Massachusetts

Massachusetts's Opportunity Gap

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27%
12th

The Urgency of Now, a new report from the Schott Foundation for Public Education, finds that 60 percent of Black male students and 53 percent of Latino male students graduated from Massachusetts schools in four years, compared to 83 percent of White male students. The report cites the dire "pushout' and "lockout" crises hurting students of color and denying them access to a fair and substantive opportunity to learn. For more info, including state and district data, visit blackboysreport.org.



View the report's Massachusetts press release here.

May 09

 A new study released by UCLA's Civil Rights Project shows that while student enrollment in Massachusetts public schools is growing ever more diverse, the schools themselves are becoming increasingly segregated along race and class lines.

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Apr 25

In the passion of the civil rights movement of the 1960s, Jonathan Kozol gave up the prospect of an academic career, moved from Harvard Square to a poor black Boston neighborhood, and became a fourth grade teacher. Since then, he has devoted his life to advocating for equal educational opportunity.

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Apr 10

In an article published in Phi Delta Kappan, Dan Chu from the Boston Student Advisory Council (BSAC) details BSAC's long and ultimately successful campaign to develop a tool for students to give constructive feedback to their teachers.

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Mar 06

The Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center's new Children's Budget is an expansive database of government services and programs for children and their families that impact their access to high quality educational opportunities. Covering everything from early childhood education, fair funding, expanded learning time, healthcare, affordable housing and juvenile justice, this database is a potent tool worth replicating in other states, and it drives home the need for supports-based, not standards-based, education reform.

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Feb 14

A number of OTL allies in Massachusetts – including youth organizers from the Boston Student Advisory Council and the Boston Youth Organizing Project – are helping build grassroots pressure for revenue building initiatives and investments in communities and education. The move is particularly exciting following MA Governor Deval Patrick's recent call for a nearly $2 billion investment in the state's education system and transportation infrastructure.

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Report
Jennifer B. Ayscue and Alyssa Greenberg with John Juscera and Genevieve Siegel-Hawley Civil Rights Project, May 2013
While student enrollment in Massachusetts public schools is growing more diverse, the state's public schools are becoming increasingly segregated along race and class lines. The inequality of educational opportunities and outcomes is compounded when, as is usually the case, racially segregated schools are also schools of concentrated poverty. This report explores two decades of school segregation trends in the state and provides recommendations for policymakers and advocates.
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Data
The Center for Civil Rights Remedies – The Civil Rights Project , Apr 2013
A new report from UCLA's Civil Right Project is a one stop shop for all the school discipline data advocates or organizers needto fight the overuse of out-of-school suspensions. Out of School & Off Track uses data from over 26,000 U.S. middle and high schools for the 2009-2010 academic year and breaks it down by district, race, gender, elementary/secondary school level, English language learners, and disability status.
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Policy
National Opportunity to Learn Campaign, Dec 2011
In the first in a series of policy proposals, the National Opportunity to Learn Campaign advocates the creation of Personal Opportunity Plans for every student who is one grade level or more behind in reading or math, giving them access to the academic, social and heathcare supports they need to get back on track.
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Policy
The Dignity in Schools Campaign, Aug 2012
The Dignity in Schools Campaign Model Code on Education and Dignity presents a set of recommended policies to schools, districts and legislators to help end school pushout and protect the human rights to education, dignity, participation and freedom from discrimination. The Code is the culmination of several years of research and dialogue with students, parents, educators, advocates and researchers who came together to envision a school system that supports all children and young people in reaching their full potential.
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Report
Center for Civil Rights Remedies at UCLA's Civil Rights Project , Aug 2012
This report analyzes data from the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Civil Rights on school discipline and suspensions in the 2009-10 school year to reveal the unconscionable disparities regarding which students are pushed out of the classroom through out-of-school suspensions.The source data covers 7,000 school districts and represents 85 percent of all public school students, making this report the first and most comprehensive analysis of the impact of out nation's school discipline policies.
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