Boston’s Graduation Rates: A Closer Look

Boston is celebrating substantial gains in its school graduation rates, yet there’s a significant detail omitted by officials: the district’s recent prohibition on teachers giving failing grades.

Boston Public Schools (BPS) reported an impressive 81.3% graduation rate for 2025, which marks a notable rise from just 59.1% in 2006, achieving an all-time high. During a March press briefing, Mayor Michelle Wu attributed this progress to a more rigorous approach to student engagement—though some reports suggest a different reality.

“When students feel challenged, they stay engaged,” Wu stated, as cited by the Boston Globe. “We didn’t reach this point by lowering expectations or making it easier for students to get by.”

However, despite the rising graduation percentages, standardized test scores within the district have remained stagnant or, in certain cases, even dipped. Since 2020, a range of policy adjustments at BPS has eased the pathway for students to graduate, by relaxing academic requirements and creating multiple opportunities to recover from low grades, as noted by City Journal.

For example, teachers are now instructed to issue “incomplete” grades instead of failing ones, allowing students to improve their marks later, often in less demanding environments, such as through online courses.

In a significant policy shift, Massachusetts abolished the requirement for high school students to pass state tests to earn diplomas in 2024, labeling these assessments as “barriers to graduation.”

Some student demographics now exhibit a worrying trend: dropping test scores amid rising graduation rates. For instance, low-income students experienced a 5% decline in math scores from 2017 to 2025, while their graduation rate increased by 12% during the same period.

English language learners, too, faced sharp declines—9% in reading scores and 13% in math, even as their graduation rate surged by 21%.

Nevertheless, roughly a third of BPS students still fall short of graduation requirements, especially following the district’s decision to enforce the state’s MassCore test requirement. Reports suggest that BPS Superintendent Mary Skipper may seek exemptions for certain students from this requirement, according to the Globe.

Interestingly enough, the decline in test scores hasn’t dampened the spirits of teachers and administrators who continue to tout the rise in graduation rates as a success.

“It’s definitely a win that we’re seeing more students graduate,” remarked Marcus Walker, a teacher at Fenway High School, adding that “our students can compete with anyone.”

“It’s encouraging to see these rates improve over the past years,” commented Will Austin, an education writer and former teacher.