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{shortcode-c399856a939a76450d012f8c28f46076ef7d7eea}hen Hermela Shimelis walked into Cambridge Rindge and Latin School as a freshman, she began her high school career at one of the most racially diverse schools in the country.

But the students in her first Advanced Placement class reflected a different reality.

“When I walked into my first AP class freshman year, the class that I was in was definitely not representative of the diverse student body that CRLS hosts,” she said. “There were approximately five or so students of color in my class.”

As Cambridge’s only public high school, CRLS prides itself on the diversity of its student body. But more than a dozen students, alumni, and teachers told The Crimson that deep racial and socioeconomic divides exist in both academic and social settings — an issue that has persisted over decades.

“CRLS, as a school, is divided into two,” Shimelis said.

Jaclyn Piques, a spokesperson for Cambridge Public Schools, wrote that CRLS “works diligently” to respond to affiliate concerns, making “intentional efforts to ensure all students have access to the most rigorous and enriching academic and extracurricular experiences.”

“We regularly adapt our curriculum and policies to provide equitable opportunities for all students,” she wrote.

But despite the school’s extensive offerings, students reported that a lack of advising exacerbates existing inequalities in the district leading to a lack of diversity across courses. While students who successfully navigate CRLS often matriculate to the nation’s most prestigious colleges, many students’ pathways look much different.

Niko Emack, who graduated CRLS in 2013, said that more than a dozen of his classmates went to Harvard after high school. At the same time, he recalled that his graduation ceremony included a moment of silence for two students shot in a drive-by.

“In that anecdote exists two realities at CRLS — one where students can go and get one of the best educations in the country, and a different reality that reflects the day-to-day struggles with gun violence and pain and suffering,” Emack said.

‘Two Schools Within It’

Adam K. Gould, who graduated CRLS in 2023, said he “went to a school that had two schools within it.”

“One of the academic elite of Cambridge and their children,” he said. “And then another class of students who may have grown up in affordable housing or have been in the city for generations, and don’t have the same access to wealth.”

The divides within CRLS begin far before students walk through its doors. Teachers, CRLS alumni, and district leadership pointed to existing socioeconomic divides in Cambridge — as well as past CPS policy — as the root cause of the divides.

“It was very apparent to me walking away that there was so much that was determined before people even showed up at Rindge,” William G. Kaufmann ’26, who graduated from CRLS in 2022, said.

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As Cambridge’s only public high school, CRLS encapsulates the disparities present in the city. A 2021 report from the Cambridge Community Foundation showed that Cambridge’s wealthiest 25 percent of households earn an average of $343,000 — compared to the $13,000 earned by their less wealthy counterparts.

CRLS history teacher Lily R. Rayman-Read said that the district has not effectively insulated the school system from external, systemic inequalities.

“I feel like we have not done a good job yet in Cambridge Public Schools of figuring out ways to actually interrupt those systems and provide real equity,” she said.

Rayman-Read specifically pointed to the Innovation Agenda — a controversial 2011 policy that restructured CPS’ K-8 education system to create four public middle schools. She said the policy divided the student body by inadvertently driving wealthy students to attend private middle schools.

“There is really a stratified kind of tier system of students coming in — students who have received significant outside support away from the public education system, and students who have only had educational experiences within the public school system,” she said. “It is very, very noticeable for educators.”

Piques wrote that the district has since implemented “deliberate and sustained strategies” — including early college program partnerships, dual enrollment options, and early AP pipeline engagement — to bridge achievement gaps.
“Data demonstrates that our efforts are paying off, and more students than ever before are engaging in rigorous academic pursuits and extracurricular activities,” she wrote. “In Science, Technology, and Engineering, we have seen an increase in all test-takers, with particularly strong growth among low-income students and those who identify as African American/Black.”

While Shimelis — a CRLS senior and student representative to the School Committee — reported a positive experience at her public middle school, she recognized that her peers who attended private middle schools were afforded “certain resources that I couldn’t access.”

“They were able to enter CRLS as a freshman with almost a leg up in everything — academically, socially, college prep-wise,” she added.

Emack said the divides in CRLS are rooted in problems outside of the school — but their impacts reverberate through the classrooms.

