Greetings! I am excited to share that our new East Boston campus on 1150 Saratoga Street is now enrolling students for the January 6, 2024 intake. As a school that has been working with multilingual learners for nearly two decades, we look forward to this expansion of the BATA community and welcoming our new students. Please contact our team for more details.

It also is a pleasure for me to share that BATA has been recognized as an EdVestors' School on the Move Prize finalist! The School on the Move Prize spotlights the most notable school-wide improvement efforts happening across Boston Public Schools.

An external panel of leaders across industries was brought together by EdVestors to help them choose and recognize the Boston School that has done the most for its students in the past year. While BATA did not end up winning, it gives us immense pleasure to know that BATA was chosen as one of three finalists from across the city, being the first alternative school to ever be a semifinalist (last year) and finalist (this year). We believe that this is a win for all alternative schools, who cannot always look to traditional metrics to tell their stories.

While I have been at BATA for over 10 years, it has been doing great work for 19-22-year-old students in Boston since 1999.  It began as a night program for Madison Park but soon transitioned in location, hours, and catchment.  It now serves over 85% Multilingual Learners. I have loved learning from and growing with such a diverse group of learners, representing over 22 different countries.  I have also never met a harder working group of educators, who not only teach our students, but also act as role models, as over 70% look and sound like our students, with many having similar stories. 

As I think about BATA’s growth, I think about the role of alt-ed schools in Boston and the country.  Alternative Education can sometimes feel like an isolating place.  Many of the metrics, systems, and strategies do not look the same as in traditional schools, and we tend to learn on our own. We are privileged in Boston to have a city that has invested in Alternative Education.  Our adult, immigrant students are extremely important to the fabric of our city and need a safe place where they can learn and grow.  We are asked to take a high-needs population and teach them English, help them receive a diploma, prepare them for post-secondary success, and get them ready for the world - all in about a year and a half. It is our privilege to be able to do that, and it means that we need to think differently about education - and that is what we're doing. The School on the Move recognition has given us the momentum to refuel our energies towards the innovative ways in which we can enable our students' success.   

Thank you! TOGETHER WE CAN!