Partnership Fund

Partnership Fund is sponsored by Boston Public Schools (BPS). The Partnership Fund allocates funding directly to BPS schools serving high-need students, based on the Opportunity Index.

search-form#clearSearch'> BPS Transition Support Center Helps Class Of 2026 Take Next Step Boston Public Schools Reports Record Growth in Advanced Placement Participation and Student Success Boston Green Academy Wins Inaugural Statewide We Declare!

Challenge BPS and City of Boston Announce Completed Upgrades at Otis Elementary School Boston School Committee Special Grants Meeting (Virtual) BPS Transition Support Center Helps Class Of 2026 Take Next Step A new innovative collaboration strengthens postsecondary enrollment outcomes for BPS students by providing a one-stop shop for college and career advising during the summer months.

Post-Secondary Transition Support Center Opens, Helps Class Of 2026 Take Next Step Boston Public Schools (BPS) is proud to announce the launch of its new Postsecondary Transition Support Center, a collaborative initiative designed to help members of the Class of 2026 successfully transition from high school to college, career training, or the workforce.

Led by the BPS Office of College, Career & Life Readiness in partnership with Boston University's PATH Advising Program and the Boston Private Industry Council (PIC), the Center provides a welcoming, one-stop hub where students can receive personalized guidance during the critical summer months. Open now through Friday, August 7, the Center is located at the Bruce C.

Bolling Municipal Building in Roxbury and offers both in-person and virtual advising appointments. The Postsecondary Transition Support Center was created to ensure every student has access to the support they need to achieve their postsecondary goals.

As students navigate college enrollment, financial aid, career exploration, or workforce opportunities, the Center brings together trusted partners to provide coordinated, wraparound services at a time when many traditional supports are less available.

Students can receive one-on-one advising, assistance completing college enrollment and financial aid steps, help exploring career pathways, job application support, résumé reviews, interview preparation, referrals to workforce-training programs, and connections to transition advisors.

The Center will also host workshops and special events, including financial aid counseling, program information sessions, and on-the-spot admissions opportunities. The initiative reflects BPS's ongoing commitment to ensuring that every graduate has equitable access to the resources needed to turn their aspirations into reality.

"As a former school leader, having worked with students and schools all over Boston, I see the Postsecondary Transition Support Center as a monumental opportunity for our city to come together and invest in the future of our young people," said Brett Dickens, Assistant Superintendent of Secondary Schools and College, Career & Life Readiness.

"This effort recognizes that the future of our young people is in all of our hands, and we must work in new ways, across sectors, and amidst all odds to secure it." Whether you're still deciding on your next step, completing college enrollment, applying for a job, or looking for additional guidance, the Postsecondary Transition Support Center is here to help.

BPS students in the Class of 2026 are encouraged to visit the Center between 9 a. m. and 3 p.

m. weekdays through Friday, August 7 to take advantage of the many free resources available to support your journey after graduation. Boston Public Schools Reports Record Growth in Advanced Placement Participation and Student Success District has increased qualifying AP scores by 65% since 2022, with nearly two-thirds of exams earning college-credit qualifying scores.

Boston Public Schools Reports Record Growth in Advanced Placement Participation and Student Success District has increased qualifying AP scores by 65% since 2022, with nearly two-thirds of exams earning college-credit qualifying scores BOSTON – July 15, 2026 – Boston Public Schools (BPS) reports continued growth in Advanced Placement (AP) participation and student success.

The 2026 AP Score Reports released by College Board show gains in access to college-level coursework and strong performance on AP exams. This year, 4,069 BPS students participated in Advanced Placement coursework and took 7,277 AP exams across 24 district schools. Of those exams, 4,665 earned a qualifying score of 3 or higher, resulting in a 64% districtwide qualifying rate.

Today, 30% of all BPS students in grades 9–12 take at least one AP exam. Since 2022, AP participation has increased by 25%, while the number of qualifying scores has grown by 65%, raising the district’s overall qualifying rate from 50% to 64%. The number of AP exams taken has also increased by 29% over the same period.

“This year’s AP results demonstrate the impact of our commitment to expanding access to rigorous academic opportunities through initiatives like AP Access for All,” said Boston Public Schools Superintendent Mary Skipper.

“We are seeing the highest AP participation levels and the highest percentage of students earning qualifying scores in BPS history, showing that when we remove barriers and provide students with the right supports, they rise to meet the challenge.

