Boston Schools Made It Impossible To Fail Then Took Victory Lap When No One Failed
The city of Boston is pleased that graduation rates at its schools have significantly improved, but officials neglected to mention the district’s recent changes banning teachers from giving failing grades.
Boston Public Schools (BPS) had a graduation rate of 81.3% in 2025, an increase of more than 20 points from 59.1% in 2006 and a record high for the district. At a news conference in March, Democratic Boston Mayor Michelle Wu insisted the improvements were due to pushing students harder, but new reports paint a different picture.
“When students feel challenged, they stay engaged,” Wu said, according to the Boston Globe. “We didn’t get there by lowering expectations for students who might struggle or by shifting the goalposts and making it easier for people.”
Despite the improvement in graduation rates, test scores in the district have remained stable and even declined in some cases. But several policy changes at BPS since 2020 have made it easier for students to succeed by relaxing requirements and providing multiple opportunities to compensate for poor grades, City Journal found.
For example, the district prohibited teachers from giving students failing grades, instead requiring them to give “incomplete” grades, allowing students to recover their grades later in often more flexible settings, such as through online classes.
In 2024, Massachusetts even removed the requirement for high school students to pass state tests to graduate, saying it was a “barrier to graduation.”
Some student groups are now seeing declining test scores coincide with an increase in graduation rates, the City Journal found. Low-income students saw their math scores decline 5% between 2017 and 2025, while this group’s graduation rate increased 12% during the same period.
Meanwhile, English language learners saw a 9% decline in reading scores and a 13% decline in math scores, even as their graduation rate soared 21%. (EXCLUSIVE: McMahon slams Democrats for acting like ‘throwing money’ at schools will solve literacy crisis)
Boston Mayor Michelle Wu speaks during a national “No Kings” day of protest in Boston, Massachusetts, October 18, 2025. (Photo by Joseph Prezioso/AFP/Getty Images)
Despite this, about a third of BPS students are still not on track to graduate after the district added a requirement to pass the state’s MassCore test. However, BPS Superintendent Mary Skipper also reportedly plans to ask the district’s governing board to exempt some students from that requirement, according to the Globe.
These changes and falling scores have not dampened teachers, administrators and officials who rejoice in the dubious success of increasing graduation rates.
“It’s a positive development if we get more students graduating,” Marcus Walker, a humanities teacher at Fenway High School in BPS, told the Globe. “Our students can compete with anyone, and that’s a good thing.”
“It’s great that the rates have increased over the last few years,” Will Austin, an education writer and former teacher, told the Globe.
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