Education

The Globe’s Valedictorians Project provided a poignant reminder of the challenges facing BPS high school graduates in Boston. But the rigor of the school system’s curriculum is only a part of that story. Ignoring the socioeconomic challenges to college completion in any analysis of BPS graduates omits an important dimension of the story.

Governor Charlie Baker has announced an education finance proposal that would fund the recommendations of the Foundation Budget Review Commission in the fiscal year 2020 state budget.

In what has become a yearly ritual in the Boston Public Schools community, parents, teachers and school leaders are grappling with budget reductions and the hard decisions about which staff and services to do without.

City Councilor Annissa Essaibi-George, chair of the council’s Committee on Education, has called for a hearing asking for more transparency from the BuildBPS program, a plan to address construction issues at the majority of the schools in the Boston Public Schools district.

State Sen. Sonia Chang-Diaz announced an education finance reform bill Wednesday that would create a guaranteed minimum level of funding for all districts in the state, as well as implement recommendations from the state’s Foundation Budget Review Commission (FBRC).

Each student in Elizabeth DiFranco’s eighth-grade English language arts room at the Joseph Lee school has been assigned a number one through four at the beginning of class. As DiFranco faces the jumble of students seated at wheeled desks, she orders them into groups.

There are about 3,500 Boston public school students who have no fixed address. As incredible as it sounds, 6 percent of Boston’s 56,000 students are homeless. They might live temporarily in a run-down motel, move from shelter to shelter, stay in substandard housing or “couch surf” from house to house.

The year 2018 brought in sweeping political changes in Boston, mirroring a surge of progressive electoral activism that propelled left-of-center women of color — including Boston’s own Ayanna Pressley — into the national spotlight and into congress.

Over the protests of students, teachers, city councilors and civil rights activists, the Boston School Committee voted Wednesday to close the West Roxbury Education Complex that houses two high schools, West Roxbury Academy and Urban Science Academy.

City councilors heard a multitude of perspectives during a hearing held last week by Education Committee Chairwoman Annissa Essaibi-George that probed the ideal structure for the School Committee.

Educators across the state launched a grassroots campaign this week to put pressure on the Legislature to address the $1.5 billion funding deficit in state public school spending.

Last Friday, students trained their sights on the State House, appealing to lawmakers for support in advance of a Dec. 5 School Committee vote on the planned closure of their schools.