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The Great Divide

Race, class, and opportunity in our schools
Students walked with parents to school in Chinatown.

Vulnerable and long neglected, many English learners with disabilities languish with unmet needs in city schools

Though state and federal laws require schools to address both language and disability, Boston schools too often accommodate just one.

Last fall, protesters demanding to keep the admission test in place for exam schools rallied at Boston Latin School.
Changes in admission rules for Boston exam schools boosted diversity of accepted students
The data analysis confirms earlier projections that temporarily suspending the admissions exam and instead using grades and ZIP codes would lead to a more diverse selection of applicants and lower the portion of white and Asian students receiving admission offers.

CAIR-MA's 2019 Muslim Youth Leadership Program.

‘I was too scared to tell anyone’: In new survey, 61 percent of Muslim students say they’ve been bullied in school

Fourteen percent of Massachusetts students surveyed said they don’t feel comfortable telling others at school that they are Muslim.
Members of The Busy Bees, a class for 3-year-olds, play together during their school day at the Boston Nature Center's Pathways to Nature Preschool program in January.

Biden’s universal preschool plan a ‘game-changer’ for Mass., but final version could look very different

President Biden’s proposal for free, high-quality preschool for all 3- and 4-year-olds would create powerful change in Massachusetts, one of the nation’s most expensive child care markets, educators and parents said.
Nicole Calabrese chaired a ballot committee that supported eliminating Native American imagery from Wakefield's high school logo, but voters backed keeping the current logo by an 11-point margin.

In divisive vote, Wakefield residents back keeping school’s Native American logo

Wakefield residents voted to support keeping the high school’s Native American-themed logo by an 11-point margin, offering a nonbinding but public rebuke of the local School Committee’s decision weeks earlier to eliminate the decades-old “Warrior” imagery.
Tyler McGinley, the school board chair in Cumberland, Maine, with her children Bea, 5, and Ford, 7.

In Maine, the debate over schools returning full-time rages town by town

The low attendance rates speak to the difficulty of compelling students who already disliked school to attend when it’s optional.

Visit our archive of all stories from The Great Divide team

‘I just have to be grateful to even play.’ Inside Brockton football’s COVID-altered season
COVID-19 has upended life as we know it — including high school football. In Brockton, getting a chance to play is better than not playing at all. (Shelby Lum/Globe Staff)

Watch: ‘I just have to be grateful to even play.’ Inside Brockton football’s COVID-altered season

The pandemic has ripped away many of the tiny joys and touchstones of adolescence — like high school football. This spring, a Globe video journalist followed the Boxers as they embarked on a brief season. Watch their story.
This special series features student essays, poems and artwork on living and learning during a pandemic.

It was hard enough being a low-income university student. Then COVID hit

Last fall, Jasmine, a sophomore at a public four-year university in Massachusetts, received an e-mail from one of her professors telling her she was failing her class. This essay is an edited version of Jasmine’s belated response to her professor.

Listen to high school junior Maceo Wright’s spoken word poem, ‘Damn Pandemic’

I swear sometimes it’s like they want to build the world without us. We fought for our equality but still there ain’t no balance. How we supposed to fight back when they holding all the power?

• My name is Mariella Murillo, and I am struggling

• A teenager’s lament

• The lockers, once full of ideas with all the books stuffed inside them, are now just full of memories

Globe Opinion

Fifty four Bowdoin-Geneva residents, ages 19 to 27, previously deemed "least likely to succeed," celebrated their successful completion of a certification program and their subsequent enrollment in a community college or four-year university in this 2015 file photo.
Massachusetts is already a global education superpower. What if that’s not enough?
Massachusetts’ competitiveness in the years to come will be judged on not just economic growth, but also inclusion; not just the evolution, but also the equity of our economy.

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

The Globe is tracking coronavirus clusters and other reported cases in Massachusetts schools.
Mass. reports 572 new coronavirus cases among public school students, 48 among school staff membersCoronavirus cases are rising among children and teens in Mass. Here’s a closer look at the numbers

Boston School Committee raises graduation standards and hears proposal for nine major school construction projects

The graduation policy will go into effect for the class of 2026 — this year’s seventh-graders — and aims to provide all students with the courses needed for admission to one of the state’s public universities. The other proposal is part of an ambitious goal to replace or overhaul any school building more than 50 years old.

Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker toured the Moderna facility in Norwood on Wednesday.
Mass. won’t mandate COVID-19 vaccine for students to return to school, Baker says
As school districts across Massachusetts begin considering whether to require vaccines for children this fall, Governor Charlie Baker this week said the state has no plans to create a vaccine mandate.

With Pfizer’s vaccine approved for younger teens, will shots be required to go back to school?

Mass. teachers union follows national labor push for a full school reopening this fall

The local chapter of the nation’s second-largest teachers union is standing behind a nationwide push for schools to return to full-time, in-person learning this fall.
President of key teachers union shares plea: ‘Schools must be open’ in fall

Boston to close Jackson Mann K-8 School in Allston

Officials notified staff and families about the closure on Wednesday, ending nearly two years of consternation over the school’s future.

Charlee goes to Weymouth High School with the school resource officer, Ryan Hamacher, as the district’s official community resource dog.
Charlee the community resource dog is a hit in Weymouth classrooms
Students attending Weymouth’s public schools in person this spring are getting to know a new member of the community: Charlee the dog.

New research finds evidence arts education increases school engagement, attendance among Boston students

Boston Public Schools students who were enrolled in arts education programs had greater school engagement and higher daily attendance, while their parents were more likely to be active in school activities, according to the results of a new study.

Seven Mass. high school seniors named presidential scholars

Seven Massachusetts high school seniors have been selected as 2021 US Presidential Scholars, a prestigious honor bestowed to just 161 students nationwide, the US Department of Education said Thursday.

Providence Superintendent Harrison Peters doesn’t want to resign. But he’s got a lot of explaining to do

Newton School Committee approves later start times for high schools

Andover makes unanimous choice for new superintendent

School amid the pandemic

Mass. pressing pause on school accountability

Education Commissioner Jeff Riley intends to waive accountability determinations for districts and schools based on this year’s MCAS exam, according to a senior department official who sought on Wednesday to assuage skeptics worried that the test results after a year of disrupted learning could be used against schools.

Mass. reports 572 new coronavirus cases among public school students, 48 among school staff members

The number of cases reported among staff members was at its lowest level since late September.

US schools fight to keep students amid fear of dropout surge

US educators are doing everything they can to track down high school students who stopped showing up to classes and to help them get the credits needed to graduate, amid an anticipated surge in the country’s dropout rate during the coronavirus pandemic.

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

Featured Stories

Medford, MA - 10/7/20 - Maureen Ronayne sits with her son, Daniel, as he reads aloud in the family's backyard. Daniel has struggled with reading since preschool, when he couldn't pick up on the letters of the alphabet, or learn to pronounce his name. Over six long years, his parents battled slowly to get Daniel the support he needed, including a spot at the Medford public school with the most reading specialists, a separate class at the school dedicated to reading remediation, and a private tutor funded partially by the district. But when schools shut down in March, all of the 10 year-old's extra supports came to an abrupt halt. So, too, did his progress learning to read. "I got him to read a couple of times over the spring," says his mother, Maureen Ronayne. "He was literally tripping over every word. I was like, What just happened here? We had worked so hard to get him where he was at and we're seeing a complete regression." (Jessica Rinaldi/Globe Staff)

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

Flavia Peréa and her now 7-year-old son dug for worms in their local community garden in Somerville.

A Somerville mother is stunned: How can school officials accuse her 6-year-old son of sexual misconduct and report him to the police?

Skyla Withers, 5, left, and Giovanni Gamble, 5, play with other children at the Cooper Community Center in Roxbury in January. They are among hundreds of children who have benefited from Boston's expansion of city-funded prekindergarten in recent years.

Eight years after Walsh’s promises, Boston prekindergarten is still not universal

When Em Quiles' second-grade son didn't participate in zoom classes during remote learning due to the coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic, the school reported her to the Department of Children and Families.

