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BPS graduation rate hits record high
By adamg on Thu, 01/21/2016 - 1:09pm
Boston Public Schools today announced that 70.7% of the 2015 class graduated. It's the system's highest number - and reflects a shrinking gap between the graduation rates of whites and blacks and Hispanics.
State statistics showed a graduation rate of 66.7% for 2014 - and 59% for 2006.
The [state] data also shows that over the past ten years BPS has shrunk the graduation-rate gap between white and black students by nearly two-thirds, and reduced by half the gap between white and Latino students.
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Comments
70%?? That's terrible.
70%?? That's terrible. High School isn't that hard.
Okay... keep in mind many
Okay... keep in mind many Boston city students may not speak English as their first language.
and posters
may not understand math...
Have You Seen The HS Valevictorian Photos?
For many years the Globe has published photos and short biographical sketches on the top of the class at each of the Boston High Schools. There have been many years where immigrants have been the best at their schools.
Your argument about lack of English as a mother tongue is weak at best.
Okay, but what's the demographic and language of the other 30?
I think that was his point. Not that non-native English speakers cannot graduate cum laude, but that the 30% who do not graduate can be partially attributed to a population that lacks english proficiency.
Yes, thank you -- that was my
Yes, thank you -- that was my point. I should have articulated that more clearly.
John is right
John is right. IIRC, in BPS Class of 2015, 19 out of 41 high school valedictorians were English second language students. Teachers say some of their best students in the upper grades learned English in BPS grade schools. To do this well, small class sizes from K-3 are essential.
Not all ESL kids enter BPS K-3, an age at which it's easier to acquire a second language. Think about how hard kids who speak English as a native language work to get As in English. Now imagine being a second year ESL student in 10th grade English class.
The Globe also listed the colleges the valedictorians were going to attend. You would have been impressed, I was.
More good news, the drop out rate is way down and average test scores increased significantly. English High showed strong improvement in academic performance. The gain was so big the state wouldn't release the scores without investigating first.
Boston Public Schools are moving in the right direction. Tell the Mayor to level fund them. In other words, don;t cut another $50,000,000 in expenses this year. (They plan to take it out of BLS, BCLA, Lyndon, special education, increase class sizes. There's an article at the Bay State Banner with details.) Walsh has cut too much on the expense side over the last two years already: $190,000,000.
Education is expensive. Most cities and towns spend half or more of the town's revenue on it. We don't.
You don't think Mass could have become #1 in public education in the US on the cheap? On average and compared to other Mass. school districts, Boston student population is high needs (poverty, ELL, spec ed) so it's more expensive to give these kids equity (what they need.)
Parents, community members, students and teachers are fighting the cuts. Won't you stand with us?
"Hard" has nothing to do with it
My high school had a 50% drop-out rate, and it wasn't because kids were too stoopid to do Algebra I. It was because they didn't see the point of going to high school, either because they got caught up in gangs, or had to work full-time, or had a kid, etc.
It really didn't help that the principal and at least one of the vice-principals were horrible racists, but plenty of white kids dropped out too.
Excellent.
This shows that hard work pays off and that BPS is getting better.
As an aside, does this include all those sheet wearing racists at Boston Latin? Hate to dig in the nails but I hate to see my alma mater raked through the mud for giving people from all races and economic backgrounds in Boston the chance to excel.
I abhor this
microfiber micro-agression.
The tiniest of apologies
For how you felt about my comment.
It's friggin cold otherwise
I'd be blocking a highway because of you!
Dear John
Hi. I'm not impressed with your critical thinking skills where race is involved nor what statement implies-- that BLS shouldn't give "people from all races and economic backgrounds in Boston" a chance to attend BLS. You see how that might be an offensive notion? You didn't say that, you implied that white people give people of different races and socioeconomic backgrounds a chance, or not.
If you are willing to listen to the students who are speaking up at BLS and try to understand what they're saying instead of taking their critiques as a personal attack on you or your alma mater (<-does that term apply to high schools as well as college?) , you can begin to understand their concerns. It's hard to do but it beats ignorance.
