Boston High School Reform Efforts Gain Momentum with Grant

BOSTON -- Jobs for the Future (JFF) today announced a $13.6 million investment from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to support a citywide effort to develop small, dynamic high schools in the Boston Public Schools (BPS). The grant will expand the city’s pioneering efforts to prepare all students for college-level work by creating high schools where students receive a rigorous, personalized education in a supportive atmosphere. In four years, 30 percent of all Boston high school students will be enrolled in such high schools.

Building on a 2000 grant of $8.25 million from the Carnegie Corporation of New York, this investment will create new small schools and further develop existing schools, serving a total of 10,000 students. JFF and the Boston Public Schools will collaborate with the Boston Plan for Excellence, the Boston Private Industry Council, and the Center for Collaborative Education to create the schools.

Home to some of the world’s finest academic institutions and the nation’s first public school district, Boston is considered a pioneer in public education. In recent years, BPS Superintendent Thomas W. Payzant, Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino, and the Boston School Committee have teamed up to improve student achievement. Boston’s ongoing comprehensive reform plan includes transformation of the district’s high schools into smaller learning communities and an intensive literacy effort.

“This grant will build on the work we have done over the last decade of guaranteeing that all students have access to a solid education, no matter their race, their income level or their neighborhood,” said BPS Superintendent Thomas Payzant.

Boston Public Schools enrolls 62,400 students each year, including 18,300 students in grades 9-12. Seventy-one percent of BPS students qualify for free and reduced school lunch programs. Yet despite that high poverty rate, the district has a high school graduation rate of 82 percent – the fourth highest of the 50 largest districts in the country, according to the Manhattan Institute. In addition, 67.4 percent of the district’s 1999 graduates went on to college, more than ever before, according to the district. BPS has shown steady improvement in test scores over the last five years.

“We want our efforts to serve as a catalyst for the nation, to show the rest of the country that better high schools are within reach,” said Menino. “It takes hard work, strong partnerships between the public and private sectors, and widespread community commitment to change.”

Still, BPS faces serious challenges. Despite recent improvement, about one in five students still fail to pass the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System (MCAS) in time to graduate.

“High standards are important if we want our young people to succeed in life,” said Hilary Pennington, CEO of Jobs for the Future. “Smaller, more personalized learning environments will help ensure that all students get the attention and rigorous courses they need to meet those standards.”

Students, particularly those who are already struggling, can easily get lost in large, impersonal high schools where teachers see more than 150 students a day. Recent studies have found that students in small schools in Chicago and New York graduated at a higher rate than their counterparts in large schools.

This grant recognizes the success of Boston’s commitment to ensuring all of its young people have access to high-quality schools. To this end, BPS has developed an array of small schools, including six BPS pilot high schools, which are free to determine their own curricula, budgeting, schedules, and governance structures, and can make decisions about staffing. For example, students from all over the city apply to the 400-student Boston Arts Academy high school, which sent 88 percent of its first graduating class to college in 2001.

This year, BPS has begun creating small, autonomous schools within the walls of large district high schools. Boston’s approach includes reprogramming existing facilities to become small schools; creating and “incubating” new small schools in available facilities; further developing existing small schools; and transforming several existing programs into schools.

“Boston is proving that big-city school districts don’t have to accept low graduation rates and poor student achievement,” said Ray McNulty, program director for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. “Boston is leading the way in giving all students the opportunity to receive a high-quality, rigorous education.”

The grant builds on the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s nationwide effort to improve graduation and college-going rates, particularly among African Americans and Hispanics. In all, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has invested $475 million to create 1,200 small high schools around the country to help communities provide educational options tailored to individual student needs.

Jobs for the Future believes that all young people should have a quality high school and postsecondary education, and that all adults should have the skills needed to hold jobs that pay enough to support a family. As a nonprofit research, consulting and advocacy organization, JFF works to strengthen our society by creating educational and economic opportunity for those who need it most.

On the Internet:
Jobs for the Future, www.jff.org
Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, www.gatesfoundation.org