Boston Awarded $8 Million Grant for High School Restructuring Plan

The Boston Public Schools today announced that the district been awarded an $8 million grant from the Carnegie Corporation (their press release) of New York and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The grant is a major vote of confidence for the "Focus On Children" school reform effort underway in Boston. The funds will be used over a five-year period to support the BPS high school restructuring plan to make Boston's 12 high schools smaller, more supportive academic environments with a stronger focus on literacy skills. There are 13,000 Boston high school students. The changes will improve overall academic performance, reduce the dropout rate, and improve attendance. Boston was recognized for its bold systemwide effort to address high school issues rather than experimenting with only a handful of schools.

The grant application was coordinated by the Boston Plan for Excellence (read the grant proposal). School Department administrators, teachers, parents, students and outside community groups including the Boston Private Industry Council and Jobs for the Future worked for one year shaping the best way to target resources for improving Boston's high schools. The process involved input at all levels. Boston was selected from a national pool of twenty school districts that were invited to apply for the grant. Seven school districts were ultimately awarded grants.

The grant will focus on reducing the student alienation created by larger high school that leaves students feeling disconnected from their teachers and classrooms. The disconnect fosters a lack of interest and low attendance which translate into poor academic achievement. The grant will also focus on rapidly improving literacy skills of students at the high school level. While the Boston Public Schools have made steady gains each year on MCAS scoring, a majority of high school students still are failing MCAS in both language arts and mathematics. Poor literacy skills are directly related to the overall performance as students cannot comprehend the written questions and instructions to perform well, nor write with sufficient depth or rigor.

The grant will address these issues with:

• Smaller academic environments with drop out prevention support and concentrated instruction.
• Full-time instructional "coaches" at all 12 high schools to support teachers to learn effective instructional practices.
• Parent organizing to engage school community better on reform effort.
• Build strong new partnerships with community organizations, higher education and businesses.
• Providing smaller grants for innovative programs to further reduce alienation in high school.
• Media campaign to build strong public support and accountability for high school reforms.

Twelve Boston high schools are in the process of breaking into smaller learning communities within each school. Boston is the only district in the country to focus on all of its high schools for sweeping reforms and support.

South Boston High School, where the announcement was made, now consists of three separate schools within one building to foster stronger learning and a better school environment for students. What was South Boston High School is now organized as the Excel Academy, Monument Academy, and Odyssey Academy.

Additional documents:
Executive Summary of Focus on High Schools
Fact Sheet on Boston's High Schools
Carnegie Planning Group
Focus on High Schools Highlights
Lessons Learned from the Carnegie Planning Period
Press Conference Announcement