“By the time students are actually entering the high school, no matter how much good will, good programming, good leadership — again, how do you overcome a decade worth of gaps?” he said.

‘Not A Hidden Situation’

When former School Committee member Laurance V. Kimbrough graduated from CRLS in 1998, he felt that a lot of the classes at the school were “segregated based on race and class.”

“You’d have a lot of the white and financially well-to-do kids in the honors classes, and you would have mostly students of color in the non-honors classes,” he said.

When he came back to the school as a CRLS guidance counselor in 2010, he said not much had changed.

Student achievement data confirms Kimbrough’s experience. According to the district’s student data report, only 15 percent of the 564 students who took AP exams in 2024 were Black, while nearly half were white. The school is 26 percent Black and 36 percent white.

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CRLS senior Naseem S. Anjaria noted a similar pattern in his AP classes, saying there are “maybe one or two Black or Hispanic kids in a class of 25 to 30.”

“It’s the most glaring thing to walk into a school in the morning and see such a diverse array of kids, and then you go to your AP class — and it’s like you’re in a private school,” he added.

Nasra A. Samater, who graduated CRLS in 2022, said that as one of the few students of color in her advanced classes, she felt academically and socially isolated.

“Why am I not in classes with people who both look like me or went to the same school as me?” she said. “If they were, it was very few and far between.”

School committee member Rachel B. Weinstein wrote that when she attended CRLS from 1988 to 1992, “my classes got whiter and wealthier as I moved towards graduating.”

“De facto segregation is something CRLS - and the City of Cambridge - have struggled with for many years,” she wrote.

The district has already worked to increase diversity in CRLS classrooms — implementing a “level-up” program in 2017 to enroll all 9th grade students in the same level English classes. Many students reported positive experiences with level-up classes, but they noted a decrease in diversity in higher level classes — influencing both their academic and social lives.

“A lot of times, people just are not interacting at all with people outside of their racial, socioeconomic, and the groups that are in their classes,” Alexander M. Leith, who graduated from CRLS in 2022, said.

Kaufmann agreed, saying that students naturally “self-segregate” based on their academic circle.

CRLS math teacher Amy Dolan said that the homogeneity in higher level classes is “not a hidden situation,” and has gone unresolved for decades.

“It’s been like this for the ten years I’ve been here,” she said. “Which can be a bit frustrating from a teacher perspective.”

“We keep looking at data — well, we know the numbers. We see the numbers if you walk around the building and look into classrooms,” Dolan added.

‘Falling through the cracks’

CRLS alumni and staff said the school must improve its student support system to address the academic and social divides. But they agreed with district leadership that the complex problem requires solutions that extend beyond the school’s walls.

Rindge affiliates said the school must create a more robust advising network, helping students navigate the school’s vast resources. Adelina R. Escamilla-Salomon ’27, who graduated from CRLS in 2023, said students fall through the cracks of the current advising system.

“Not every student gets that one-on-one support if they aren’t able to advocate for themselves,” she said.

“CRLS doesn’t put in the effort to say, ‘No, you should be taking AP classes,’ whereas white students already have that in their minds,” Erwin A. Kardatzke, who graduated CRLS in 2024, said.

But the CRLS guidance network does not fully capture the problem. Multiple district leaders said divides are exacerbated by lower expectations for students of color, widening divides from a young age by allowing them to progress through school without meeting proficient standards.

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“We have to make sure we’re not doing that. We have to have high expectations for everybody,” Cambridge Vice Mayor Marc C. McGovern said. “If there are kids who are struggling, then we need to make sure we’re giving them the support to overcome those struggles as best they can.”

Emack, the varsity boys soccer coach at CRLS, has high hopes for the school’s future — so long as stakeholders across the city make use of Cambridge’s robust resources.

“I often describe Cambridge politically as like a Rubik’s Cube,” he said. “Sometimes we don’t always have the answer — it might be messed up as far as where the colors are, but it is a solvable problem.”

“It takes everyone, whether their student is the one that’s being affected by this stuff or not, to mend these institutional gaps and provide opportunity for students to do their best learning and their best work,” Emack added.

—Staff writer Ayaan Ahmad can be reached at ayaan.ahmad@thecrimson.com. Follow him on X @AyaanAhmad2024.