Boston

The National Landscape: Boston

Mayor Thomas Menino and Boston Public Schools superintendent Thomas Payzant led the Boston Public Schools through a decade of reform, notable in part because it didn’t rely on school closings or a massive influx of charter schools to get results.

Instead, the Boston Public Schools employed a data-driven approach that focused on improving school curricula, especially in literacy and mathematics; setting clear expectations; and regularly assessing student, school, and teacher performance.

In 2006, the year Payzant retired, the district received the Broad Prize for Urban Education as the most improved urban school district in the country.

Building on that legacy, today in Boston, the BPS administration and the teachers’ union cooperatively target high-needs schools in a strategy that involves sending in teams of experienced teachers from within the district.

These Turnaround Teacher Teams are part of a new wave of reforms that place teachers at the center of reform efforts, and show how administrators and teachers can work together to improve education.