FYI from BSF, 5.10.24
Last week, graduation data was also released for Boston’s other public schools: Commonwealth and Horace Mann charters.
This year, ~10,225 students attended Boston charters that offer 12th grade; in the aggregate, those Boston charter schools would be the 11th largest district in Massachusetts, right behind Fall River, slightly larger than Quincy.
The number of Boston charter school high graduates - and the graduation rate - have dramatically increased during the past ten years.
This tracks; the majority of Boston charters authorized to grow starting in 2010 added high schools or high school seats.
The graduation increases were driven by improvements at individual schools and the addition of new schools.
There are two obvious exceptions. City on a Hill will close at the end of the next year; Boston Day and Evening Academy, which serves primarily 16-22 year-olds in a more flexible setting, posts very low graduation rates annually-in a more flexible setting and graduate at different times, meaning rates as reported by the state do not reflect this alternative approach.
~90% of Boston charter school students are Black or Latino, so subgroup analysis is less instructive than a comparison of averages.
Even if this data shows less variance than BPS (see last week), the overall trends look more similar than dissimilar. Graduation rates are up, maybe plateauing; gaps are stubborn.
And, again, there is value in finding positive deviants. 100% of Latino students at Brooke graduated high school; same for Black students at Excel. High needs students graduate from EMK at a rate of +96%.
The late data release this year means we are, ironically, close to this year's graduation. Let's hope schools and districts have the data and resources to ensure more and more young adults can walk across stages each June.
notes in the margin
Boston School Committee met Wednesday; full materials here. The meeting featured an extensive update on capital projects begun during the Walsh Administration and more recent ones initiated by Mayor Wu. Based on this email sent to BPS families yesterday, details on potential new projects are coming soon.
Boston voters expressed concerns about Boston school facilities and showed support for school consolidation in a poll released this week.
With her election as the president of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) for Massachusetts, Jessica Tang will soon be the former president of the Boston Teachers Union.
Newton won’t enroll out-of-district students.
In a time of transition and potential growth, a new superintendent of schools was named for the Archdiocese of Greater Boston.
Deep dive in the murky waters of out-of-district special education placements.
The Massachusetts Senate is proposing free community college in its budget.
With a headline like the one below, after school programs aren’t the only things to be concerned about.
Schools are becoming more segregated, and the potential drivers may surprise you.
The end of the spring semester may be the only thing that quells the controversy around university encampments.
