Bridge Boston is 15! +

Review of MCAS Scores

The 2025-2026 school year celebrates Bridge Boston’s 15th year as a public charter school! You’ve watched us grow over the years, and now we’re looking back fondly on the people, places, and events that make us who we are.

Our newsletters in the 2025-26 school year will focus on those who have helped to shape Bridge into the school it is today. We are so excited to revisit and share 15 years of Bridge history with you.

Post-Pandemic Comeback

Covid, of course, is an important part of most anything’s history. Despite our best efforts, we know it especially affected our students through online learning, minimal social interaction, and more. At the end of September, we received some incredibly positive feedback regarding our students MCAS scores: We are one of only 63 districts serving grades 3-8 students that met or exceeded our pre-pandemic achievement levels. We did it in Math! Since 2020, Bridge has worked to combat the learning loss caused by Covid, and this hard work is paying off.

Continued Student Success

Data from MCAS tells us more than just how one student did on one day: it analyzes trends for multiple students over multiple years. Our 2025 results showed us a continued positive 5-year trend of increasing percentages of students in the "Meeting or Exceeding Expectations" performance category on the ELA and Math MCAS. This means that every single year, more and more Bridge Boston scholars are not only achieving the goals set for them, but exceeding their goals. These students are leaders in our Bridge Boston community, and we are proud to say this group continues to grow.

Supporting our Scholars

Bridge has a strong history of educating the youth in our community who need the most assistance, both academically and socially-emotionally. When a struggling student displays a need, BBCS educators do everything we can to break down barriers and give them the resources they need to do their best. Our MCAS data from this year shows very strong growth among our cohort of students who were performing well below grade level on MCAS previously.

• Last year we only had 12% of our students in the "Not Meeting Expectations" category in ELA, and only 10% in Math.
• As a comparison, the statewide percentages of students Not Meeting Expectations were 20% in ELA and 19% in Math.

This is a sign that all of our emphasis on academic intervention helps students who were far behind get caught up to their peers & be successful with grade level content.

Ed That Adds Up

A Charter School Education, especially a Bridge Boston education, has always been uniquely valuable. This is reflected in this year’s MCAs scores:

• At Bridge, 33% of students were in the Meeting/Exceeding category for ELA (as compared to just 29% of Boston Public Schools).
• Better yet, 35% of Bridge students were in this category for Math (compared to just 28% of BPS students). 

When reflecting on our MCAS testing data, especially in the context of Bridge’s rich history, our Executive Director Orin Gutlerner says, "We are focused on making sure that every Bridge Boston student is academically prepared to be successful in the future. And while we still have many miles to travel to reach that goal, we are incredibly proud of the progress that we're making as a result of the hard work of our teachers, instructional leaders, students, and their families." 

We know that standardized testing scores only give us a glimpse into our students' success at Bridge. Follow along in our monthly newsletters as we continue to celebrate, share, and reflect on everything that has contributed to BBCS's rich history.