More students than ever are enrolling in college-level coursework, earning college-credit qualifying scores, and building the confidence, skills, and knowledge needed for success beyond high school. I am grateful to our educators, school leaders, students, and families for their continued commitment to ensuring every student has the opportunity to thrive.

” The district’s continued growth builds on years of strategic investment in expanding AP access through initiatives such as AP Access for ALL, increasing course offerings, strengthening teacher professional development, and providing students with additional academic supports, including mock exams and test preparation resources.

These efforts have helped more students enroll in Advanced Placement courses and improve student achievement. The 2026 results also show expanded access across student groups. Since 2022, AP participation has increased by 54% among Hispanic/Latino students and 42% among Black students, reflecting the district’s commitment to more students engaging in rigorous coursework and earning college credit while still in high school.

“Expanding access is only meaningful if students are equipped to succeed once they enter these courses,” said Deputy Superintendent of Academics Dr. Simone Wright.

“The steady increase in qualifying scores shows that our instructional priorities, educator support, and intentional focus on academic excellence are helping students build the knowledge, confidence, and skills they need to thrive in college-level coursework. ” BPS continues to broaden Advanced Placement opportunities across its high schools.

Between 2018 and 2025, the district increased AP course offerings by 20%, and students now have access to a growing range of subjects, including AP African American Studies, one of the district’s most popular newer courses. Several schools also plan to introduce AP Business and Financial Literacy and AP Cybersecurity in the coming school year.

“Every AP classroom represents an opportunity for a student to discover what’s possible for their future,” said Assistant Superintendent of the Office of College, Career & Life Readiness Brett Dickens .

“Whether students are earning college credit, strengthening their college applications, or developing the critical thinking and perseverance needed after graduation, these experiences prepare them to confidently pursue their next steps. We’re proud that more Boston students than ever are taking advantage of these opportunities.

” Earlier this year, BPS, alongside the City of Boston and the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, hosted an Advanced Placement roundtable at TechBoston Academy, where Mayor Michelle Wu, Commissioner Pedro Martinez, Superintendent Mary Skipper, and BPS students discussed the impact of AP coursework on college readiness and personal growth.

During the conversation, students reflected on how Advanced Placement courses helped them build critical skills such as resilience, time management, self-confidence, and academic perseverance while encouraging more of their peers to challenge themselves through rigorous coursework.

The 2026 AP results demonstrate that these investments in expanding access and supporting student success are translating into measurable outcomes across the district. Boston Green Academy Wins Inaugural Statewide We Declare! Challenge BGA's creative interpretation of the Declaration of Independence is named the best of 145 video submissions from 44 school districts across the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

Boston Green Academy Wins Inaugural Statewide We Declare! Challenge Boston Public Schools and Boston Green Academy (BGA) celebrate an extraordinary achievement after nearly 40 BGA Grade 8 students were named the featured statewide winners of the inaugural We Declare! iCivics Challenge, a Massachusetts-wide civics competition celebrating America's 250th anniversary.

Led by Grade 8 Humanities and Civics Teacher Olivia Dehm and Teaching Resident Mariana Villegas Suez, BGA students created a video reading and interpreting the opening lines of the Declaration of Independence. Their submission was selected as the top entry among 145 videos submitted by more than 2,100 Grade 8 students from 44 school districts across Massachusetts.

As the John Hancock Award for Excellence in Civic Expression winner, every participating BGA student will receive a $2,500 scholarship upon graduating from high school, totaling nearly $100,000 in scholarships funded through the competition by philanthropist Rob Waldron. BGA also will receive a $2,500 award, and Dehm will receive a $1,000 teacher prize.

The winning video will be featured during the Boston Pops July 4 Fireworks Spectacular "This recognition is really about our students," said Dehm. "Throughout the year, we've challenged them to think critically about what the Declaration of Independence means and how its ideals connect to their own communities. Watching them bring those ideas to life has been incredibly meaningful."

Participation in the project was voluntary. Students selected passages of the Declaration that resonated with them, with many scenes filmed during a field trip to Cathleen Stone Island Outward Bound School and others recorded in Boston Green Academy's outdoor classroom, reflecting the school's commitment to sustainability and experiential learning.

Dehm was supported throughout the project by her teaching resident, Mariana Villegas Suez, who helped coach students and supported their civics learning throughout the school year. At the school's eighth grade Moving Up Ceremony, student Kimberly reflected on the experience.

