Latinos in Massachusetts Public Schools: Waltham

This report provides a snapshot of current educational outcomes for Latino students in the city of Waltham. 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 ethnoracial 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 Waltham Public Schools. The number of White students in the district has been steadily declining, while the number of Latino and African-American/Black students has increased markedly. The second section compares the performance of Latino students in Waltham on the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System (MCAS) tests with the performance of all students statewide and other ethno-racial groups in Waltham. While disparities remain, the achievement gap between Latino and White students has been shrinking substantially in recent years. Latino students in Waltham have made especially large improvements on the Grade 10 English Language Arts, and Science/Technology/Engineering tests. 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, while the data show marked discrepancies between Latino and White students in Waltham, they also show a narrowing of the gaps in recent years