Boston Public Schools and Bunker Hill Community College Receive Funding for Data Tracking of At-Risk Students

Thursday, February 13, 2020

The Boston Opportunity Youth Collaborative (OYC) has been awarded a grant from the Aspen Institute Forum for Community Solutions to reduce the number of students, particularly young men of color, who get disconnected from high school or community college. Most of the funding will go to the Boston Public Schools (BPS) and Bunker Hill Community College (BHCC) in order to increase their capacity to monitor the status of those students most likely to leave school without earning a diploma, credential, or degree. Better data and better sharing of information will prompt and inform the interventions necessary to get students back on track.

The OYC, a multi-sector coalition convened by the Boston Private Industry Council (PIC) and the Boston Opportunity Agenda (BOA), is dedicated to reconnecting out-of-school youth and young adults to education and employment opportunities.

The $200,000 grant is part the Aspen Institute’s Data for Impact project within the Opportunity Youth Forum. It will allow the two institutions to better track and analyze student attendance and transfer data for thousands of high school and community college students, with the guidance and support of the OYC, a partnership of more than 80 stakeholders.  The project will target subpopulations of BPS and BHCC students.

The project has the following goals:

• Re-engage chronically absent BPS students: This funding will increase BPS’ ability to track chronically absent students at district high schools.
• Track the 1,900 students who transfer high schools each year: This funding will allow BPS to better track the attendance and retention of students who transfer within the district.
• Improve retention rates for boys and men of color in the city’s largest community college: This funding will allow BHCC to track the impact of its interventions around racial equity, which are designed to create a more welcoming environment for Black and Latinx students.

“The Boston Public Schools is committed to providing the necessary resources to re-engage our chronically absent and dropout students to get them back on track for graduation and prepared for success in college, career, and life,” said BPS Superintendent Brenda Cassellius. “This grant will advance equitable outcomes in high school by allowing us to work collaboratively with our community partners to identify off-track youth and target interventions to provide students with the appropriate supports.”

BHCC President Pam Eddinger added, “BHCC has recently embarked on several campus strategies to improve use of data to examine our completion rates. We are excited to build on these efforts and enhance the school’s capability to use data to drive improvements and equity in outcomes for our students.”

Both the BPS and BHCC have a track record of working with collective impact partners to retain and advance students. BPS worked with the PIC-convened Youth Transitions Task Force (YTTF) to cut the annual dropout rate from 9.4% in 2005-2006 to 5.4% in 2017-2018, reducing the number of students leaving school each year from 1,936 to 849.

Over a similar time period, BHCC participated in Success Boston, the city’s college completion initiative, which helped increase the postsecondary enrollment rate for BPS graduates from 67% to 81% and the six-year college completion from 39% to 52%. These collaborations have encouraged the college to implement a number of changes, such as proactively coordinating with non-profits that support its students and streamlining its developmental education programming. The school’s institutional research department has recently expanded staff capacity for student-level measurement.

The Boston PIC and the Boston Opportunity Agenda first convened the Opportunity Youth Collaborative in 2013, thanks to funding from the Aspen Opportunity Youth Incentive Fund. The PIC is Boston’s workforce development board as well as a 40-year-old nonprofit organization that works to connect Boston residents to promising career paths. The BOA is a public-private partnership that works to increase dramatically the pace and scale of change in education by combining resources, expertise and influence to build Boston’s cradle-to-career educational pipeline.

“By identifying and tracking students who historically are most likely to lack access to needed resources, we can help ensure that they, like their peers, are better prepared to succeed in college, career and life,” said BOA Executive Director Kristin McSwain.

“While we remain committed to working with young adults once they fall out of high school or community college, it only makes sense to help our partner institutions identify Boston students who are struggling with attendance and course completion in order to intervene before they leave altogether,” said PIC Executive Director Neil Sullivan.

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Contact

Karen Norton, BHCC, 617-228-217,  kmnorton@bhcc.edu

Ted McEnroe, The Boston Foundation, 617.338.3890, ted.mcenroe@tbf.org

Bodi Luse, Boston Private Industry Council, 617-488-1322,  bodi.luse@bostonpic.org

About Boston Public Schools

The Boston Public Schools (BPS), the birthplace of public education in the United States, serves nearly 55,000 pre-kindergarten through grade 12 students in 125 schools. BPS is committed to transforming the lives of all children through exemplary teaching in a world-class system of innovative, welcoming schools. We partner with the community, families, and students to develop in every learner the knowledge, skill, and character to excel in college, career, and life.

About Bunker Hill Community College

Bunker Hill Community College is the largest community college in Massachusetts, enrolling approximately 18,000 students annually. BHCC has two campuses in Charlestown and Chelsea, three satellite locations and a number of instructional centers throughout the Greater Boston area. BHCC is one of the most diverse institutions of higher education in Massachusetts. Sixty-five percent of the students are people of color and more than half of BHCC's students are women. The College also enrolls nearly 800 international students who come from 100 countries and speak more than 75 languages.

About the Boston Private Industry Council

For more than 40 years, the Boston Private Industry Council (PIC) has worked at the intersection of business and community interests to connect Boston residents to promising career pathways, while creating a diverse talent pipeline for local employers. In 2019, the PIC placed more than 2,500 BPS high school students into summer jobs and internships. The PIC also works to re-engage the city’s disconnected youth, and since 2013, has brought over 3,300 students back to school through the Re-Engagement Center. The PIC serves as Boston’s MassHire Workforce Board.

About the Boston Opportunity Agenda

The Boston Opportunity Agenda (BOA) is a public/private partnership that works to increase dramatically the pace and scale of change in education for all children in Boston, with a focus on students who experience the least access to successful pathways. Our vision: All of Boston’s children and youth are prepared to succeed in college, career and life. We fervently believe that by combining our resources, expertise and influence around a single agenda, we will have a greater impact on Boston’s cradle-to-career educational pipeline. The partnership is entering its ninth year and is governed by the CEOs of each member organization. Together they identify strategic issues facing our education pipeline in whole or in part, formulate the Boston Opportunity Agenda priorities and strategies, and provide a call to action for community stakeholders.

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About Bunker Hill Community College
With more than 50 years of academic excellence, Bunker Hill Community College (BHCC) is Massachusetts' largest community college, annually welcoming a diverse community of around 16,000 students. With campuses in Charlestown and Chelsea, BHCC extends its reach across several locations in Greater Boston. The College offers associate degrees and certificates, early college and dual enrollment, community education, corporate training, and industry-specific training programs. BHCC is celebrated for its diversity, boasting a student body where 65% identify as people of color and more than half are women. The College also embraces a global perspective, with over 600 international students representing 90 countries and conversing in more than 65 languages. Our commitment to diversity is further reflected in BHCC's designation as a Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI) and an Asian American Native American Pacific Islander Serving Institution (AANAPISI).