Education Commons^™

Latinx Students In Boston Exam Schools: Growing But Consistently Underrepresented, Ava Marinelli, Fabián Torres-Ardila

Gastón Institute Publications

Boston Public Schools exam schools – Boston Latin School, Boston Latin Academy, and the John D. O’Bryant School of Mathematics and Sciences – are widely considered some of the most elite schools not only in Boston Public Schools, but also in the country at large. They have also been the subject of numerous lawsuits and investigations, alleging racially biased admission standards, racism among faculty and students, and disproportionate enrollment numbers. The Mauricio Gastón Institute for Latino Community Development and Public Policy finds that while the enrollment of Latinx students has trended steadily upwards in Boston Public Schools and exam schools …

Getting Power Back: Court Restoration Of Executive Authority In Boston City Government (1985), Marcy Murninghan

New England Journal of Public Policy

This article, originally published in 1985, is based partly on the author’s experience with the Boston school desegregation case, but goes beyond it. It chronicles some of the events that occurred when a state and a federal court attempted to disengage from active jurisdiction over two Boston public systems: the Boston Public Schools and the Boston Housing Authority. It makes three proposals, which, if enacted, would help to keep the courts out of day-to-day management of municipal operations. It also makes some generalizations about the court-agency interplay that are relevant to the post-remedial phase of institutional reform litigation. The author …

Introduction, Marcy Murninghan

New England Journal of Public Policy

America faces a reckoning, a crucible of what Reinhold Niebuhr observed more than eighty years ago. Our democratic principles and traditions are imperiled by the power of financial oligarchs and unfettered money flows, which have contributed to massive inequality that, in turn, has given rise to political unrest and a sense of cultural unmooring.

The articles presented here are both descriptive and normative, setting forth a complex social problem with seemingly bottomless proportions and then offering a design or set of remedial actions to alleviate them. Drawing on my professional experience going back to the mid-1970s, I wrote these pieces …

Project Reach Talent Search At Umass Boston, Academic Support Services And Undergraduate Studies, University Of Massachusetts Boston

Office of Community Partnerships Posters

We identify disadvantaged middle and high school students in the Boston Public Schools (BPS) who have the potential for education at the post-secondary level, we support those students as they complete a rigorous high school program of study, and we encourage them to enroll in programs of post-secondary education.

The Tech Apprentice Internship Program: Engaging Youth In It, Felicia Vargas, Olu Ibrahim, Neil Sullivan, Deborah Boisvert

Office of Community Partnerships Posters

The Tech Apprentice program was designed to provide Boston Public School (BPS) students work-based learning opportunities within information technology (IT) departments across a diverse array of industries for seven-week, paid summer internships. A robust technology internship program encourages BPS students to pursue IT-related post-secondary degrees. Tech Apprentice has expanded from 25 student placements in the first summer to 123 who were employed in 2012, and the program has placed over 600 students in internships since the program launched in 2006. 98% of graduates attend colleges and 78% are pursuing an IT-related degree.

Success Boston: College Completion Initiative, Liliana Mickle

Office of Community Partnerships Posters

2008: Initiative launches in response to Northeastern University study finding – only 35.5% of Boston Public School (BPS) graduates enrolled in college earned an Associate’s or Bachelor’s degree within 7 years (despite BPS having one of the highest college enrollment rates in country).

2010: 38 colleges/universities in MA accepted UMass Boston Chancellor Keith Motley’s invitation to join the initiative (25 submitted specific plans). Chancellor Motley is co-chair of Mayor’s Success Boston Task Force.

July 2010: UMass Boston implements Success Boston Embedded Model: Collaboration with American Student Assistance (ASA), Freedom House Inc., Bottom Line and Hyde Square Task Force to provide …

The Talented And Gifted (Tag) Latino Program: Providing Holistic Support To Boston Students In Grades 6-12 Through Programming Focused On The Development Of Academic Skills, Leadership Skills And Community Building, Ilyitch Nahiely Tábora, Institute For Learning & Teaching, University Of Massachusetts Boston

Office of Community Partnerships Posters

The Talented And Gifted (TAG) Latino Program has served the academic, personal and social needs of Boston Public Schools middle and high schools Latino students and English Language Learners since 1985. TAG offers holistic, year-round support to approximately 600 students annually. Boston Public School (BPS) Latino students and English Language Learners (ELL) excel academically, socially and personally, so as to improve their ability to succeed in high school and at the postsecondary level.

The Academic Achievement Of Latino Students In Boston Public Schools, Faye Karp

Gastón Institute Publications

This report examines the SY2006-SY2009 MCAS ELA and Math achievement of Latino students in Boston Public Schools. The key findings of this report include:

• Latino students now constitute the largest racial/ethnic student group in Boston Public Schools (43.0% in SY2012) and the only racial/ethnic group to grow in numbers from SY2006 to SY2009. In SY2009, Latino students had the highest rates of poverty, mobility, chronic absence, and grade retention in Boston Public Schools.
• Latino students have some of the lowest MCAS ELA and Math pass rates in Boston Public Schools. In SY2009, White students had the highest pass rates on …

Umass Boston Anthropology Outreach, Claire L. Gold

Office of Community Partnerships Posters

The program serves as a science enrichment program for the Boston area K-12 public schools where science teachers are provided with fossil casts of early human ancestors and the expertise of UMass Boston faculty. The program helps students further their understanding of biological evolution and the program was free to13 prequalified Boston area schools.

