-person instruction can be carried out safely as long as mask-wearing and social distancing are maintained.

Teachers push back on Baker administration claim that unions oppose in-person school until there are COVID-19 vaccines for children

Union leaders say their position "has always been that educators should be among the first frontline workers to receive vaccines because they often work with children in confined spaces."
Teachers unions ‘alarmed’ after Massachusetts educators move down vaccination priority list

Cambridge educators vote no confidence in superintendent over school reopening plans

Cambridge educators have voted no confidence in Dr. Kenneth N. Salim, the School Committee, and “decision-making structures” in Cambridge Public Schools over plans for resuming and expanding in-person instruction during the pandemic.

Biden revokes Trump 1776 report promoting ‘patriotic education’
President Joe Biden revoked a recent Trump administration report that aimed to promote “patriotic education” in schools but that historians mocked and rejected as political propaganda.

Senate President files bill to ban people from carrying guns on school grounds

The Harold M. Metts School Safety Act of 2021 applies to public and private elementary and secondary schools, as well as school buses, and allows for exceptions for security and law enforcement.

Medford schools create racial equity task force
Medford Public Schools has created a racial equality task force that is exploring a district-wide equity audit, the school system announced on Wednesday.

Gardner police investigating threatening, racist e-mails sent to students

Dedham High football coach not reappointed due to differences with ‘values of the school district’

School amid the pandemic

Chicago schools reopening hits snag as union fight escalates

Chicago ditched plans Tuesday for thousands of teachers to report to schools this week ahead of students after the teachers union said its members wouldn’t comply and were prepared to picket over coronavirus safety concerns.

UK’s Johnson hopes schools in England can reopen on March 8

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson indicated Wednesday that the coronavirus lockdown in England will remain in place until at least March 8 as he ruled out any imminent return to school for most students.

Teachers and students march in France for more coronavirus-related support

Schoolteachers and university students marched together in protests or went on strike Tuesday around France to demand more government support amid the pandemic.

Read all of our stories about school reopening and education amid a pandemic

Featured Stories

A tale of two schools and the way they teach — or fail to teach — about racism

Boston Latin and the biggest test of their young lives

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

‘I didn’t come to Boston because I thought it would be easy’: Boston superintendent ends tumultuous year

Education, Interrupted
This series explored how school closures in the spring of 2020 affected individual students.

Online, but off-kilter: A day in the life of a Boston sixth-grader

Malaki Solo is one of more than 50,000 students in Boston studying at home to stop the spread of the coronavirus. Without enough to do, the 12-year-old spends much of his time bored inside his small Dorchester apartment.

Read our full Education, Interrupted series

With daycares closed, it’s sometimes older siblings watching young children
It’s a common scenario affecting countless teenagers across the city and state, as more parents juggle a full schedule with limited childcare support.

For high school seniors with disabilities, school closures can feel like walking off a cliff
For high school seniors, school closures have brought angst and logistical hurdles, including concerns about graduation and college delays.

Academics and Learning

From individual sessions to taking a real-world approach, here’s how teachers are adapting to the pandemic

Many Massachusetts teachers have begun to feel comfortable with teaching virtually, and now some are starting to experiment.

Mass. school districts' plans vary widely on key practices for pandemic-era education, review finds

The findings of a new survey from the Massachusetts Business Alliance for Education underscore the wildly different approaches districts have taken to pandemic-era education in a state that has largely taken a hands-off approach to local education affairs.

Independent study for 6-year-olds? Some Massachusetts districts are skirting instructional requirements for kids

This school year, Massachusetts has reinstated its requirement that public schools provide at least five hours of “structured learning time” every school day. But interviews with a dozen parents, advocates, and experts reveal that districts vary widely on what constitutes remote education.

As schools reopen, students struggle with COVID trauma

At the outset of an unprecedentedly difficult year, schools are trying to help struggling students cope — a challenge exponentially complicated by the fact that many of them are learning remotely.

