Supporting Our Schools

Parents and teachers will demand change at Lawrence High School Friday night after a series of brawls broke out among students in recent weeks. Five students were arrested this week alone for getting into fights and school staff members have been injured trying to break them up. Violent videos of the fights have been circulating on social media. Po...

U.S. News & World Report has released its first-ever ranking for public elementary and middle schools in each state. The inaugural ranking is in addition to the annual high schools ranking released every year. Unlike the high school ranking, there is no national ranking for K-8 schools, but readers can still browse school rankings by state or b...

Students at Hopkinton High School could become the first in Massachusetts to have an option when it comes to wearing masks indoors. Hopkinton High School, which has met the 80% vaccination rate threshold among students and staff, is the first school in the state granted permission to lift the mask mandate while inside. “At the beginning, I wa...

Gov. Charlie Baker has activated up to 450 members of the National Guard to assist with COVID-19 testing in Massachusetts schools and help offset potential staffing shortages within the state prison system. The Baker Administration said up to 200 National Guard members will assist with testing in K-12 public schools. The extra testing capacity is n...

Brockton Public Schools are beefing up security this week after a student was arrested for bringing a gun to school Friday, prompting an hours long lockdown. Students and parents can expect delays as well as heavy police presence at school Tuesday, including at building entrances. The officers are expected to stay on site for the entire day. Studen...

A student from Sudbury, Massachusetts, is facing charges in connection with a fireworks incident at a Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High School football game against Fitchburg last week. Sudbury police said Friday that the student, whose name has not been released, is charged with assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, assault with a dangerous wea...

Public school students over the age of 12 will be required to get vaccinated against the coronavirus in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Interim Superintendent Victoria Greer requested that the Cambridge School Committee implement the mandate, effective Nov. 22, calling the vaccine the “best tool in defeating the virus.” Committee members appr...

The mask mandate for Massachusetts public schools will remain in effect through at least Nov. 1, education officials announced Monday, adding the date when some schools can apply to lift that mandate by showing an 80% vaccination rate for students and staff. Middle and high schools that have reached that target can apply to lift the mandate on Oct....

A Maine school district and some of its parents are on opposing sides of holding a homecoming dance. Leaders at Regional School Unit 21, which includes town like Kennebunk and Kennebunkport, said they believe the risk of a COVID-19 outbreak made it unsafe to hold the traditional school-sanctioned homecoming dance this weekend. While a scheduled foo...

A group of Massachusetts parents is pushing back against what they call inconsistent school protocols during the pandemic, arguing that some districts’ rules go beyond state guidelines. “It’s extremely frustrating and worrisome because kids can’t speak up,” said Melissa Bello, whose two children go to school in Needham...

A group of high school students in Massachusetts had to ride on a party bus complete with a stripper pole and neon lights during a recent field trip — an experience their teacher said highlights problems with the education system. Jim Mayers, an 11th grade Advanced Placement language and composition teacher at the Brooke Charter School in Boston, s...

The Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education released the results of spring 2021 MCAS tests Tuesday morning. Results show that many more students had gaps in their knowledge of math and, to a lesser extent, English language arts, compared to students in the same grades before the COVID-19 pandemic, and fewer students met or ex...

All faculty, staff and students who attend on-campus classes at the 15 community colleges in Massachusetts will need to be vaccinated against COVID-19 by January 2022, the presidents of those schools announced Monday. The heads of the Bunker Hill, Bristol, Cape Cod, Berkshire, Greenfield, Holyoke, Massasoit, MassBay, Middlesex, Mount Wachusett, Nor...