About Us

QUEST (Quality Education for Every Student) is a volunteer grassroots organization of parents with children in Boston Public Schools. We advocate for quality, equity and transparency in our schools.

The group came together in the summer of 2012, when Boston reviewed the way students are assigned to schools. As parents, we shared deep concern about the inequity of proposed changes to the assignment process, and we advocated for a system that would equitably serve students no matter their neighborhood or their needs.

Since 2012, we have worked on broader issues within the BPS, including school funding, Superintendent selection (2015), facilities planning and school closings. Through this work, we recognized the destabilizing effects of privatization and charter schools on the district system, and began advocating at the statewide level to maintain a cap on the number of charter schools in the city and state. We partnered with others in the defeat of Question 2, which would have allowed the rapid expansion of charter schools in Boston.

Underlying all our work is the belief that every child deserves a robust and vibrant education. We believe that future systemic reform must rely on the collective expertise of the teachers, principals, and families who comprise these educational communities. We believe that policies and procedures should be analyzed and adjusted as necessary over time in order to lift up the most vulnerable and historically marginalized students in the system. Additional targeted support should be put in place to achieve educational equity and to mitigate for opportunity and achievement gaps based on race, gender, and socio-economic status. Transparency and fidelity to equity agreements are critical to the success of these programs, as well as to the public trust.

QUEST believes that the most sustainable and equitable solution for high quality schools for Boston’s children is a fully supported public school system. We believe that defunding, closing, and privatizing schools is detrimental to students, their families and the community at large. We believe in the promise of publicly funded, publicly controlled and publicly accountable schools.

QUEST is a member of the Boston Education Justice Alliance, the Massachusetts Education Justice Alliance, and Parents Across America, and is proud to work with other student, teacher, and community groups in asking how policies and practices can help to dismantle past oppression, increase opportunity, and provide greater access to quality education for all.