THRIVE! EQUITY AUDIT FOR CAMBRIDGE PUBLIC SCHOOLS
For decades, Cambridge has grappled with the challenge of resolving deep-seated achievement and opportunity gaps that impact generations of Cambridge young people and the community around them. In 2023, Cambridge Public Schools (CPS) and Cambridge Community Foundation partnered with THRIVE!, a social enterprise that uses technology to promote equity in government spending, to understand gaps that arise and help CPS in assessing how to best support all students in reaching their potential. Below are links to the full report, published in February 2026, and highlighted findings and recommendations.
budgeting for equity and student success in cps
It is a widely known fact that while Cambridge spends more per student on public school education than nearly every city in the Commonwealth, there have been significant performance gaps between children based on race, ethnicity, and economic factors.
Overall, the Cambridge Public Schools (CPS) meet or exceed state benchmarks in nearly every school, and yet racial and ethnic contrasts are apparent throughout the K-12 pipeline. In 2025, 28 percent of Black students met or exceeded MCAS expectations in ELA (grades 3-8), compared with 42 percent of Latinx students followed by 67 percent of Asian and 77 percent of white students. The pattern continues in high school, leading to discrepancies in college and career readiness. But with per-student spending of almost $40,000 a year—the sixth highest in Massachusetts—the question has always been why.
The two-phase report, Budgeting for Equity and Student Success in Cambridge Public Schools, concluded in 2026, is the product of a two-year study (2023-2025), using publicly available data, internal surveys, observations at budgeting meetings, and more to analyze factors contributing to the problem.
Phase I lifts up the important role the central office can play in implementing changes that lead to measurable outcomes for every learner, academically, socially, and emotionally.
Phase II highlights that CPS has considerable strengths—including highly skilled district- and school-level staff and educators, a robust budget and ample resources, and an established equity infrastructure and systemwide supports. Phase II recommends three equity leavers as being key to achieving equitable outcomes for all students.
- Implementing evidence-based programs with fidelity—that is, exactly as they were designed and carefully monitor their outcomes using disaggregated data systems that adjust in real time.
- Operationalizing the Multitiered System of Supports CPS currently uses as recommended by the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. This system ensures that all students receive the right help at the right time: Tier 1 (for all), Tier 2 (targeted), Tier 3 (intensive), guided by data on entry, progress, and exit.
- Combatting chronic absenteeism, which disproportionately harms the most disadvantaged students and widens achievement gaps, with a robust, evidence-based intervention plan across all three tiers, addressing school climate, targeted mentoring, and family engagement and implementing intensive supports for the highest-need students.
READ THE EQUITY AUDIT REPORT
In this multi-year collaboration, Phase I centered on central office operations—observing the budget process and engaging stakeholders. Phase II investigated how school-based programming across CPS’s 17 schools mitigates achievement and opportunity gaps.
thrive! school guides 2026
With deep collaboration from the schools’ leadership teams, each THRIVE! school guide delivers a customized equity assessment, current status of programming, and School Performance Improvement Plan tailored to advance equity and excellence in the school’s unique context.
