Teens rally for education reform at the Statehouse

BOSTON. Hundreds of area students, dropouts and activists rallied yesterday at the Statehouse, pleading for assistance from legislators for education reform.

After speeches and performances by the youths depicting their personal struggles in public schools, rally attendees signed a “conditional diploma” that will offer the state’s Board of Education the “right to claim success” if and only if it meets certain requirements put forth by the teens.

Among the requests are proper books and materials, more classes not geared entirely toward MCAs preparation, regular courses offering art, music, theater and physical education, multiple forms of assessment, and a lowering of the dropout rate.

According to Teen Empowerment, which helped host the rally, 46 other states spend more on public education than Massachusetts.

More than 1,900 students dropped out of Boston Public Schools last year alone and more than 40,000 did so in the state between 2001 and 2005.