"Civics taught me a lot, not only about the career path I want to follow but also about our society and how the way we interact with each other can make big changes," she said. "I hope that with the video people from different parts of the country could remember what this country is supposed to believe and fight for."

The award recognizes more than an outstanding video—it celebrates a year of meaningful civic learning, critical thinking, and student leadership, demonstrating the power of young people to engage thoughtfully with history and democracy.

BPS and City of Boston Announce Completed Upgrades at Otis Elementary School The City of Boston and BPS are announcing the completion of building upgrades at the James Otis Elementary School in East Boston that will improve student health, classroom comfort, and reduce the school’s carbon emissions.

Boston Public Schools and City of Boston Announce Completed Air Quality, Cooling and Energy Efficiency Upgrades at Otis Elementary School in East Boston The project sets an example for schools across the nation for improving student health while reducing carbon emissions BOSTON – June 22, 2026 - The City of Boston and Boston Public Schools (BPS) are announcing the completion of building upgrades at the James Otis Elementary School in East Boston that will improve student health, classroom comfort, and reduce the school’s carbon emissions.

This building retrofit is the first of its kind in BPS and sets a national example for reducing exposure to pollution within an environmental justice community. “The Otis Elementary School students and school community now have a healthier, more comfortable, and more energy efficient building,” said Mayor Michelle Wu .

“These improvements and investments across the district are critical to ensuring our buildings support the best experience for students and staff, while helping us advance our climate goals. ” Prior to the building upgrade, the 121-year-old Otis Elementary School did not have available electrical system capacity to install air conditioning or fresh air delivery systems.

These constraints posed challenges to classroom comfort, indoor air quality, and student health and learning. The Otis Elementary School is located merely two blocks from Logan Airport, Route 1A, and 1-90, resulting in higher levels of pollution exposure compared to other BPS facilities.

By upgrading the building’s electrical system capacity, BPS was able to install heat pumps, fresh air delivery systems, HEPA filtration units, improved lighting, weatherization, and water-saving fixtures to introduce cooling into the building while improving the Otis Elementary School’s indoor air quality and energy efficiency.

In April, Mayor Wu announced the release of Boston's 2030 Climate Action Plan , a roadmap for how the City will reduce community-wide greenhouse gas emissions by 50 percent by 2030 and reach carbon neutrality by 2050. The Otis Elementary School was upgraded through the Renew Boston Trust program, a City initiative to improve energy efficiency and resiliency in municipal buildings.

Through Renew Boston Trust’s energy efficiency upgrades, the City is saving $2. 3 million a year in taxpayer dollars. While three newly constructed BPS schools are powered without burning fossil fuels on site, the Otis Elementary School is the first BPS facility modernized through a retrofit to no longer rely on fossil fuels.

Later this year, the City will finish construction on a geothermal system at the JFK Elementary School in Jamaica Plain. In addition to HVAC systems, the Renew Boston Trust program has also installed solar panel arrays on four schools. More than half of BPS buildings were built before World War II, and in 2021, only 38 school buildings had cooling systems.

Today, after multiple years of sustained capital investment, more than 100 school buildings have cooling systems, with three additional HVAC projects underway and targeted for completion in 2027. The Otis Elementary School retrofit was made possible through a $5. 7 million City investment and a $1.

5 million grant from the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center’s Green School Works program. BPS also leveraged $342,000 in Mass Save incentives for the clean energy and energy efficiency upgrades.

“This building upgrade at the Otis Elementary School is a perfect example of how climate action delivers huge benefits to our communities,” said Oliver Sellers-Garcia, Environment Commissioner and Green New Deal Director for the City of Boston . “These community-led solutions improve our children’s health, lower carbon emissions, and ensure every neighborhood can access a more sustainable future.

” “The improvements at the Otis Elementary School reflect our commitment to creating learning environments that meet the needs of students today while preparing our buildings for the changing climate,” said Katherine Walsh, Director of Planning, Engineering, Sustainability, & Environment at Boston Public Schools .

“As we continue investing in facilities across Boston Public Schools, our focus remains on ensuring that every student has access to safe, healthy, and high-quality spaces that support teaching and learning during every season. ” “It’s hard for students to learn and for teachers to teach in uncomfortable, poorly ventilated school buildings,” said Ben Downing, CEO of the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center .

“The improvements at Otis Elementary School in East Boston are part of a statewide effort by the Healey-Driscoll Administration and Massachusetts Legislature to modernize local public schools—because our kids and teachers deserve healthy, comfortable, and energy-efficient places to learn and work.

