Carol Johnson has been the superintendent of Boston Schools for six years.
Carol Johnson, superintendent of the Boston Public Schools system, will step down after this year. Johnson wrote a letter to the school community and published a video on YouTube Wednesday on how she came to the decision following the recent death of her husband. “This has been a difficult decision but, as you are aware, the loss of my husband and best friend Matthew has been life-altering for me and my entire family,” she said in the video. “After a long and rewarding career that I am truly proud of, I believe it’s time for me to take time to focus more on family, which, of course, always comes first.” In 2012, Johnson was awarded the nation’s highest honor for urban educational leadership, the Richard R. Green Award, presented by the …
Even with the North End's promised new school, some Boston neighborhoods still won't have good access to Boston Public Schools: There's more work to be done.
Students from the Eliot K-8 Innovation School sat in an empty office building on March 14, waiting for the arrival of Mayor Thomas Menino and for the cameras to roll. Bouquets of colorful helium balloons livened up the space, which was also filling with expectant adults and news media assembling for an announcement: This North End waterfront building will become the city’s newest Boston Public School. The happy atmosphere was appropriate to an undeniably positive development for families in the northern reaches of Boston. While the city says the new school should open in 2016 to serve about 500 children, Eliot students will be its first beneficiaries, with 585 Commercial Street serving as temporary classrooms during the Eliot’s expansion…
The new program will use a computer-generated list of six schools for parents to choose from based on a variety of factors.
The Boston School Committee adopted a new assignment policy that does away with a decades-old system at a landmark Wednesday night vote. The new policy will use a computer-generated algorithm to produce a list of six schools for parents to choose from based on distance to school, capacity and MCAS test scores, according to Boston.com. Four of the six schools listed will be of “medium to high quality,” Boston.com reports. The system will be implemented beginning September 2014. “Tonight’s historic vote marks a new day for every child in the City of Boston,” said Mayor Thomas M. Menino. “A more predictable and equitable student assignment system that emphasizes quality and keeps our children close to home has been a long time coming for our …
It's not just families who feel shafted by the Boston Public Schools lottery system. A single-child family from Jamaica Plain spent years building the Ohrenberger School, and now worries if the child can get into the Advanced Work Class.
The following is a letter to the editor written by JP resident Mayre Plunkett: Too many highly qualified students coming from a population that is 70% free and reduced lunches and done without vast staff turnovers. My son, our family, have been part of Roslindale's Ohrenberger School community for the past 5 years, and sadly we are getting ready to say our good-byes. Six years ago we embarked on our Boston Public School odyssey. We did our homework to make informed decisions about our son’s education. We visited schools and joined listserves. We spoke to all of the West Zone K1 principals and narrowed down our choices. We didn’t care about the distance from home any school was, so long as our son was considered a person, not a data point. …
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The City of Boston was just one of seven cities to receive funding for the project through the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
Boston received a $3 million grant this week to further the city's efforts to link all Boston's schools, whether they are public, charter or private, to improve teaching and learning for all students in the city. The grant, through the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, awards the city $3.25 million to expand and deepen the already in place "compact" program. The new funds are aimed at supporting that goal through deeper collaboration between schools and growing existing partnerships. “I represent every student in Boston, no matter which school he or she attends,” Mayor Menino said in a statement. “This award will help all our schools work together to ensure every child gets a great education.” Since its launch in 2011, all 128 Boston …
Karen Kast
3:04 pm on Thursday, March 14, 2013
FYI The new home-based plan will generate a list of 6 -18 (or more) schools to choose from based on address, quality of the schools closest to address and other factors. I give credit to Peng Shi for his innovation in creating the plan, but have several concerns about what will happen since a lot of the data this plan is based on is in question. Off to write a recap of the night for my blog. more ›