Access to Secondary Education in the Greater Boston Area

While researching the overall preparedness of students enrolled in secondary education, we’ve found that this topic is very challenging, especially within the greater Boston area. There are many factors that contribute to this topic that we have included in our map, but we’ve found that the nonprofit sector and philanthropy play a huge role in the attempt to bridge the gap amongst students who do not have equal access to different opportunities. We’ve found that many nonprofits that provide students with information, assistance, and guidance about college readiness are located in low-income, and often, gentrified, areas. This connection between the location and services provided highlights that many of the schools that are located in those areas are not receiving and/or allocating funds towards necessary ventures for the students. Therefore, the nonprofits have decided to take these issues into their own hands and take action towards a matter that affects them and their community. For example, Camp Harbor View, a registered 501(c)(3) located in the South End of Boston, offers exceptional year-long services to youth and parents including SAT and ACT preparation classes, tutoring, college application guidance, and scholarship and financial aid application assistance. Implementing and having programs like this in a community create significant change and drives the community as a whole to develop in order to be better and do better for their children. Having nonprofits that have purposeful and targeted work create a cycle of change that can be implemented throughout the community and will thus create equity for all those who are trying to achieve similar goals.

While we were researching more about college readiness in the Boston area, we realized that there were so many overlapping factors that inhibited one factor or another. For example, as a group, we discussed the importance of our college application process with one another and how significant it was when applying to college. Since we were all so well connected and did not have unequal access to resources during high school, we never realized how difficult it could be for a student who does not necessarily have access to all the resources and opportunities that we did. On our mapping system via Kumu, as we listed “resources” as one of our elements that could inhibit a student from going to college, we came to realize that we had to implement systems thinking in order to holistically look at the issue and map out each significant factor that could result from or become of this issue. Therefore, with “resources”, it was more about accessibility than it being obtainable. We learned that due to government and system policies, certain schools are not allocated sufficient amounts of funding and therefore cannot provide external opportunities, activities, and resources outside of the the basic necessities for their education that is set by the city. This also reflects on the quality of the school itself and whether or not they would be able to provide challenging and advanced coursework in order to better prepare their students for college. Therefore, it is necessary to look at all issues from a systems thinking perspective in order to see the bigger picture and unpack the nature of the complex problem. Mapping is an excellent strategy to address this issue and it has certainly helped us see the interconnectedness of the issue surrounding secondary education.