On the bright side, you clearly love BLS and I admire that. On the dark side, you can't hear the criticism and you blame the people voicing it, perhaps in part because of their race.
Over two decades, the 1990s and the 2000s, the poverty rate in Boston went down for one group only, white people. We're clearly doing something wrong and I don't mean just Boston but Boston, too.
The poor and the middle class should check their animosity toward each other. It keeps us down.
You Don't Like My Critical Thinking?
OK then piss off. How is that for critical thinking?
Please don't bring in your Trotskyite vision of life to the Boston Public School problem. The working class and lower middle class has been squeezed out of the city with the growth in affordable housing units for the near permanet poor and the wholesale take over of neighborhoods by the non child bearing class.
.
Ok, I'll withdrawal the last two sentences.
I thought only kids were supposed to hyperventillate
But, eh, whatevs.
Adam
I love that school. It has been a rock of stability in a decades long morass of mediocrity that is the BPS. It gave me and kids from all over this city a chance to succeed and open their eyes to the bigger world. I got pushed there more than I ever would have at Copley High or Don Bosco.
Watching the lunacy on these boards yesterday from people who don't understand the school's zeitgeist makes me defensive about it.
Semper
Fi!
Boston Latin--just let it go.
Geez, get over it will you? It was 'effin High School, for chrissakes. It's not like you and your classmates personally stormed the beaches at Normandy every day for four years...
These BLS guys remind me of washed out high school athletes, reliving their gridiron glory days at the local bar. Biggest and onliest thing that ever happened to them.
Those kids have plenty to be proud of
Those kids have plenty to be proud of. Come back when you find some Texas football school that can match the alumni record of BLS.
Nobody's going around dropping hints about their BLS status; it's because I posted a news story yesterday specifically about BLS. You may have seen it on the front page of the Herald today. BLS is in the news.
Boston High Schools
BLS--yeah, way cool. Mathers and Bernsteins and tickets punched to Harvard all around.
But give me a black kid who went to South Boston High School during busing, or a white kid who did four years in Boston Tech at Warren and Townsend.
Latin noun declension may not be their thing, but they learned a lot more in high school than a lot of those kids on Louis Pasteur.
I'm sorry, when was the busing crisis again?
The kids who lived through that are all now middle aged and have kids of their own.
Boston Tech?
Do you mean Boston's other exam school?
From what I've heard, kids that go to the O'Bryant do tend to graduate and go on to some kind of post secondary education.
Jealous much
No, I am not a BLS alum, but even I know that the school is pretty darned good. After all, it's the only public school in Boston where suburban parents attempt to game the system by getting an "address" in Boston so their kids can attend.
Do they do that to attend the suburban high school you attended?
And trust me, I know about washed out high school athletes, since my sojourn on Morrissey Blvd exposed me to them in their primes.
Getting better? This is like
Getting better? This is like saying a smoker is getting healthier by cutting back 1 pack out of their carton a day habit.
70% is abysmal and we shouldn't accept such a low standard as a mark of pride or success!
Yes, getting better
Boston's dropout rate didn't happen overnight and fixing the problem won't happen that way, either. According to the state:
great news!
Well done, students!
Does BPS have December
Does BPS have December graduation or does it really take them until now to figure out how many people graduated 7 or so months ago?
(I get that its part of a year end summary, but something like record graduation rate is probably worthy enough to announce when its happening, even if the rest of the years data isn't complete.)
Understanding graduation rate
Graduation rate is not just the percentage of students who entered their senior year who graduated. It is the percentage of students who entered in their freshman through senior year who graduated. This is why it is often low (because some kids do not graduate because they transferred schools, died, or left for other reasons) and why it takes some record checking to determine.
The stats actually come from the state
So it probably takes them awhile to compile and analyze the stats from across the state. Or something.
That's great, considering all
That's great, considering all the students "suggested out" from the charter HS to BPS