Equity and Access

Equity concerns spark discussion about school year

As policymakers think about ways to address learning disruptions students are experiencing during the COVID-19 pandemic, one potential tool that got attention during a Boston College webinar Thursday was the concept of restructuring the academic calendar.

Thousands of Boston public school students cut off from dental care

Oral health programs were halted in March when school buildings closed amid the pandemic. But that has left students without an opportunity to see a dentist or hygienist for the past seven months.

Educational inequality likely to widen this fall as white students return to school and students of color learn from home

Roughly two-thirds of Black and Hispanic students live in districts where schools are starting the year remotely. By contrast, most white students—about 70 percent—live in school districts with “hybrid” back-to-school plans that include some learning time inside school classrooms.

Hundreds of Boston students who need laptops have not received them, advocates say

Data published by advocacy group Lawyers for Civil Rights show in many cases students with disabilities and those at predominantly Black and Latino schools were less likely to receive laptops compared to their peers without disabilities or at whiter schools.

Race and Diversity

Coalition of students urge school leaders around Boston to address anti-Asian racism

In an open letter to school leaders in Boston, Quincy and Malden, a coalition of Asian-American students and their supporters is urging educators to take action now to ensure their safety as a new school year begins.

How teachers are bringing lessons from the racial justice uprisings into the classroom

Galvanized by a summer of civil unrest, teachers across the Commonwealth are planning to integrate the tenets of antiracism into their curriculum during a school year already defined by change amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Black girls in Mass. nearly 4 times more likely to face school discipline than white girls, report finds

The state’s disparity is slightly higher than that of Alabama, the report by the nonprofit Appleseed Network found.

In embrace of W.E.B. Du Bois, Great Barrington names middle school after the civil rights icon

At the end of a two-and-a-half-hour Zoom meeting — in which dozens testified, mostly in favor of the proposed change — the Berkshire Hills Regional School District committee voted unanimously Thursday evening to rename the local middle school in honor of Great Barrington’s best-known native son.

Money and Facilities

How Rhode Island brought most students back for in-person learning — and Massachusetts did not

In Massachusetts, only about a dozen districts, most of them made up entirely of elementary schools, plan to return all students to classrooms full time this fall. Meanwhile, in Rhode Island, the vast majority of the state’s 66 districts and charter schools plan to offer full-time in-person learning by October.

State school funding formula too generous to wealthy districts, report says

The state’s formula for funding public schools has changed over time in ways that pump extra money into wealthier districts while shortchanging low-income areas, according to a report released Monday by the Massachusetts Business Alliance for Education and the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce.

BPS students see bathroom improvements after Globe story

Students and staff at three schools mentioned in a previous Globe story said they have seen improvements, including more regular cleaning, reduced odors, and new janitors.

Baker budget doesn’t keep state’s commitment to poor students, critics say

Although more students would be classified as low-income under Governor Charlie Baker's budget, districts would get less extra money for each one of those students than they expected to receive.
Finalist for a Pulitzer Prize

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.

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Jan. 25: Boston’s exam schools adopt stricter camera mandates, frustrating some studentsJan. 19: For schoolchildren struggling to read, COVID-19 has been a wrecking ballJan. 11: How some schools are teaching about the violence at the US Capitol
STUDENT CORNER

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Event Hub

Upcoming and past events

The Great Divide has been hosting an ongoing series of virtual events, with an emphasis on student voices, during the pandemic. Watch some of our past events:
The State of Race: EducationAll 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 two-year 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.
The Great Divide

‘My voice matters’: Brighton Debate en Español team gives students a platform to grow

Throughout the winter, scores of Boston students devoted much of their weekends to fervently argue about a single topic: whether the United States should limit its arms sales. Teens in the Boston Debate League verbally jabbed back and forth, poking holes in their opponents’ arguments.
IDEAS | Linda K. Wertheimer

Teaching about racism is urgent — but tricky

Many K-12 educators now want to go deeper on the subject of race. Are they equipped to do it well?
Tips for teaching about racism