Latinos in Massachusetts Public Schools: Framingham

This report provides a snapshot of current educational outcomes for Latino students in the city of Framingham. It is based on publicly available data from the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (MADESE) that have been analyzed for the community by the Gastón Institute. Using the ethno-racial categories assigned by MADESE, the report focuses on demographic trends and the most recent educational outcomes of Latino students relative to other ethno-racial groups in the school district and to students statewide. The report has three sections: The first section illustrates the demographic shift occurring in the Framingham Public Schools. The number of White students in the district has been steadily declining, while the number of Latino and students has increased markedly. The second section compares the performance of Latino students in Framingham on the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System (MCAS) tests with the performance of all students statewide and other ethno-racial groups in Framingham. While disparities remain, the achievement gap between Latino and White students has been shrinking substantially in recent years. Latino students in Framingham have made especially large improvements on the Grade 10 English Language Arts test. The third section shows Latino graduation, dropout, and college enrollment rates, relative to other students in the district and to all students statewide. Here too, the data show marked discrepancies between Latino and White students in Framingham