Jobs
for the Future is a core partner in Boston’s High School
Renewal initiative, along with the Boston Plan for Excellence,
the Boston Private Industry Council, and the Center for Collaborative
Education. Since 2003, these organizations have partnered with
the Boston Public Schools—and specifically with the Office
of High School Renewal—to guide the development of Boston's
portfolio of high schools and inform the ways in which the district
manages and supports diverse options of schooling.
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has awarded two grants
to Boston for its high school reform effort, with Jobs for the
Future as the lead intermediary.
In 2003, the foundation awarded Boston $13.6 million for the
creation and development of small, effective high schools over
four years. Under this grant, a total of 19 small schools
were created. Existing facilities were reprogrammed to become
small high schools, new small schools were “incubated”
in available facilities, and several programs became schools.
In 2005, the foundation awarded Boston a three-year, $7.9 million
grant to deepen and sustain its diverse portfolio of excellent
high schools. The grant supports five areas of work:
- Continued instructional and organizational
support for small schools and small learning communities;
- Development of a data infrastructure
for school support and accountability;
- Improvement of the quality of
alternatives for struggling students and out-of-school
youth;
- Implementation of the district's
new graduation policy that streamlines how students progress
toward graduation and allows for locally developed course
sequences; and
- Development of innovative programming
and instructional models for students with special needs.
Boston is also one of seven school system/community
partnerships to participate in the five-year Schools
for a New Society Initiative for citywide high school reform,
funded by Carnegie Corporation of New York and the Bill &
Melinda Gates Foundation.
JFF’s Role
Jobs for the Future is the lead intermediary
for the grants from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. In
addition, JFF provides design and technical assistance to the
new small schools to ensure that graduates make smooth transitions
to further education and training. JFF helped school design teams
at two large high schools that were converting to autonomous small
schools to focus on postsecondary success for students and on
strengthening student connections to postsecondary institutions.
JFF is providing ongoing support to small schools on a range of
strategies for leveraging postsecondary partnerships.
Outcomes
Today, 25 out of 34 public high schools in Boston have fewer
than 500 students, and the five large comprehensive high schools
have organized into small learning communities of fewer than 400
students each. Boston’s portfolio of high schools is increasingly
broad and diverse, including pilot, Horace Mann charter, exam,
alternative, and small and large district high schools.
Partners
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Big Buildings, Small Schools: Using a Small Schools Strategy for High School Reform 
