Understanding Boston:
Education
Strengthening the education pipeline—beginning with universal, high quality pre-kindergarten and extending through higher education—is crucial to Greater Boston’s—and the entire region’s—competitiveness in the global economy.
Through its research and civic leadership, the Boston Foundation supports efforts to make high quality early education available to all children in Massachusetts. It is also dedicated to improving education for children in the Boston Public Schools through systemic reforms. And, as an early and consistent supporter of the Pilot School movement and of charter schools, the Foundation encourages school choice and innovation in education.
With the knowledge that Boston’s young people spend only 20 percent of their time in school, the Foundation also works in partnership with other organizations to strengthen and improve Out-of-School Time activities for Greater Boston’s young people.
Learn about the Boston Foundation’s grantmaking priorities in Education and Out of School Time.
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Education Spotlight:
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Evaluating Boston Pilot High Schools: A Four-Year Study New research from the Center for Collaborative Education finds that students in Boston’s Pilot high schools outperform students from other non-exam Boston Public Schools on every standard measure of engagement and performance. This level of achievement holds for every racial, economic, and academic subgroup examined. Pilot high school students show better MCAS scores, higher attendance rates, higher promotion rates—and the four-year graduation rate for 2006 was more than 23 percentage points higher than the rate for BPS students, 75.7% as compared with 52.2% for BPS. |  |
Indicators-related research:
October
26, 2007
October
26, 2007
June
01, 2007 | | Selected grants:
June
21, 2007
June
21, 2007
June
21, 2007 |
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Recent Education Reports:
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This report highlights the important role strong community colleges can contribute to an effective workforce development strategy and to a higher education system that reflects the needs and realities of the new global economy. It also details areas in which community colleges in Massachusetts—with a particular focus on Greater Boston—lag behind national standards in terms of student performance and state support, and identifies best practices that could be used to strengthen these institutions.
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Education Forums:
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February
27, 2007
A report released by the Boston Foundation at an Understanding Boston forum in late February highlights the central role that strong community colleges can play in building a successful workforce development strategy for the global economy. It also details areas in which community colleges in Massachusetts— with a particular focus on Greater Boston—lag behind national standards in terms of student performance and state support, and identifies ways to strengthen these important institutions.
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January
18, 2006
Principals, teachers, parents, administrators, funders, civic leaders. It was standing room only at the Boston Foundation on the morning of January 18th for an Understanding Boston forum focused on the first report to measure the performance of Boston’s Pilot Schools. Unique to Boston, Pilot Schools are generally small schools that set their own course in everything from curriculum and budget to schedule and staffing. The Boston Foundation has been a major supporter of Pilot Schools by providing the early funding needed to start new schools and help district schools to explore the innovative Pilot model.
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