Education

Public schooling data in Massachusetts tells a tale of two states. In one, surging household incomes coupled with ample taxable property provide for peerless public education. In the other, an aspiring citizenry must surmount the same barriers as ever.

Six Boston educators are among a group of 15 selected as the second cohort of a fellowship program that aims to equip leaders with tools to improve the high school experience for students and staff.

Earth’s oldest living social compact, the Massachusetts Constitution, calls us to cherish the public schools. For state politicians, providing adequate public education is an unavoidable duty. Only voters can render judgment.

On July 29, when Governor Maura Healey signed the budget for Fiscal Year 2025, it finalized a process allocating $57.8 billion in funding for the commonwealth and state-funded organizations, including millions for educational efforts across the state.

Education administrators at all levels need to act now to resist a rising tide of efforts against social science knowledge. That tide includes bans on state funding for teaching DEI in schools, public colleges and state agencies.

Although state and local leaders are building comprehensive plans to increase the number of Black teachers, few plans include the recruitment of more Black principals, who play a critical role in Black teachers’ development.

Working longer hours, typically in under-resourced schools, Black teachers often climb up the rougher side of the educational mountain compared with their white peers. And, like all teachers, they dealt with the COVID-19 disruptions in their profession, trying to engage and teach to camera-off students over Zoom.

No matter how much the right derides the word, the Black community needs to stay woke. In recent years, we’ve witnessed a disturbing trend that threatens the foundations of our democratic society: the rise of book bans, curriculum censorship and attacks on historical narratives in our educational institutions.

A little over a year ago, the College Board unveiled its long-awaited draft AP African American Studies curriculum. What happened next was sad — and all too predictable.

There are numbers you know, and then there are numbers you feel. For instance, I know that Black children make up 15% of this country’s K-12 public schools. I also know that Black folks make up roughly the same percentage of U.S. citizens. 

Roxbury Community College opened its doors in September 1973 after years of community activism, welcoming 400 students to a modest campus on Blue Hill Avenue.

As a student in the METCO program, Nicholas Vance used to wake up at 5:30 every morning to prepare for an hour-long bus ride from his home in Mattapan to school in Bedford. Now an education specialist and strategic initiatives manager at the National Grid, Vance said the “academic rigor” his suburban school offered was worth the hassle.