Network

Aspen Challenge Comes to Boston for Students to Tackle Community Concerns

The Aspen Challenge will kick off in Boston in February. students from 20 BPS high schools will participate over ten-weeks to build sustainable solutions to issues they identify in their communities.

Pictured Above: Students from the San Diego Unified School District gathered for the “Challenge” to learn about local issues their teams tackled over ten weeks during the 2024 Aspen Challenge: San Diego. (Photo credit: Daniel Bayer)

Boston, MA, January 13, 2024 – The Aspen Challenge, a program of the Aspen Institute, founded in partnership with the Bezos Family Foundation, will kick off in Boston next month. Presented in partnership with Boston Public Schools, teams of students from 20 local high schools will participate over ten-weeks to build sustainable solutions to issues they identify in their communities. The Aspen Challenge provides young Bostonians the opportunity and resources to create tangible change around their homes, schools, and neighborhoods.

The Aspen Challenge: Boston will take place on Thursday, February 13, at Artists for Humanity, located at 100 W 2nd Street. At the “Challenge,” teams of eight students and two teachers will hear from local leaders who will present a series of issue-specific goals to the students on topics including the role of social media in glamorizing substance abuse, affordable housing, community violence, access to green spaces, and post secondary education pathways. Challenge issue areas are chosen ahead of time by participating students.

Expert challengers include: David Bickham, Research Director, Digital Wellness Lab at Boston Children’s Hospital; Brandy Brooks, Executive Director, Higher Ground Boston; Manuel Oliver, Co-Founder, Change the Ref; Gretchen Rabinkin, Executive Director, Boston Society of Landscape Architects; and James Antwine, Annyah Cush, and Carlotta Pope, winners of the 2023 Aspen Challenge: Brooklyn.

“We are incredibly honored to be selected to host, for the first time, the Aspen Challenge here in the Boston Public Schools,” said Boston Public Schools Superintendent Mary Skipper. “We are proud to partner with the Aspen Institute to empower our students with the tools and resources to help create sustainable solutions that will benefit our schools, their communities, and the city-at-large. This initiative is a testament to the incredible potential of Boston’s young people to drive positive change.”

Following the Challenge, student teams will select one challenge area and begin their ten-week project developing, implementing, and reporting on their issue area. At the end of that ten weeks, teams will reconvene on Thursday, April 29 for the “Solution Showcase” at which point they will present their work and impact to a panel of judges made up of community leaders, educators, experts, and activists. Three teams will be chosen as the Grand Prize winners of Aspen Challenge: Boston and fly to Aspen, Colorado to present their community solution at the Aspen Ideas Festival in June.

“The lesson I learned over and over, as a teacher, a district leader, and an advocate for youth, is that the very best ideas always come from young people. That’s why I welcomed Aspen Challenge to come to DCPS while I was leading the district and why I am thrilled that Boston now gets to learn from their high school students,” said Kaya Hendrson, Executive Vice President and Executive Director at the Aspen Institute’s Center for Rising Generations and former Chancellor of DC Public Schools.

Participating Schools:

Another Course to College
Boston Adult Technical Academy
Boston Arts Academy
Boston Green Academy
Boston International Newcomers Academy
Boston Latin Academy
Boston Latin School
Brighton High School
Charlestown High School
Dr. Albert D. Holland High School of Technology
Dr. William W. Henderson Inclusion School
Edward M. Kennedy Academy for Health Careers
Excel High School
Fenway High School
Madison Park Technical Vocational High School
Margarita Muñiz Academy
Mary Lyon Pilot High School
Snowden International School at Copley
TechBoston Academy
The English High School

The inaugural Aspen Challenge launched in collaboration with Los Angeles Unified School District in 2013. Since its inception, the Challenge has expanded to include partnerships with school districts in Denver, Washington D.C., Chicago, Philadelphia, Dallas, Louisville, Miami, New Orleans, San Diego, and Brooklyn.

For more information on Aspen Challenge: Boston or to attend as a covering member of the media, please contact Eric Baker: eric.baker@aspeninstitute.org.

The Aspen Challenge provides inspiration, tools, and a platform for young people to design solutions to some of the most critical problems humanity faces. For more information on Aspen Challenge, please visit www.aspenchallenge.org.

The Aspen Institute is a global nonprofit organization whose purpose is to ignite human potential to build understanding and create new possibilities for a better world. Founded in 1949, the Institute drives change through dialogue, leadership, and action to help solve society’s greatest challenges. It is headquartered in Washington, DC and has a campus in Aspen, Colorado, as well as an international network of partners. For more information, visit www.aspeninstitute.org.

Boston Public Schools, the birthplace of American public education, is dedicated to providing a world-class learning experience for every student. BPS educates 54,000 students in 125 schools, 74 percent of the school-age children who live in Boston. BPS is proud to be one of the most diverse school districts in the nation. Nearly one in every two students speaks a language other than English at home, and BPS students come from 139 different countries. One in five BPS students has a disability, and half are economically disadvantaged. Under the leadership of Superintendent Mary Skipper, the district collaborates with families, community members, and students to foster a supportive and innovative environment with a strong commitment to educational equity and excellence. For more information, visit www.bostonpublicschools.org.

The Bezos Family Foundation envisions a world in which all young people reach their full potential and meaningfully contribute to society. The Foundation pursues that vision by making grants and by operating their own programs, with the aim of fueling the science of learning and enabling its application in a variety of settings. The Foundation’s mission is to invest in the science of learning and the experiences that youth need from birth to high school to pursue their own path for success. For more information, visit www.bezosfamilyfoundation.org.

