Seeking to double the number of Boston students who complete college
For Students For Donors"Success Boston is proud to be helping students follow their dream of a college education without gaming the system.
"We are proud to be doing it the hard way, the honest way. And we are exceedingly proud that it is working."
Together, the Boston Foundation, the Boston Public Schools (BPS), the City of Boston, 37 area institutions of higher education and local nonprofit partners are working to double the college completion rate for students from the BPS. To date, over 7,000 students have participated in Success Boston coaching. They are more likely than their peers to persist and graduate from postsecondary education.
In May 2022, Success Boston announced that the Success Boston partners had committed to a new equity framework and recommitted to a 70 percent college completion rate for all BPS graduates by the Class of 2030, extending this goal to all student groups, including those most marginalized historically and currently.
Leaders from the city, the Boston Public Schools, higher education and workforce development gathered to make a commitment to equity in the effort to ensure at least 70 percent of Boston Public Schools graduates make it through their postsecondary programs.
In October, we released a new Success Boston report about the effectiveness of transition coaching on the college success of Boston Public Schools graduates. The latest in a series of reports, this analysis focuses on the BPS Classes of 2013 through 2016, and includes updated findings on persistence and academic performance, along with the first set of findings on the impact of coaching on degree completion. The research—and the accompanying conversation—will also discuss the characteristics of effective programs that move the needle on college completion; what it takes for coaching to work; and what we can do to maintain the citywide gains we have made over the last decade.
This forum marked the release of a new research report on the labor market experiences of recent college graduates from the Boston Public Schools. The report examines how well graduates of local four-year colleges and universities are connecting to internships and landing “that good first job” after graduation.
Community colleges in Massachusetts educate more students than the rest of the state's public higher education system combined. Yet, their students are frequently overlooked for internships, which can open the door to successful careers. Please join the Boston Foundation and Bunker Hill Community College for a conversation about the assets, competencies, and cultural wealth these students bring to their internships, and the changes in practices employers should implement to support them more equitably and effectively.