Filed under: Boston
I’ve prefaced my Pipeline Fellowship before, but here’s a little more info on what I’m up to:
I’m currently researching education policy in the Boston Public Schools. Sounds broad – and it certainly is. BPS has the terrible habit of most bureaucracies of remaking the wheel over and over. Since the school reform movement took hold in the city decades ago, there have been three year plans, five year plans, etc. etc. My basic goal is to develop an understanding of how these policies have taken shape over time – what’s the current policy now (harder to distill than you may think), what has been implemented before and done well / what has failed, and what still needs to be done (a lot in my opinion).
One of my large goals for this fellowship is to develop connections and support from the various non-profits, government organizations, businesses, and think tanks working on education policy in Boston.
I’m sure BPS school policy will dictate where my explorations go – right now Boston is trying a lot of new things: a district partnership with charter schools (announced in late September), brand new schools being opened and others being reorganized under No Child Left Behind, and the creation of a Promise Neighborhood (Boston calls it the Circle of Promise – broader than the Promise Neighborhood program supported by the Obama administration). Recent articles have also pointed to BPS taking another look at their programs for English Language Learners (ELLs) and their support system for closing the achievement gap.
