"Next Stop, College" campaign highlights transformation of Boston's public high schools

BOSTON - Boston Public Schools has launched a new campaign to generate public awareness and support for the renewal of the city's public high schools. The "Next Stop, College" campaign features recent graduates and current high school students describing how their high schools have helped prepare them to achieve their college and career goals.

Advertisements begin appearing this month in buses and subways and in MBTA stations throughout the city. Over the next several months, the campaign will be expanded to include print advertising, bus shelters, and movie theater preview screens, among other media placements. The campaign is funded through grants from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the Carnegie Corporation to support Boston's high school renewal work. No public funds were used to develop or place the advertisements.

The first phase of the campaign features three students, representing different types of high schools in Boston's portfolio of options for students in grades 9-12:

• Luis Escobar of East Boston, a 2007 graduate of East Boston High School, who is now enrolled at Northeastern University, pursuing his dream of becoming an executive for an aviation or aerospace company;
  
• Carla Gualdron of Hyde Park, a senior at Media Communications Technology High School in the West Roxbury Education Complex, who plans to study journalism and become a television news anchor; and
  
• Antionetta Kelley of Roslindale, a 2007 graduate of Fenway High School, who is now at Smith College, studying Government with plans to run for public office.
  

Over the past decade, Boston has undertaken an ambitious agenda to transform all of the city's public high schools into rigorous programs that provide personalized, challenging opportunities for all students. The portfolio of schools now includes comprehensive high schools organized into small learning communities, small high schools, pilot schools, exam schools, a technical-vocational school, and alternative programs.

District officials noted accomplishments and evidence of Boston's progress in strengthening high schools:

• Boston students have demonstrated consistent and sustained improvement on the state MCAS exams since the tests were first given in 1998. On the Grade 10 mathematics exams alone - which students must pass in order to graduate - 82% of Boston students now pass on the first attempt, which is more than triple the 1998 passing rate of only 25%. In addition, significantly higher percentages of students are scoring at the proficient and advanced levels on the exams.
• In 1995, only 6 percent of all Boston public high school students were enrolled in schools smaller than 500 students. Today, 42 percent of high school students are in small schools.
• Mayor Thomas M. Menino and the City of Boston have invested more than $211 million in capital renovations to public high schools, in addition to the ongoing investment in academic and programmatic improvements, to ensure their full accreditation.
• 71 percent of Boston Public Schools graduates go on to college, which is 7 percent higher than the national average for large urban school districts.
• Between 1995 and 2005, Boston students' performance on the SAT increased by 30 points in Reading and 34 points in Mathematics, outpacing state and national gains.
• Over the past eight years, enrollment in Advanced Placement classes has more than doubled, from about 1,300 students in 1999 to more than 3,000 students today.
• U.S. News & World Report magazine recently named nine Boston public high schools in its first list of the best high schools in the nation.

Despite these gains, the Boston School Committee and Superintendent Carol R. Johnson noted significant challenges as well, particularly to reduce the dropout rate. Earlier this winter, shortly after the release of a comprehensive study of students at greatest risk of dropout, Dr. Johnson and the School Committee hosted a community forum series to engage educators, families and students in discussion about how best to ensure "graduation for all." Superintendent Johnson recently released her academic agenda for the district, citing dropout prevention and recovery as a top priority, particularly through creation and expansion of safety net services to support students at greatest risk of not graduating.

The campaign was developed by the BPS Communications Office in collaboration with the Boston-based agency ARGUS (www.thinkargus.com), with support from the BPS Office of High School Renewal and its partner organizations, the Boston Private Industry Council, Jobs for the Future, the Boston Plan for Excellence, the Center for Collaborative Education, and Freedom House.