Your child’s a no-show at virtual school? You may get a call from the state’s foster care agency

Fredy Solís, a recent immigrant from Guatemala, spent the last year trying to learn from home. The Globe followed Fredy's 11-member Spanish class at Boston International Newcomers Academy through the pandemic, to better understand how school closures have affected the city's most vulnerable students.
A year of grit and despair

For one class of immigrant students, the pandemic threatens to upend their educational dreams

To understand the remarkable forces and obstacles newcomers to America have to contend with, a Globe team closely tracked one class at Boston International Newcomers Academy — BINcA for short — for most of a year.
Leer en español: Un año de lucha y desesperación: la pandemia amenaza con poner fin a los sueños de una clase de estudiantes inmigrantesYvonne Abraham: Students’ dreams made impossible by the pandemic
New to English and technology: One student's remarkable journey
Fredy left Guatemala for Boston in 2019. He was just beginning to learn English at Boston International Newcomers Academy when the pandemic shuttered schools. (Shelby Lum/Globe Staff)
As schools went remote, many students stopped attending
When classrooms went virtual, nationwide as many as 1 and 4 English learners have left their classes. (Shelby Lum/Globe Staff)
Education, Interrupted
This series explored how school closures in the spring of 2020 affected individual students.
Malaki Solo, a sixth-grader, works on his homework in his family's living room on Tuesday morning. Malaki, who is a generally confident student, has been feeling unmoored during this online learning experiment.

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

Jaliyah Bacchus and her littler sister, Jayda, greet their mother, Trisha Anderson.
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.

Lisa Kincade was with her son Willie, 21, after going for a walk in their Roslindale neighborhood.
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

“If I had had someone there to be with me during the school hours, I would have been more successful,” said Jessy Feliz, who goes to John W. McCormack Middle School in Boston.

Struggling Boston teens find few support options, fueling record absentee rates

After schools closed last year, many nonprofit organizations set up learning “hubs” that would allow small groups of students to join together and be overseen by an adult. But they were primarily for younger students.

40 percent of Boston high school juniors and seniors are chronically absent, raising concerns about their futures

The most striking increases in chronic absenteeism — defined as missing at least 10 percent of classes — occurred among Black, Latino, disabled, and English-learner students.

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.

Equity and Access

Jabari Murphy is a student in the METCO program who lives in Roslindale and goes to Natick High School.

In exploring the history of educational inequity, METCO students find echos of the present

METCO, the Metropolitan Council for Educational Opportunity, a voluntary school integration program, has been enrolling K-12 students from Boston in predominantly white suburban school districts since 1966 — a history that now spans multiple generations of students.

Eight years after Walsh’s promises, Boston prekindergarten is still not universal

The pre-K program in Boston Public Schools is well-regarded, but without universal capacity, the spots tend to go to savvier families who know about the early application deadline.

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.

Race and Diversity

Students with parents arrived at the Quincy Elementary School in Chinatown. Asian American parents are reluctant to send their children back to school full time.

Asian American families overwhelmingly reject full-time return to BPS classrooms this month

As Boston prepares to reopen elementary and middle schools full time, Asian American families are choosing to keep their children learning from home at rates higher than any other racial group, amid fears about both the pandemic and a growing tide of racism targeting their community.

‘Learning pods’ taking root in Black, Latino neighborhoods

Pods, also known as learning hubs or study halls, have been slow to arrive in low-income communities. But in the last six months, more have popped up to provide safe spaces for students to do their remote learning.

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.

Money and Facilities

Chairs were stacked against a blackboard for temporary storage in September at the McCormack Middle School in Dorchester.

To help low-income students, build more affordable housing in high-performing school districts, report says

Massachusetts and other New England states should create more affordable housing in well-to-do suburbs in an effort to provide low-income students greater access to a high-quality education, according to a report released Monday.

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.
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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May 10: Changes in admission rules for Boston exam schools boosted diversity of accepted studentsMay 3: Universal preschool in Massachusetts: It could be a ‘game-changer,' but the final plan could be very differentApril 26: While most Boston schools remained closed, McKinley opened its doors. Yet almost no one came
STUDENT CORNER

Make sure your voice is heard

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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.
Brighton High debate team members.
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