PALS
Phillips Academy • Andover High School • Lawrence Schools
Phillips Academy • Andover High School • Lawrence Schools
Winter 2012 Newsletter
Lawrence by the Numbers: Making the Case for PALS As one of New England’s poorest cities, Lawrence struggles to raise healthy, safe children and provide a range of opportunities in its public schools. PALS provides summer and school-year supplementary educational programming for Lawrence middle-schoolers that aims to improve their academic skills, increase their self-confidence, and encourage talented and able students to apply to honors classes at Lawrence High School or independent high schools, and ultimately go on to college.
86%
of students qualify for full or partial lunch subsidies
48%
of 9th-graders graduate from high school, the lowest rate in Massachusetts
82%
of the city population does not speak English as its first language
89%
of students are Hispanic or Latino, groups with the state’s highest dropout rates (Source: Essex County Community Foundation)