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Roxbury Prep Principal and Alumna Honored at State House

Principal Titciana Barros and Roxbury Prep students get rousing applause in legislative chamber

Titciana Barros, principal of Roxbury Prep High School, was honored at the State House on Tuesday for her “dedication” to her community by “empowering and serving students and faculty” of Roxbury Prep.

The commendation was put forth by Rep. Liz Miranda and had the support of the entire membership of the Massachusetts House of Representatives. Roxbury Prep has proposed building a high school at 361 Belgrade Avenue in Roslindale.

The school’s mission is to ensure students enter into and graduate from college. It celebrates its 20th year this year and Barros is the first Roxbury Prep alum to become a principal at the high-performing public charter school. Many other Roxbury Prep alum have gone back to the school to become teachers and staff members.

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Rep. Chynah Tyler is also an alum of the storied school.

Barros started at Roxbury Prep as a middle schooler, and back then Roxbury Prep’s founder, John King, was her principal. King went on to become President Barack Obama’s U.S. Secretary of Education.

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Barros brought along students with her to the statehouse, and they got to hear from Rep. Miranda about the bill that legislators were working on—a proposal to ban cell phone use while driving in order to save lives. The bill passed. The students were also able to meet Rep. Russell Holmes.

Representative Miranda spoke about her pride in seeing Barros become a principal.

“Kids can grow up in our neighborhoods, go to these schools, go to college and come back and continue to make a difference,” she said. She noted how important it is to have people of color in the legislature to ensure that laws are fair to all people.

Roxbury Prep High School students are excelling: 94 percent of its first graduating class in 2019 have matriculated into four-year colleges, and 100 percent of seniors took at least one Advanced Placement (AP) class, with 62 percent passing at least one AP exam. By comparison, across the U.S., only 39% of public school students take any AP exams during high school and 24% actually pass an exam prior to graduating.

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