The Great Divide team investigates the deep inequalities in our public education system, examining both the challenges and possible solutions to creating equal opportunity for all students.
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The latest from The Great Divide Team
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Emerging Monday afternoon from the double-doors of a Braintree middle school, Samantha Frechon, dressed in all black, cut a dispirited silhouette against the day’s crisp blue sky. Too nauseous from nerves, she hadn’t eaten all day. Her fingernails were peeled to the quick. She longed to be alone.
It had been her first day of school in nearly a year, and it had gone terribly.
Yet what transpired on that first day back would soon be overshadowed by the events of the second — a gut-wrenching sequence that would involve the Braintree Police Department and end with the 14-year-old being transported to the hospital.
“Yesterday, we just give the best shot we can,” Samantha’s mother, Alicja Frechon, a native Polish speaker, said Tuesday evening from her home in Braintree. “Today, she didn’t trust no one. Not them, not me.”
- Mandy McLaren, Globe Staff
Read the story: For Braintree student who hadn’t been to school all year, her first day back was grueling. Her second was worse.
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Alicja Frechon (left) walked with her 14 year-old daughter, Samantha, into East Middle School on Monday. Samantha returned to school for the first time after a Norfolk Superior Court judge issued a ruling denying the 14-year-old special education student the right to return to her previous private school. Jessica Rinaldi/Globe Staff
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More than 10,000 Massachusetts students were educated ‘out-of-district’ last year. Here’s what to know.
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Samantha Frechon has been out of school and in a state of academic limbo since September when Braintree Public Schools unilaterally decided not to reenroll the teenager in her special education placement at a private school in Hingham.
It’s unclear how many other students in Massachusetts are in academic limbo like 14-year-old Samantha, but districts across the state pay for thousands of kids to attend specialty schools when they can’t meet the needs of those students. In fact, Massachusetts places special education students “out-of-district” at more than double the rate of the national average, a Globe analysis of federal data found.
Who the system serves and how it works is nuanced. Here’s how it plays out on the ground.
- Mandy McLaren, Globe Staff
Read the story: More than 10,000 Massachusetts students were educated ‘out-of-district’ last year. Here’s what to know.
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Let’s put a stop to student hunger.
School isn’t just a place to learn. For children who live in food-insecure households, it’s where both their bodies and minds can be nourished. That’s why we distribute more than 40,000 meals monthly through the Stop & Shop School Food Pantry Program. Let’s help ensure students have the food they need to succeed in school and beyond. Learn more.
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Fight over admission to Boston’s exam schools heads to US Supreme Court
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A group of white and Asian American parents in Boston are taking their fight over admission to the city’s exam schools to the US Supreme Court, arguing that efforts to diversify enrollment are resulting in discrimination against Asian American and white applicants.
“Wherever competitive admission K-12 schools exist, it seems that policymakers have targeted them for their racial makeup,“ according to a petition filed by the Boston Parent Coalition for Academic Excellence seeking a court review. “And in every one of these circumstances, Asian Americans have been singled out for unfavorable treatment.”
The petition, which was filed on Wednesday and placed on the court’s docket Friday, centers around a one-year temporary admission policy that awarded exam school seats in 2021 based on grades and ZIP codes. It replaced a decades-old practice of admitting students citywide with the highest grades and test scores to Boston Latin School, Boston Latin Academy, and the O’Bryant School of Math and Science.
- James Vaznis, Globe Staff
Read the story: Fight over admission to Boston’s exam schools heads to US Supreme Court
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Other education news from the Globe
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Let’s put a stop to student hunger.
1 in 8 kids in America live in a food-insecure household, according to the USDA. Hunger has a huge impact on a student’s potential, which is why we establish in-school food pantries through the Stop & Shop School Food Pantry Program. It’s just another way we are continuing to feed it forward and help nourish tomorrow. Learn more.
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More about The Great Divide
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The Great Divide examines public education in the region, with humanity and empathy, and with a goal of provoking public discussion, and exploring what might be done to fix core issues of inequality, social mobility, and economic opportunity. Please send us your ideas and suggestions.
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