A report by the Boston Opportunity Agenda, a local education partnership, details the troubling status quo of Boston Public Schools. Boston, for more than 10 years, has resisted adopting the Massachusetts Recommended Core Curriculum, known as MassCore.
MassCore is intended to align high school coursework with college and employment expectations, according to the Massachusetts Department of Education. The program mandates four units of English, four units of mathematics, three units of lab science, three units of history, two units of the same foreign language, one unit of the art and five additional “core” courses.
Yet Boston’s graduation requirements are not nearly as comprehensive. The school system requires only three years of math and two semesters of physical education, for example.
BPS has consistently ranked among the top-performing large public school districts in the country, according to a report by Bellwether Education Partners. Still, Boston schools face major challenges, including small budgets, old facilities and achievement gaps along racial, ethnic and linguistic lines.