BPS celebrates STEM Learning at Annual Region VI Boston STEM Fair

Boston Public Schools (BPS) celebrated the creativity, innovation, and passion of our students at the 79th annual Region VI STEM Fair!

Students presented projects that spoke to the social and scientific issues currently impacting them and their communities.

BPS celebrates STEM Learning at Annual Region VI Boston STEM Fair

Boston Public Schools (BPS) celebrated the creativity, innovation, and passion of our students at the 79th annual Region VI STEM Fair! The Region VI STEM Fair is a wonderful opportunity for students to develop skills, such as collaboration, problem-solving, critical thinking, developing and testing hypotheses, and data analysis, which all play an important role in our students’ overall success.

STEM is all around us in nearly every aspect of our lives. The City of Boston is home to pioneers in the fields of robotics, biotech, and medicine. Our young people should be immersed in all that our great city has to offer and the Region VI Boston STEM Fair allows our students to express their creativity and learning of key science concepts outside of the classroom.

Students presented projects that spoke to the social and scientific issues currently impacting them and their communities. Among the projects were Planetary Lunar Landing Devices, Wastewater Treatment, Color Choice & Identity, Fire Alarm Safety, Academic Stress & Mindfulness in Seniors, Light Pollution in East Boston, and Cuffless Blood Pressure Devices.

This year, the STEM Fair included:

190 Student Participants
12 Participating Schools
118 Projects submitted for Judging

BPS is grateful to all of our STEM educators who are working every day to foster critical STEM skills in our students and inspire them to apply those learned skills to classroom work and to real-world situations. The STEM Department is committed to continuing to provide programming opportunities for our K-12 students and families throughout the district.

The Region VI Boston STEM Fair Awards Ceremony took place on March 11 at Madison Park Technical Vocational High School. The ceremony featured musical performances from students at the O’Bryant School of Math & Science along with a Presentation of Colors by the Community Academy of Science and Health (CASH) JROTC program.

Matolah Dankoff, a Grade 7 Student at Boston Latin School won the Christa McAuliffe Grand Prize for the Junior Division & Cabot Corporation Grand Prize for her project: An Introduction to Hand-Eye Coordination.

Shuting Zhu and Louis Chiu, Juniors at the John D. O’Bryant School of Math & Science won the Christa McAuliffe Grand Prize for the Senior Division, and Sanofi Specialty Care Grand Prize for their project: Cuffless Blood Pressure Measurement Monitor via Pulse Transit Time Analysis and Arduino. They will now represent BPS as the Nominees for the Massachusetts State Delegation for the International Science and Engineering Fair in Columbus Ohio in May.
BPS will also have 23 Middle School projects that will move on to compete at the Massachusetts Science and Engineering Fair in May at Clark University, and 14 High School projects will move on to the Massachusetts Science and Engineering Fair at Gillette Stadium in April.
The Boston STEM Fair team is grateful to the Reggie Lewis Track and Athletic Center for hosting the 79th Region VI STEM Fair, to the Madison Park Community for hosting the STEM Fair Awards Ceremony, and to the Madison Park Culinary Arts and Hospitality programs, which helped to cater and set up the ceremony.

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2023-2024

2024 School Climate Survey Results

Boston Public Schools has released the results of the Spring 2024 administration of its Student, Teacher, Staff, and Family Perception Surveys. The surveys, which are administered annually, provide valuable feedback from students, family, and staff members across the city on the successes and areas of growth of the most recent school year.

In total, this year’s surveys captured the feedback of the 24,084 students, 5,606 teachers and educational staff, and 12,446 family members.

Overall, the results convey a story of increased perceptions of support from educators across all grade levels, while also highlighting school safety and the sense of belonging that students feel within schools as continued areas of growth.

Please see the table below for the climate surveys administered in Spring 2024.

Survey	Description	Participation
Student Climate Survey	Gathers student perception of the overall school culture and climate. Students in Grades 3-12 were surveyed * schools could opt out to not have their seniors participate due to participation in the Feedback and Senior Exit Surveys	24,084 responses; 71.5% of students in grades 3-12
Teacher Climate Survey	Gathers teachers’ perceptions around school climate and leadership.	3,447 responses; 75.8% of BPS teachers
Staff Climate Survey	Gathers school-based staff’s perceptions around school climate and leadership.	2,159 responses; 57.5% of school-based staff
Family Climate Survey	Gathers family perception on school safety, climate and communication.	12,446 responses; 28.7% of families

Key Survey Terms:

Percent Favorable: The primary measure used to determine how students, families, and staff feel about a particular question or topic. A typical question contains five answer choices, of which the top 2 (agree and strongly agree) are considered favorable. A high percent favorable typically indicates positive perceptions around a particular topic.
Survey Topic: Each survey topic consists of several questions around a particular theme. The results of these questions are then averaged to create the topic score.
Representativeness: How well the demographics of respondents represent the overall demographics of Boston’s school community.

Highlights of the Spring 2024 Survey Results:

Survey participation has increased to pre-pandemic levels, with student, teacher and staff participation increased by 6, 9 and 13 percentage points, respectively, from Spring 2023.
Secondary student (grades 6-12) perceptions increased for all topics, with the exception of School Safety, which stayed the same at 61% favorable responses.
Elementary student (grades 3-5) perceptions increased for all topics, with the exception of Valuing of School, which stayed the same at 66% favorable responses.
82% of teachers reported they feel ready to fully support all learners.
Family perception increase for all topics with the greatest gain seen in the topic of School Safety

Participation:

14.7% more students participated in the 2024 survey (as compared to 2023)
24.7% more teacher and staff participated in 2024 survey (as compared to 2023)
The rates of participation for families with a current Multilingual Learner (33% of BPS families) or a student with disabilities (23% of BPS families) are comparable to their representation in the district.

Student Perceptions:

Students rated Pedagogical Effectiveness most favorably of all survey topics (75% of responses were favorable).
Students in grades 3-5 have consistently increased their perceptions around their relationships with adults at the school; this has increased by 5 percentage points across 2 years.
66% of students in grades 3-5 responded favorably to questions around Valuing of School
Students in grades 6-12 increased their favorability ratings for Classroom Engagement and Grit by three percentage points. Additionally, their perception improved across almost every topic.

Teacher and Staff Perceptions:

Elementary teachers had more favorable perceptions across all surveyed topics as compared to both high school and middle school teachers.
Middle school teachers responded 23 percentage points below Elementary and High School teachers in the topic of Peer Victimization
Teachers identified as Black or Latinx responded at least 3 percentage points higher than all other Race/Ethnicities with regards to School Climate
Teachers with 16-25 and/or 25+ years of experience responded more favorably across almost all topics

Family Perceptions:

Families responded positively to questions about Barriers to Engagement (86% favorable) and School Climate (81% favorable). The questions on Barriers to Engagement ask families the factors that can create challenges for them to interact with or become involved with their child’s school.
Family perception increased in every surveyed category with the biggest increase (4 percentage points) in School Safety
Families of students with current multilingual learners responded more favorably across almost all surveyed topics

Areas of Growth:

Nearly 75% of all elementary students responded that people are sometimes, frequently or always disrespectful to others at school.
Only 40% of secondary students reported a sense of belonging in their school communities. Particularly, 35% of secondary students responded favorably when asked if they feel connected to adults at their school.

Additional Information:

Schools with less than 30% participation on an individual survey’s results are not displayed. Group sizes of less than 10 are also masked to maintain confidentiality. For more information, please contact surveys@bostonpublicschools.org.

For school summaries translated in each language, click below: