Five years after Boston’s schools switched to a neighborhood-based assignment system and four years after the report was due, Boston Public Schools officials have released an equity analysis report showing a small reduction in the distances students travel to school, less access to top-tier schools for students in black and Latino neighborhoods and a small but statistically significant increase in segregation.
The new report, compiled by a collection of local academics called the Boston Area Research Initiative, found that the BPS Home-Based Assignment Policy “diminished integration across the city without creating neighborhood schools.”
The report also found that only 5 percent of students in the predominantly black and Latino neighborhood of Mattapan had access to top-tier schools, while 80 percent of students in predominantly white Boston neighborhoods had access to top-tier schools.