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The Great Divide

Race, class, and opportunity in our schools

‘What exactly is fair about this?’: Great high schools aren’t available to all Boston kids.

Boston’s traditional public high schools are the casualties of a system that offers a smorgasbord of academic and extracurricular delicacies to students who attend exam schools and a few competitive admissions schools, but leaves others with crumbs.
Tell us about your BPS high school experience

Boston Latin Academy faculty provide fresh insight about no-confidence vote in head of school

Faculty cited lost learning time throughout this year due to incomplete class schedules and a lack of clear protocols to address student behavioral and safety issues.
Boston Latin Academy teachers vote no confidence in head of school

Lorena Lopera to step down from Boston School Committee

Lorena Lopera was appointed in 2021 to the School Committee and her term was set to expire in six months.

Adult woman posed as student, fraudulently enrolled in BPS high schools, district says

The woman used multiple pseudonyms, fake identification, and falsified paperwork to enroll at Burke, Brighton, and English high schools.

Mass. fails to prepare educators on how to teach reading in an evidence-based manner, new report shows

The report ranked Mass. 35th for teaching new educators how to instruct students on phonics, vocabulary, and other core components of reading.

With the return of the testing requirement, the diversity of applicants getting into Boston exam schools shifts only slightly

The results show how adding socioeconomic factors into the admission process over the last three years is proving to be a powerful force.

City’s proposal for the O’Bryant School met with hedged enthusiasm, skepticism

At the School Committee meeting Wednesday evening, members questioned Skipper about the city’s proposal for the O’Bryant, focusing in particular on the community engagement process in developing the plan and its overall lack of details.

Wu, Skipper propose big changes to BPS high schools

Boston now spends more per student than any other large school district in the nation

While student chronic absenteeism numbers remain high, Boston and Mass. show signs of recovery

Visit our archive of all stories from The Great Divide team

Enrollment

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.

In Woburn, a diversifying school district works to become more welcoming
For Kafui Kemeh, a Black high school senior in Woburn, life in the suburbs has brought the quality education her family sought, but the isolation and racism she has experienced as one of the very few Black students in her classes weigh on her.

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.

Students with disabilities are often left out of Boston’s popular dual language programs

Bilingual special education experts say this underrepresentation is more than a missed opportunity — it’s discrimination.
Estudiantes con discapacidades a menudo son excluidos de populares programas de lenguaje dual

While student chronic absenteeism numbers remain high, Boston and Mass. show signs of recovery

Through March of this year, those who were chronically absent in BPS fell five percentage points to 37.2 percent, meaning about 2,300 more students regularly showed up for school.

Boston School Committee votes to approve controversial elementary school mergers

The committee voted 6-0, with one member absent, Wednesday night to approve separate plans to merge Dorchester’s Shaw and Mattapan's Taylor schools in September 2024, and Roslindale’s Sumner and Philbrick schools in September 2025.
BPS shares detail on mergers as they plan for future closures

Cambridge to launch free public preschool for all 4-year-olds, some 3-year-olds

Cambridge joins other cities, such as Boston and Springfield, in making free prekindergarten accessible for all children.

Boston Public Schools’ improper billing practice wasted $25,000, opened avenues for potential corruption, city finds

The missteps by BPS amounted to a “breach of policy, procedures, and public trust,” the report said.

After a single word — ‘ladies’ — brought Easthampton into the limelight, residents crave normalcy

The city remains divided over recent decisions the School Committee made in its quest for a new district leader, frustrating residents who hope to escape the unwanted attention.

Boston Public Schools nearing agreement with city police to formalize relationship

The memorandum will not place police back in schools, the officials said, but instead will clarify when educators should call police to respond to incidents.
Boston Public Schools quietly negotiating with city police to formalize relationship

More school coverage

Boston Latin Academy faculty provide fresh insight about no-confidence vote in head of school

Faculty cited lost learning time throughout this year due to incomplete class schedules and a lack of clear protocols to address student behavioral and safety issues.

Lorena Lopera to step down from Boston School Committee

Lorena Lopera was appointed in 2021 to the School Committee and her term was set to expire in six months.

Here’s what’s in Healey’s proposed new sex ed framework

The updates, the first in 24 years, are “inclusive, medically accurate and age appropriate,” Healey said at a State House press conference about the proposed health and physical education framework.

Math, reading scores plunge for 13-year-olds as pandemic setbacks persist

Math and reading scores among America’s 13-year-olds fell to their lowest levels in decades, with math scores plunging by the largest margin ever recorded, according to the results of a test known as the nation’s report card.

Adult woman posed as student, fraudulently enrolled in BPS high schools, district says

The woman used multiple pseudonyms, fake identification, and falsified paperwork to enroll at Burke, Brighton, and English high schools.

Tell us about your BPS high school experience

We’re looking to hear from current and former Boston Public School students, as well as parents and educators.

‘What exactly is fair about this?’: Great high schools aren’t available to all Boston kids.

Boston’s traditional public high schools are the casualties of a system that offers a smorgasbord of academic and extracurricular delicacies to students who attend exam schools and a few competitive admissions schools, but leaves others with crumbs.

Featured Stories

A Maine mother’s lawsuit over her child’s gender transition highlights tension between student protections and parental rights

A look into how AP African-American Studies is taught at a Cambridge school

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

She helped kids and teachers solve problems. Can she do the same for Boston Public Schools?

In Mattapan’s Haitian Creole program, a taste of the bilingual education BPS wants to expand

Once underperforming, East Boston High School made gains through the pandemic. Can BPS replicate the success?

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

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

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June 21: Great high schools aren’t available to all Boston kidsJune 14: Mass. fails to prepare educators on how to teach readingJune 07: Wu, Skipper propose big changes to BPS high schools

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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.

Academics and Learning

GPA issue just latest in series of exam school admissions errors parents have noticed this year

The district hired auditors to avoid the incorrect admissions decisions it had in 2019 and 2020: Ernst & Young last year, and the local consultant firm Borderland Partners this year. But it was parents, not the auditor, that caught the mistakes.
Dozens of BPS students were wrongly informed about their exam school eligibility. What went wrong?

BPS brings back Ernst & Young for exam school admissions after GPA error

The district employed Ernst & Young last year for the first year of a complex new admission process, and no known errors came to light under the global accounting firm’s watch.

BPS miscalculated GPAs, wrongly informing students of their exam school eligibility
New eligibility notices will go out this week after dozens who met criteria to apply for an exam school slot were told they weren't eligible and others were wrongly told they were.

Equity and Access

‘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.

‘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.

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.

US Court of Appeals takes up Boston exam school case

Race and Diversity

Wayland School Committee appoints new acting district leader, finalizing replacement of Superintendent Omar Easy

The School Committee will simultaneously continue to pay Superintendent Omar Easy, who has alleged he was the victim of racism, to stay home on administrative leave until his contract expires June 30, 2024.
‘This has been devastating’: Wayland is divided over racism allegations after Black superintendent is placed on leave

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.

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

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.

Debate emerging on Beacon Hill over bill that would limit job security for veteran teachers to preserve educator diversity

Money and Facilities

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.

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.