. . .At first glance, we may want to blame the educators and their teaching methods. They are primarily responsible for the material that each student learns everyday. However, looking deeper into this issue, each of the six new schools contain students with underpreviledged families.

The National School Lunch Program exists in all six underperforming schools. To be elligible for this program, which includes free lunch or a reduced lunch costing no more than 40 cents, a family of four must have an average income of $21,710

Public schools in Massachusetts average about 35 percent of their students who participate in the lunch program. 73 percent of students at Dorchester Academy and 86 percent of students at Henry Grew Elementary School participate. Obviously, these numbers are way above the state average. The four other underperforming schools also have around the same percentage as the two Boston based schools.. . .