At GNB VocTech, like other state vocational schools, there are wide disparities in the number of students of color, English Language Learners, and students with disabilities who applied and were accepted, sparking a call for investigation.
Category: Education
Posted inEducation
Teaching climate change: High schoolers implore legislators to act on ‘greatest problem’ facing young generation
“If we’re teaching kids the way we taught them decades ago, then we’re failing them.” — Sara Ross, adult partner on student bill proposing new learning standards.
Posted inMultimedia
Podcast: Hear what students have to say on environmental curriculum standards
Listen as New Bedford Light reporter Colin Hogan interviews Sara Karp and Jonathan Lan, two of the many students who wrote the legislation that looks to introduce new learning standards.
Posted inEducation
City school projects waiting for action as state pauses program
The Massachusetts School Building Authority’s decision to pause its Accelerated Repair Program, coupled with its dwindling selection of core projects, has posed a significant challenge to cities across Massachusetts, and New Bedford in particular.
Posted inEducation
Long hours, hard work, special training … and low pay
More than 300 paraprofessionals in New Bedford are currently working in their sixth month without an updated contract, after December negotiations failed to make inroads. An arbitration session is set for Jan. 4.
Posted inEducation
Online conflicts sparked many of NB High’s fights last year, students say
The city’s high school disciplined more students for fighting than any other school in Massachusetts during the 2021-2022 academic year; experts voice concerns about emotional trauma.
Posted inEducation
What’s it like to work in a child care desert?
Two neighborhoods in New Bedford, the South Peninsula and Near North End, have severe shortages, with some census tracts offering no child care at all.
Posted inEducation
Chronic absenteeism a growing problem in Mass. schools
The New Bedford Light reported on Monday that nearly 70% of NBHS students missed 10% or more of school, and that the school district’s overall absenteeism was 47% — far higher than the 28% figure statewide.
Posted inEducation
Mass. students still rank at or near top, but NAEP scores show decline
“Nation’s Report Card” scores were based on reading and math tests given to a sample of fourth- and eighth-grade students in the winter of 2022.
Posted inEducation
Alarming absentee rate cited in New Bedford’s poor MCAS scores
“Yes, there’s an explanatory power of the pandemic, but it’s still a crisis to have 70% absenteeism.” — Walter Stroup, associate professor of education at UMass Dartmouth.