Dr. Ted Lombardi, Secondary Superintendent for College, Career, and Readiness, told the Boston City Council about his plans to develop more educational pathways for Boston Public High Schools on Monday, June 5.
The City Councillor, Ruthzee Louijeune, asked Linda Chen, Senior Superintendent of Academics: “What are the trends that we are seeing academically right now from our high schools that should be causes for concern and how are we addressing them, academically?”
Ruthzee advocates for more of a focus on the decision-making process that city residents and students’ parents go through. There is a perception of a finite number of exceptional schools with the added challenge of the pandemic that people had to endure.
Linda Chen refers to Ted Lombardi to share his work with what he has been doing with Boston Public High Schools.
“As an office, we have tried to solve the problem of students feeling attached to the programming of high school and attachment to the reasoning of why they would want to attend a particular high school.”
The office of superintendent for Boston Public High Schools has invested in more programming in educational pathways developed from the fiscal year 2024 budget.
The office of superintendent for BPS has invested in expanding early college instructional materials and technology for students with the launching of a STEM and a Pilot 13 program.
Another investment included hiring more assistants with the alternative educational curriculum coordinator.
The Office of the Superintendent for Boston Public Schools has started to offer more program pathways for early college, career and technology, innovation, and alternative educational spaces. “We have a number of early college pathways starting next year, integrated training pathways starting in alternative educational schools next year….” says Ted Lombardi.
Boston’s superintendent will continue to develop more pathways for every school to have a unique set of programs that will encourage more students to be engaged in their high schools.
Councillor Ruthzee says the council has to do better with disseminating information from their meetings to the public.
“…shame on us for not doing a better job at communicating that to the greater public. . . . so when people choose schools, it’s not looked at like a binary choice.”
Featured image: Photo by Kenny Eliason on Unsplash
Edited by: James Sutton