Network & Wireless Considerations

The network is one of the most critical components to an online assessment, but the one component that is the most complex. This page will help schools understand the network needs during an online assessment and provide tips to help improve your success with managing your school's network.

Do I have enough bandwidth for the PARCC test?

Absolutely; every school in BPS meets the recommended bandwidth speed for the PARCC test with or without proctor caching.

Do I have enough wireless access points for the PARCC test?

What matters the most in terms of wireless access points is your testing classroom’s distance from the nearest wireless access point and what is in between the computer and the wireless access point. Generally speaking, if a classroom is able to use a class-set of computers for teaching & learning, that room should be set for the PARCC test.

What was the most common problem last year?

The most common issue we saw was delays with students logging in at the start of the test. Once a student has connected to Pearson’s servers, the caching server will take over and students did not have any issues. This problem was universal across the country last year and Pearson has commented that they have fixed the issue.

How will OIIT support my school?

Schools where we know of insufficient wireless are receiving additional assistance this winter/spring with whole-school infrastructure upgrades or additional wireless access points when possible. If you have a classroom where you have to administer the PARCC test but you know that the wireless access is insufficient, please report it to oiit@bostonpublicschools.org as soon as possible. The more advanced notice we receive, the more options we have to resolve wireless issues.

What can I do to prepare my staff and students?

There are a few tips that you can provide to students and staff to help troubleshoot wireless issues during the assessment;

Proximity matters - Many of our schools have very thick, concrete walls that degrade the wireless signal if they are between the access point and the computer. Limiting the distance between the testing area and the wireless access point will help with connection challenges.
Avoid overloading a small area - Wireless access points can only handle a certain number of devices connected to them. For example, the kind that you buy for your home will handle about a dozen devices whereas the BPS wireless access points will handle a class set. However, if you have too many classrooms sharing a wireless access point in a small area, it could become overloaded during testing.
Restart/Rebooting - A small but effective troubleshooting method is to turn the wireless on a laptop on or off if there are connection issues, especially if the laptop has moved locations since connecting. If you do not know how to turn the wireless on or off, you can reboot the device.
Limit the unnecessary devices on the network - The most common type of device on the network are cell phones, both student and staff phones. The more devices you have on the network, the more those devices are fighting over shared resources. OIIT can reset your school wireless password but do not wait until the day of the PARCC test to do so.

Proctor Caching

What is Proctor Caching?

Screenshot 2016-03-08 at 11.43.34 AM.png

Proctor Caching is a system that downloads all of the test content to a server in your school to limit the bandwidth requirement for the test. Student computers will connect to Pearson at the start of each test to verify their identity, but then Pearson will redirect the computers to the school server to download the questions, audio, and video.

How do I configure Proctor Caching?

OIIT has already configured each school’s server so there is nothing that you need to do to prepare for proctor caching.

What kinds of problems might I experience with Proctor Caching?

We have found that Proctor Caching does not cause any issues but some students did experience logging in to the test in the beginning. This was not a problem specific to BPS and have found that Pearson was overloaded with the volume of testing going on around the country during peak times. Once students log in, Pearson redirects their computers back to the proctor caching server in your school and students did not have any more issues.

How can I monitor our Proctor Cache server?

You can view your proctor caching server at any time to see the status of your test content and the connection status of all of your student computers. Click the link to your school’s Proctor Caching dashboard and use the links in the upper right to switch between test content and connected computers.

School	Click the Link below to view your server
Bata	http://192.168.53.5:4480/
Bradley	http://192.168.20.5:4480/
Brighton	http://192.168.168.5:4480/
Charlestown	http://192.168.124.5:4480/
Chittick	http://192.168.57.5:4480/
Clap	http://192.168.58.5:4480/
JCurley	http://192.168.22.5:4480/
MCurley	http://192.168.116.5:4480/
East Boston	http://192.168.144.5:4480/
Edwards	http://192.168.113.5:4480/
Edison	http://192.168.156.5:4480/
Eliot(585)	no server
Ellis	http://192.168.30.5:4480/home.jsp
Everett	http://192.168.45.5:4480
Excel	http://192.168.212.5:4480/
Frederick	http://192.168.152.5:4480/
Gardner	http://192.168.75.5:4480/
Guild	http://192.168.32.5:4480/
Haley	http://192.168.76.5:4480/
Harvard/Kent	http://192.168.24.5:4480/
Hennigan	http://192.168.11.5:4480/
Hurley	http://192.168.12.5:4480/
Irving	http://192.168.104.5:4480/
PJKennedy	http://192.168.36.5:4480/
Lee	http://192.168.27.5:4480/
MMA	http://192.168.1.5:4480/
Mason	http://192.168.6.5:4480/
Mather	http://192.168.65.5:4480/
Mattahunt	http://192.168.37.5:4480/
McCormack	http://192.168.103.5:4480/
McKay	http://192.168.15.5:4480/
Mildred	http://192.168.160.5:4480/
Murphy	http://192.168.16.5:4480/
O'Bryant	http://192.168.158.5:4480/
O'Donnell	http://192.168.38.5:4480/
Ohrenberger	http://192.168.81.5:4480/
Perry	http://192.168.51.5:4480/
Quincy	http://192.168.39.5:4480/
Rogers	http://192.168.114.5:4480/
Roosevelt	http://192.168.82.5:4480/
Taylor	http://192.168.55.5:4480/
Techboston Academy	http://192.168.136.6:4480/
Timilty	http://192.168.102.5:4480/
Tobin	http://192.168.19.5:4480/
Trotter	http://192.168.7.5:4480/
wrox	http://192.168.196.5:4480/
winship	http://192.168.8.5:4480/
young achievers	http://192.168.130.5:4480/

Test	http://playground:4480/