Disparities in educational access, opportunity, and achievement between Black and Latino males and their peers have been the focus of education reform initiatives for several decades. But in large cities across the nation, these students still tend to consistently have the lowest academic performance on virtually every measure – a dire and unacceptable statistic that recently motivated the multi-funder, cross-sector federal initiative My Brother’s Keeper.
In 2013 Boston Public Schools Superintendent Carol R. Johnson commissioned a research study from the Center for Collaborative Education (CCE) and the Annenberg Institute for School Reform at Brown University (AISR), with support from the Barr Foundation, to examine the root causes and recommend potential solutions for the achievement gaps that affect Black and Latino boys in BPS.
This report offers findings and recommendations from the first phase of the study, providing a roadmap for a citywide collaboration – including Boston Public Schools (BPS), the Mayor’s office, community leaders, and a range of education stakeholders – that aims to make BPS the first district in the nation to succeed in eliminating these gaps for all students.