Lowell
Girls Miss More School Than Boys, Reversing a Pre-COVID Pattern
In Dover-Sherborn, girls were chronically absent at a rate of 6.8% in 2024-25. Boys: 3.8%. The gap, 3.0 percentage points, is more than four times the statewide female-higher gap. And it is not new. G...
Lawrence Erased Its COVID Attendance Crisis. No Other Large Gateway City Can Say That.
Once a month in Lawrence, more than a dozen social service agencies crowd around a table to discuss every homeless and newly arrived immigrant student in the district. Housing. Healthcare. Transportat...
Gateway City Students Miss School at Triple the Rate of Suburban Peers
In Dover-Sherborn, a wealthy suburban district 20 miles southwest of Boston, 5.3% of students are chronically absent. In Boston itself, 33.0% are. Six times the rate. Same state, same funding formula,...
Only 86 Kindergartners for Every 100 Seniors
In 1996, Massachusetts had 152 kindergartners for every 100 seniors. In 2025-26, it has 87.
Hispanic Enrollment Dips for Only the Second Time in 33 Years
For 30 of the past 32 years, Hispanic enrollment in Massachusetts grew. It grew through recessions and recoveries, through three governors and two presidents, through the post-9/11 years and the Great...
Boston Hits All-Time Low, Down 30% in Three Decades
In 2025, Boston Public Schools gained 352 students. It was the district's first year of growth since 2015, a small green bar in a decade of red. Superintendent Mary Skipper had reason to believe the w...