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The Great Divide
Race, class, and opportunity in our schools.

‘This work takes time’: BPS delays proposals for future closures and new buildings

The School Committee was due to vote by the end of April on proposals for new investments, mergers, and closures, according to a district plan.

Student stabbed during fight at TechBoston Academy in Dorchester
The school was placed in “safe mode” for about 20 minutes following the altercation, and the alleged assailant was taken into custody by Boston police, officials said.

Anxiety can impede student learning. Share your experience with the Globe.
Federal data show more than 1 in 5 teens in recent years reported dealing with symptoms of anxiety, and studies have found rates of anxiety symptoms in children doubled over the pandemic.

Top N.H. education official spreads abortion claim without evidence

In an op-ed, Education Commissioner Frank Edelblut suggested a teacher had been accused of lying to help hide a student’s abortion — but he hasn’t responded to questions about whether the accusation was credible

For Braintree student who hadn’t been to school all year, her first day back was grueling. Her second was worse.

What transpired on that first day back was overshadowed by the events of the second — a gut-wrenching sequence that would involve Braintree police and end with the 14-year-old being transported to the hospital.

Families sue over impending closure of small, unique Providence high school

The class-action suit claims the district is violating the rights of Spanish-speaking students by ceasing operations at 360 High School at the end of this school year.

About The Great Divide

The Great Divide is a reporting effort dedicated to investigating race, class, and inequality in Boston-area schools. It is jointly funded by the Globe and the Barr Foundation, a Boston-based foundation that has prioritized student success in high school and beyond. The Globe maintains editorial control and independence over the project.

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April 3:3,000 days of lost learningMarch 27: Brockton Schools paid off-duty police $1.1 million to direct trafficMarch 20: Brockton High School was once a model for the nation. So what went wrong?Click here to see past issues

Education Headlines

Here are the top Massachusetts high schools, according to US News & World Report

The annual rankings evaluated more than 17,600 public high schools on factors such as college readiness, college curriculum, and results on state assessments.

Could helicopter parenting and a decline in ‘free play’ be causing the youth mental health crisis?

Boston College professor Peter Gray says screen time and social media aren’t the problem.

Fight over admission to Boston’s exam schools heads to US Supreme Court

The complaint by the Boston Parent Coalition for Academic Excellence centers around a one-year temporary admission policy that awarded exam school seats in 2021 based on grades and ZIP codes.

THE GREAT DIVIDE

Judge’s order could send Braintree special education student back to public school

An attorney representing Samantha Frechon said the decision would leave the eighth-grader “in a worse position than she was in.”

The Great Divide

More than 10,000 Massachusetts students were educated ‘out-of-district’ last year. Here’s what to know.

A federal law requires school districts to provide every special education student with a “free and appropriate education.” If a district does not have the means to provide such an education itself, it must pay the cost to educate the student elsewhere.

She was surprised Concord Academy removed her as commencement speaker. She thinks it had to do with her ‘politics.’

“I didn’t have any proof as to why they removed me, but I had an educated guess, which is my politics,” said Porsha Olayiwola, Boston’s poet laureate.

THE GREAT DIVIDE

This Braintree teen hasn’t been to school a single day this year. Is a broken special education system to blame?

What’s happened to Samantha Frechon represents an acute failure of the state’s public education system — especially given the toll pandemic isolation put on teens’ academics and mental health.

You know about the Boston Marathon. But have you heard of the Half Half Half Half Half Marathon?

On Thursday, 826 Boston held its eighth Half Half Half Half Half Marathon in Jamaica Plain, a fund-raiser to aid their mission to offer free writing, tutoring, and publishing programs to K-12 students.