Graduation rate -- but not achievement -- is way up in Boston
- Joanne Jacobs
- Mar 26
- 2 min read
Graduation rates have soared -- up from 59 percent to 81 percent over 20 years -- in Boston public schools, brags Mayor Michelle Wu.
Student achievement? Not so much, writes Neetu Arnold in City Journal. Due to grade inflation and credit-recovery programs, it's easier to graduate.
"Low-income students’ graduation rate rose by 12 percent between 2017 and 2025, for example, while their math scores declined by 5 percent," she writes. "English Language Learners (ELL) saw their graduation rates go up by 21 percent in that period, while their reading and math scores declined by about 9 percent and 13 percent, respectively."
On state exams, "only about 40 percent of Boston’s tenth-graders meet expectations in reading and math, both down since 2019," writes Arnold. Less than a third of the district’s low-income students and less than 10 percent of ELL students are proficient in reading and math.
Boston is not unique. Across the country, graduation rates are rising while test scores are falling. Graduates go out into the world with weak academic skills and poor work habits.
Students no longer have to pass the Massachusetts Course Assessment System (MCAS) exams to earn a diploma, thanks to a 2024 ballot initiative promoted by the state teachers' union, Arnold notes. State leaders are working on a new high school graduation policy.
End-of-course exams would make a diploma meaningful, argue Massachusetts business leaders on CommonWealth Voices. "A diploma must do more than mark time spent in classrooms," they write. "It should signal that a student can read critically, write clearly, reason mathematically, and apply knowledge in real-world settings. A diploma must represent real readiness for college, careers, and civic life."
Grading is too subjective, they write. The state needs "a common, uniform assessment."
To replace the MCAS, students should be assessed in core academic subjects right after they've been taught the content, they write. "Students can and do rise to high expectations."
Well, some do, if they realize it matters. I think the only way to offer a real college/career-ready diploma is to also offer a basic diploma, or a certification of completion, for those who don't meet real-world standards.
We celebrate increased graduation rates, ignoring the part where we made it easier to make up failed classes (credit retrieval and credit repair), and ignoring the part where we made it easier to pass (simplified standards on tests in the name of equity, increasing numbers of 504 plans giving students accomodations, etc).
i think like schools are under pressure to show progress, so they just… redefine what progress means...
I live in the Boston TV market. The channel 7 ("the news station") news had a story on the rising graduation rate. The also included part of Mayor Wu's speech where she said it was done without lowering standards. They did nothing to test that statement, and I am pretty sure no other news outlet did, either. So now most everyone has it in their brain that her statement is true. Maddening.
Many states have rising graduation rates, but according to to the latest NAEP results only 22% of 12 graders are proficient at math, 35% proficient at reading, and 25% proficient at writing (where the definition of proficient is able to do what is expected of a 12rth grader in US public schools).
Grade Inflation and elimination of exit exams is what has gotten the US (not just Boston) to this point in our history...students getting diplomas which are worthless as they don't show what the students actually know vs. the grades they received...
Ugh
Obviously, the two or more levels of diploma work well because it is the easiest fix, which matters. Don't let the best be the enemy of the better. However, districts fight this hard. It violates modern ideas of equity. In my district, we offer the same diploma to 3 groups (140, 190 & 230 credits). Two would be OK, but one reinforces the weakness in the education business.