Over the years, our Condition of Education Action Guides have singled out communities doing promising work to improve the lives of students. We've profiled more than 30 schools, districts, and community organizations. We have learned from their innovation, dedication, and willingness to share what they've learned so that other communities can benefit. This interactive map features all the programs we've highlighted over the years. Click the pins below to read more about each program.
Some highlighted programs have locations across the Commonwealth or throughout the country. Those include:
100 Males to College
Featured in the 2018 Action Guide
100 Males to College sites provide an example of the importance of planning for desired outcomes while implementing improvement strategies. To start, the collaborative approach of 100 Males to College sites is strengthened by their attention to, and utilization of, state and local data. The 100 Males to College sites collaborate with DHE staff to couple existing state-level indicators (i.e., Vision Project metrics for college enrollment and completion) with local college and career readiness data. In the 2016-2017 school year, the Springfield 100 Males to College program served 119 students, including 59 seniors, representing all five district high schools. Of these 59 seniors served, 100% completed a high school diploma from the Springfield Public Schools, and 95% enrolled in an institution of higher education.
City Connects
Featured in the 2015 Action Guide
City Connects was launched as a partnership among several high-poverty schools in Boston’s Brighton neighborhood, Boston College, and a group of health and human service agencies. The partners developed a collaborative, data-driven approach to addressing common barriers to student learning. City Connects has since expanded to 65 schools in Boston and Springfield, MA; New York City; and Ohio. Distinctive features of City Connects include: a full-time school counselor or social worker working with teachers and others to assess every student and create individualized support plans identifying appropriate individual support resources; a secure database for staff to track referrals, service delivery, and student outcomes; and fostering formalized partnerships with local agencies.
Generation Citizen
Featured in the 2019 Action Guide
Through Generation Citizen, students have the opportunity to exercise their voice in a meaningful way, while learning how to tackle a community issue through action steps that involve collaboration, communication, and creativity. The class collectively determines a topic of focus using a consensus building process that asks for the input of each student. After the topic is selected, students research the issue to understand the context and identify a specific, local policy goal. Small groups of students then engage in collaborative data collection, using surveys, interviews, and reviews of existing research to better understand their chosen topic. The program culminates in a Civics Day event at the State House, where students showcase their work and pitch their ideas to leaders in the community.
Great Schools Partnership
Featured in the 2022 Action Guide
Great Schools Partnership (GSP) is a nonprofit organization focused on equity-grounded school improvement. GSP aims to redesign structures to improve instruction, assessment, curriculum, and student voice, choice, and agency so that all students are ready for college, career, and citizenship. They help schools and districts respond to an increasingly diverse student body by facilitating Professional Learning Groups (PLGs) and instilling a culture of collaboration in the schools and districts they work with.