Boston Focus, 5.16.25

Girls' recent math performance in Massachusetts doesn't add up

A new analysis by NWEA Research, drawing on data from national and international assessments, indicates that girls’ math achievement has declined drastically relative to boys.

Is the gender gap back in math?

At first blush, you see it in the Massachusetts data. Math proficiency, as measured by the MCAS, is significantly lower amongst girls than before the pandemic.

But other data points to a more nuanced picture. Consider this fact: the average math SAT score amongst Massachusetts female public school students increased during the same time period.

Perhaps the most rigorous high school math class is Advanced Placement Calculus BC. In 2024, more Massachusetts girls enrolled in that class and scored a “3” or higher than in 2019.

What’s going on here?

It is possible that income status is playing a role.

As I have written about before, the academic pandemic bounce back was faster amongst higher income students. This was particularly true in the case of math, and may explain why the SAT and rigorous AP exams - tests wealthier students are more likely to take and do better on - do not exhibit a dip. Private math classes and tutoring may be playing a role.

In Boston, non low-income students returned to pre-pandemic levels in math within a year and now have surpassed that mark. Low-income student math performance has never recovered, declining significantly and nearly doubling the achievement gap.

The correct headline may not be that the average Massachusetts girl’s math proficiency declined. It may be that the average low-income Massachusetts girl’s math proficiency declined by a lot.

Similar, but requires different policy recommendations and interventions.

We have a tendency to think of the subgroups - race, income status, etc. - as adding to 100%. The parts, however, are greater than whole because children are categorized multiple times in multiple types of subgroups. A student may be classified by the state as “high needs” and can also be identified as low-income. An English learner can have special needs, and can identify as one of seven racial categories. And so on.

Massachusetts has built a very advanced data platform, with an accessible hub, data sets, visualizations and more.

Let’s hope that educators and policymakers are leveraging it find things beyond headlines.

Schools

Boston School Committee met on Wednesday; full materials here. The meeting covered an unusual amount of ground, ranging from cell phone policies to a proposed new private school.

More details are emerging regarding the tragic killing of Lens Joseph by a Boston Public Schools bus. The driver attempted to leave the scene, has resigned, and was driving without required certification. A lot was going wrong with this bus trip before the accident, this Boston Globe timeline displays.

A new program will guarantee jobs for Madison Park graduates who will help to build Boston’s new school buildings.

An alternative path to expanding vocational education opportunities in Massachusetts.

Elected officials and advocates everywhere- including in Boston - have proposed that 16 year olds and 17 year olds should vote in local elections. Newark tried it. Total turnout was below 1%.

Mary Tamer warns of diminished graduation standards.

21 states have now enacted school cell phone bans before Massachusetts.

Long form version of what you have read here before: how education (not the politics of education) has declined as a national issue.

Boston’s FY26 budget banks on tourists and tourism that may not be coming. A specific type of “tourism” that fuels the region’s economic growth is also at risk.

Harvard wrote a letter, Trump took away more money.

Despite the intense focus on DEI in higher education, there has been little attention paid to historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs).

Other Matters

Scarcity is shaping our public narrative.

“Cuts” and loss dominate policy and political coverage. The proposed “skinny” federal budget. Governor Healey announcing a hiring freeze and the Commonwealth has a dashboard to show you what federal funding is being cut. Even climate policy - intended to reduce energy usage - is being branded as energy savings or relief.

It is not all perception, of course. The potential funding cuts will have outsized impacts on schools and families. School construction could become wildly expensive. Even while housing prices across the country have flattened or declined, the average Massachusetts home price still climbed by 11% last year.

So, it should not come as a surprise that Massachusetts voters think the state and the country are going in the wrong direction and name high costs as their top concern.

Such a mindset, regardless of reality, cannot hold. Political volatility, swings in federal monetary or trade policy, and/or inflation in the past have preceded new political ideologies and movements (e.g., Progressives at the dawn of the 20th Century, the Reagan Revolution near its conclusion).

Something is next, and we should all be curious about what it is and who is leading it.