In this bonus episode, Jill and Ross touch upon two main themes significantly impacting the district: enrollment decline and graduation standards. We discuss how enrollment has dropped over the past half-decade and dive into those numbers. Ross and Jill then use analysis and insight from some of our first episodes in 2019 to touch on the key components of MassCore and why they matter for Boston Public Schools.

Enrollment Losses, A Startling Decline:

Since the 2019–2020 school year, BPS has lost over 4,000 students, a 9.4% drop, making it one of the fastest shrinking large school districts in the country. Recent data from the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education suggests the trend may be even worse. At the same time, staffing in the district has grown by 12.7%, primarily driven by increases in non-teaching roles like administrators and paraprofessionals. This mismatch, fewer students, more staff, raises major questions about resource alignment and what the City and district are doing to stem the loss of students across BPS.

A New Graduation Standard - MassCore in 2025

On the academic front, BPS is in a moment of transition following Massachusetts’ recent vote to remove MCAS as a graduation requirement. With local control now shaping graduation standards, BPS has chosen MassCore, a state-recommended framework aimed at aligning high school coursework with college readiness. Interestingly, this question links closely with a major study from the Boston Globe relating to how our district prepares our brightest students for the future. We are still awaiting data from this year about graduation rates and are keen to analyze how the similar standards for this past graduating class impacted rates. Adopted in 2021, MassCore includes requirements in math, English, history, foreign language, the arts, and more. However, implementation has been uneven: while MassCore completion rates have doubled in Boston, they still trail the state average by 30 percentage points. With no statewide graduation mandate in place, how BPS chooses to implement MassCore will significantly influence whether the district can deliver on its promise to offer our children a quality education.

Looking Ahead!

Over the course of the next three weeks, we will be dropping our “Deep Dives” series about MassCore on our feed. These re-releases will build upon our discussion in this episode and expand into some other areas well!

The first school committee meeting of the 2025-2026 school year will be on September 10th at 6pm. We will be watching, listening, and recording! Until then, we hope you enjoy the final days of summer.

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