FYI from BSF, 12.20.19

Some things we have read through recently…

School Matters

Along with returning students, teachers, and staff, we will see you again in 2020.  Happy Holidays and Happy New Year!

Annual Winter Show at the (soon to be PK-6) Curtis Guild in East Boston

In the Mail

Every December, mailboxes are stuffed with messages and pictures, wishing good luck and good health for the holidays and in the new year.  

Good messages matter, not just around the holidays.

EdNavigator works through employers in New Orleans and Greater Boston to provide support to low-income families to choose schools (and support their children once they are in).

EdNavigator ran a simple RCT coordinated with state agencies.  Kids who did well on the Louisiana state test got a little packet in the mail:

A similar group of kids didn’t get the packet and were the control group.

There were not many broad findings, but one shot through: Black students who received the packet in the mail outperformed the control group the next year.

Aside from further study and additional studies/pilots, what are the implications?

Subgroup data was first available through the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education in 2001. That year, the proficiency gap between Black and White students in BPS in 8th grade math was 40 points; in 2019, it was virtually unchanged at 39 points.  

During that time span, BPS Black student enrollment declined by half, a loss of 14,610 students.  

Any potential solution to this big of a problem, even something as small as encouragement by mail, deserves consideration.

Notes in the Margin

A pithy, balanced summary of big research/data findings in 2019.  Because there is always a Boston connection, see tie-ins to Boston exam schools and charters.

And here is one from Chalkbeat (with an overlap on restorative justice).

Two of our partner schools, Academy of the Pacific Rim and the Eliot, were selected as finalists for the state’s deeper learning initiative.

Boston School Committee met last week.  There was an update on school quality tiers, with additional analysis of schools requiring state assistance or intervention.  There was also a broad update on Dr. Cassellius’s strategic plan (BPS slide below).  At this meeting and in other communication, BPS is hinting at a large budget increase.

This doesn’t mean all higher ed is dead or dying; Duet has crossed an enrollment of 500 and tracking to 2,000 (with lots of young people higher ed hasn’t worked for).

Tech in the classroom - blessing or curse?