Human Resources Task Group. Task 4: Public School Improvement to Enhance Quality of Life around Military Bases

摘要

Chelsea is a small, densely populated city of 1.8 square miles located northeast of Boston across the Mystic River. Median household income is $24,144. and 24 percent of families live below the poverty line. The unemployment rate is 5.3 percent, nearly 40 percent greater than the Massachusetts state average. According to the most recent U.S. Census figures (1990), the city has a total population of 28,710; it is estimated, however, that this figure omits as many as 3,000 unreported immigrants. Although Chelsea was once a strong, thriving community with a long proud tradition of helping new immigrants become integrated into American society, by the late 1980s, poverty, crime, and corruption had brought the city to the point of fiscal collapse and political paralysis. More than 50 percent of the students entering school lacked an adequate background in the English language. In 1988-89, only 24% of high school students took the SAT test, and only one out of every five graduates said that they planned to attend a 4-year college. One in four teenage girls was pregnant or a mother. Fifty-two percent of those who entered high school did not graduate. In June of 1989, Boston University began to manage the public schools of Chelsea, Massachusetts, under a unique agreement known as the Boston University/Chelsea Partnership. The contract negotiated with the city gave Boston University a mandate to transform the Chelsea Public Schools through June of 1998. The Partnership's continuing mission is to rebuild an entire school system and eventually to serve as a model for the reform of urban education. A key element in the success of the Partnership is the involvement of IBM. IBM provides a computer network to link family day care providers with educational resources outside of their homes and with each other. It is an intrinsic part of the Early Childhood program. This report tracks the Partnership's progress over the 1997-98 school year in working towards 17 long-term goals.