Document Type

Research Report

Publication Date

6-2014

Abstract

This report provides a snapshot of current educational outcomes of Latino students in the city of Springfield. It is based on publicly available data from the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (MADESE) that have been analyzed by the Gastón Institute for a community meeting in Springfield. This report uses the ethno-racial categories assigned by MADESE. It focuses on the evolving demographic trends and the most recent educational outcomes of Latino students relative to other ethno-racial groups in the school district and to students statewide. The first section illustrates the demographic shift occurring in the Springfield Public Schools, with a growing Latino student population and a shrinking White and African-American/Black student population. The second section compares the performance of Latino students in Springfield on the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System (MCAS) tests with the performance of all students statewide and other ethno-racial groups in Springfield. The third section shows Latino graduation, dropout, and college enrollment rates, relative to other students in the district and to all students statewide. The second and third sections show that despite persistent disparities in outcomes, the achievement gap between Latino and White students has been shrinking slightly over recent years. Latino students in Springfield have made especially large improvements on the Grade 10 ELA and Science/Technology/Engineering tests. The fourth section compares outcomes and engagement variables at the four main high schools in Springfield, demonstrating the drastic disparities in outcomes between Central High School and Putnam Vocational Technical High School on the one side and High School of Commerce and High School of Science and Technology on the other side.

Community Engaged/Serving

Part of the UMass Boston Community-Engaged Teaching, Research, and Service Series. http://scholarworks.umb.edu/engage

Share

COinS
 
 

To view the content in your browser, please download Adobe Reader or, alternately,
you may Download the file to your hard drive.

NOTE: The latest versions of Adobe Reader do not support viewing PDF files within Firefox on Mac OS and if you are using a modern (Intel) Mac, there is no official plugin for viewing PDF files within the browser window.