” “The addition of central air conditioning and an advanced air filtration system at our historic 1905 Otis Elementary School has been truly transformative,” said Paula Cerqueira-Goncalves, Principal of the Otis Elementary School .

“This project proves that with creativity, collaboration, and a willingness to think outside the box, even our oldest school buildings can be modernized to provide the safe, healthy, and high-quality learning conditions that all students deserve in BPS and across the nation. ” “The new HVAC system has been such a blessing during these recent warm days.

It has also allowed us to finally be able to comfortably sit in classrooms along with 20 or more adults attending welcome sessions in September, Academic Parent-Teacher Team meetings in May, and end-of-the-year classroom events in June,” said Vicky Lynch, a parent of three students at the Otis Elementary School .

“Not only has it benefited the parents, but our children are also coming home from school on these warm May and June days noticeably less irritable, which I can imagine every parent and teacher is grateful for! ” BPS has been recognized by the United Nations as a world leader in indoor air quality management.

In 2021, BPS leveraged federal Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief funds to install 4,400 air quality sensors across the district to measure and improve air quality and thermal comfort for a better teaching and learning environment. Real-time data is available on BPS’s public dashboard.

This first-of-its-kind network in K-12 schools has enabled BPS to engage in a research partnership with Boston University School of Public Health and secure $22 million in grant funds for building improvements.

Parent, Teacher, and Community Association Meeting Saturday Recreational Tennis Parent, Teacher, and Community Association Meeting Saturday Recreational Tennis FY20 Partnership FundAllocations FY20 Partnership Fund Guide for Partners FY22 Partnership Fund Guide for Schools The Partnership Fund is a strategy that Boston Public Schools (BPS) began implementing in Fiscal Year (FY) 2019 to increase equity and close opportunity gaps.

The Partnership Fund was BPS’s first application of the Opportunity Index as a tool for allocating resources. The Partnership Fund is rooted in the belief that schools are the units of change and that school leaders, with the right supports and systems, will propel their schools and communities forward.

The Partnership Fund allocates funding in school budgets to a subset of BPS schools that serve the greatest concentrations of high need students, according to the Opportunity Index . Schools receiving these funds are empowered and held accountable to choose and fund opportunities to provide ongoing direct services that best meet the unique needs of their school community and advance their school improvement goals.

Prior to FY19, BPS earmarked a pool of central office funds to contract non-profit organizations to partner with a subset of schools across the district. Central office leaders made decisions about which partners were funded, how much funding they received and which schools they served. In fiscal year 2018 (FY18), BPS allocated $5.

7 million in partnership funding to 13 partner organizations working in a total of 70 schools. In FY19, shifted this funding structure in order to equitably empower schools to make partnership fund decisions. In doing so, BPS allocated over $6 million directly to 60 schools who then funded over 90 School-Community Partners.

These partners provide a wide range of supplemental services including, but not limited to after school enrichment, social emotional services, college access support, and workforce development.

Rationale for a New Approach The old approach for allocating centralized dollars to partner organizations presented a number of challenges that did not align with our core values or theory of change, including: District-funded partnerships were not equitably distributed; there was little correlation between currently funded partnerships and schools serving the greatest concentrations of high need students.

Schools had little to no voice in selection of partners receiving district funding; schools, as the unit of change, were not empowered and held accountable to make the decisions that were best for their school communities. Schools and nonprofit organizations not currently receiving district partnership dollars were unable to access this funding; there was no transparent or open system for accessing partnership funds.

BPS uses the Opportunity Index to equitably allocate about $6 million in Partnership Funds to a subset of schools identified as serving the greatest concentration of high need students. Eligible schools receive a per-pupil partnership funding allocation as part of their school budget. These funds are loaded into a restricted budget line that is then used to fund partner opportunities.

School leaders, together with their School Site Council and other key members of the school community, participate in a data-driven process to decide which partner(s) to fund. These decisions are signed off on by the School Site Council and then submitted to BPS central office leadership for review and approval.

From there, the Office of Engagement’s School-Community Partnerships team and other key central office departments work with partners to facilitate and broker partnerships between interested schools and partner organizations. Once partnerships are finalized, schools and partners will sign non-legally binding partnership agreements and complete appropriate procurement processes. For more information, please visit https://www.

bostonpublicschools. org/oi .