Identifying Success In Schools And Programs For English Language Learners In Boston Public Schools, Miren Uriarte, Michael Berardino, Jie Chen, Virginia Diez, Faye Karp, Sarah Rustan, Rosann Tung, Laurie Gagnon, Pamela Stazesky, Eileen De Los Reyes, Antonieta Bolomey, Gaston Institute, University Of Massachusetts Boston

Office of Community Partnerships Posters

The Gastón Institute collaborates with government agencies, community organizations and foundations in applied research aimed at evaluating the impact of policies, programs and practices. This poster describes a three-way collaboration among researchers and practitioners from Boston Public Schools (BPS), the Gastón Institute and the Center for Collaborative Education (CCE) which yielded two comprehensive studies: 1. The enrollment and outcomes of English language learners in BPS; 2. Best ELL practices in four schools that were consistently high performing or steadily improving with respect to ELL student outcomes.

Cultural Proficiency In Education: A Review Of The Literature Focused On Teachers, School Leaders, And Schools, Cady Landa

Gastón Institute Publications

This literature review complements numerous studies conducted by the Gastón Institute in the last twenty years showing the significance of cultural differences for the educational outcomes of Latino and other cultural- and linguistical-minority children. The Gastón Institute and Sociedad Latina partnered to produce this review with the goal of deepening the understanding of policy makers and administrators of the benefits of culturally proficient schools for all students.

The author, Cady Landa, presents a wealth of information on the characteristics of cultural proficiency and the qualities that it calls for in teachers, students, and administrators. She has drawn from dozens of …

English Learners In Boston Public Schools: Enrollment, Engagement And Academic Outcomes Of Native Speakers Of Cape Verdean Creole, Chinese Dialects, Haitian Creole, Spanish, And Vietnamese, Miren Uriarte, Nicole Lavan, Nicole Agusti, Mandira Kala, Faye Karp, Peter Nien-Chu Kiang, Lusa Lo, Rosann Tung, Cassandra Villari

Gastón Institute Publications

This study focuses on the academic experience of English Learners (ELs) in Boston’s public schools in the year before and in the three years following the implementation of Referendum Question 2. In 2002, this referendum spelled an end to Transitional Bilingual Education (TBE) as the primary program available for children requiring language support in Massachusetts public schools, replacing it with Sheltered English Immersion (SEI). Specifically, this report focuses on the enrollment and academic outcomes of the five largest groups of native speakers of languages other than English in the Boston Public Schools: speakers of Spanish, Chinese dialects, Vietnamese, Haitian Creole, …

English Learners In Boston Public Schools: Enrollment And Educational Outcomes Of Native Spanish Speakers, Miren Uriarte, Nicole Lavan, Nicole Agusti, Faye Karp

Gastón Institute Publications

In November 2002, the voters of Massachusetts approved Referendum Question 2. This referendum spelled an end to Transitional Bilingual Education (TBE) as the primary program available for children requiring language support in Massachusetts. In its place came a radically different policy called Sheltered English Immersion (SEI). Unlike TBE, which relies on the English learners’ own language to facilitate the learning of academic subjects as they master English, SEI programs rely on the use of simple English in the classroom to impart academic content; teachers use students’ native language only to assist them in completing tasks or to answer a question. …

English Learners In Boston Public Schools: Enrollment, Engagement And Academic Outcomes, Ay2003-Ay2006 Final Report, Rosann Tung, Miren Uriarte, Virginia Diez, Nicole Lavan, Nicole Agusti, Faye Karp, Tatjana Meschede

Gastón Institute Publications

In 2002, Massachusetts voters approved a referendum against the continuance of Transitional Bilingual Education (TBE) as a method of instruction for English language learners. The study undertaken by the Mauricio Gaston Institute at UMass Boston in collaboration with the Center for Collaborative Education in Boston finds that, in the three years following the implementation of Question 2 in the Boston Public Schools, the identification of students of limited English proficiency declined as did the enrollment in programs for English; the enrollment of English Learners in substantially separate Special Education programs more than doubled; and service options for English Learners narrowed. …

Where We Go To School: Latino Students And The Public Schools Of Boston, Miren Uriarte, Jie Chen, Mandira Kala

Gastón Institute Publications

Where we go to School: Latino Students and the Public Schools of Boston focuses on the experience of Latino children in the Boston Public Schools (BPS). Using available public data that had not previously been compiled, it aims at the fullest view possible of the Latino school population.

Boston Public Schools is the largest school district in the state, enrolling 56,765 students in AY 2006, the school year that is the focus of this study. School enrollments in Boston have been both shrinking and diversifying. In 2000-2001, for example, enrollments numbered 63,024; just five years later, enrollment was 9.6% lower. …

Looking Back Without Anger: Reflections On The Boston School Crisis, Robert Wood

New England Journal of Public Policy

This article is taken from the unpublished autobiography of Robert Wood who served as Superintendent of Boston Public Schools from 1978 to 1980 during the difficult period when U.S. District Court Judge W. Arthur Garrity was overseeing court ordered desegregation of schools. After leaving the University of Massachusetts in January 1978, Robert Wood spent six months at the Harvard Graduate School of Education working on a book and considering a possible run for the United States Senate. Suggestion as to his next assignment, however, came from an unexpected source, as he describes below.

The Quality Of Public Education In Boston: An Assessment And Some Recommendations, Karen Seashore Louis

Center for Survey Research Publications

Motivation, self-esteem, achievement and the development of tolerance and acceptance of others -- these are the goals that most, like Crain, et al., have come to accept as legitimate objectives of public schooling. Yet, there is substantial opinion that the public schools of Boston have been unable to achieve standards in these areas that are acceptable to the public, the students who occupy the schools, and the professionals who run them. For example, a recent survey of Boston residents' attitudes toward the schools indicates that approximately 3/4 of all respondents -- irrespective of race, or whether there were any school …