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Boston Latin Academy has a 138-year history of academic excellence with an outstanding rate of college placement.
We are an inner-city public school serving 1,700 economically and culturally diverse students, grades 7 through 12, from Boston’s many neighborhoods. More than 40 percent of students are eligible for the federal free or reduced lunch program. A significant number of BLA students speak languages other than English at home. We are proud to have a supportive alumni association and an active parents association.
Simply put, BLA is a vibrant, diverse, academically rigorous school where the Classics Club is just as popular as the football team.
The students of Boston Latin Academy, their parents, and the faculty share a commitment to excellence. Our curriculum, while rooted in the study of the classics, the liberal arts, and the fine arts, has been developed to ensure that all students are well-prepared for success in college and success in life.
Our goal is to create an environment where students learn to listen, to question, to read, to empathize, and to make choices based on sound, ethical principles. We believe that this can be best accomplished within a disciplined, caring, and supportive school environment. Therefore, in addition to our emphasis on academics, we offer a broad spectrum of support services that provide psychological, tutorial, and medical help for students in need.
Boston Latin Academy was established in 1878 as Girls’ Latin School, the first college preparatory high school for girls established in the United States.
By the time GLS celebrated its 25th anniversary in 1903, it had achieved a reputation as one of the country’s finest schools.
In 1972, in response to a state law ending sex discrimination in public schools, boys were admitted. Soon after, the school’s name was changed to Boston Latin Academy.
In 2010, BLA won a Blue Ribbon Award from the U.S. Department of Education. This award, given to 254 public and 50 private schools across the country, recognized schools where students attain and maintain high academic performance.
In 2013, Boston.com rated Boston Latin Academy as the #1 “Dreamschool” in the state, basing its rankings on a balanced range of criteria developed in collaboration with professors from the College of the Holy Cross.
For more information about BLA’s history, including video and photographs, visit the GLS-BLA Association.
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