Poll: Massachusetts parents have concerns with students' college, career readiness after high school

Grace Zokovitch, Boston Herald on Jan 22, 2025

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Many Massachusetts parents have concerns with their students’ college and career readiness as they move through the state’s education system, according to a poll by the Massachusetts Business Alliance for Education released Wednesday.

The “State of Educational Opportunity in Massachusetts” survey polled 410 parents of K-12 students in the state on educational issues including school satisfaction, tutoring and extracurricular opportunity, college and career readiness and more. The poll is taken from a 20,000-parent national poll conducted by Edge Research.

Though 44% of parents ranked their children’s schools satisfactory — close to the national average of 45% — only about a quarter said they were confident in the schools’ college and workforce preparation. Closer to a third of parents nationally expressed confidence in their students college and workforce preparation, and Massachusetts fell in the bottom tier of states for both categories.

“These findings are consistent with what we’ve heard from business leaders across the state,” said Ed Lambert, Executive Director of MBAE. “We’ve got to broaden access to opportunities for students to earn college credits, credentials, and career-connected learning experiences in order for students to graduate ready for the future.”

The Healey administration filed their fiscal year 2026 budget Wednesday, including 6% increase to $7.3 billion in state aid to school districts. The budget proposal also includes a $32.5 million “Reimagine High School” proposal, described by the governor’s office as a “multi-year approach on college and career readiness initiatives historically prioritized by Administration and Legislature.”

The poll detailed the presence of some college prep opportunities in Massachusetts, including a 15% participation in dual enrollment programs compared to 25% nationally.

Though the percentage of Massachusetts parents’ satisfied with their school was lower, over two-thirds of parents said they would make the same choice of school and feel they have a choice.

Massachusetts also ranked higher than national averages for participation in tutoring, 21%; summer program, 46%; after-school programs, 25%; sports, 65%; and other extracurriculars like art and music, 57%.

Lower income families saw lower participation across all categories, most starkly in sports where 28% fewer lower income than higher income kids participated. For extracurriculars and summer programs, participation dropped 17% for lower income kids, and tutoring also saw a key income divide of 7%.

Massachusetts also ranked highly in terms of satisfaction in their schools’ mental health resources, according to the survey, at 41% satisfied compared to a 37% national average.

Massachusetts parents reported relatively high engagement and knowledge of their children’s schools.

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