As a Math teacher at Doherty described it to me, this high school is “two schools in one building.” One school is students from high socio-economic backgrounds who typically find themselves placed in Honors and AP courses, but students from high need groups make up almost half the student body and typically populate the college level classes make up the "second school." Doherty Memorial High School ranks as a Level 3 school according to DOE, meaning it’s, “Among the lowest performing 20% of schools.”

This large high school with approximately 1500 students across the four grades, consists of diverse groups of students. Below is a variety of statistical information regarding Doherty’s student body. This information is from their most recently released data, and is sourced from the DOE website (as cited in references 1, 4, 8, 9, and 10).

Due to COVID-19, Doherty adopted a fully remote plan to continue school during the pandemic. In the prior spring grades were not counted and MCAS testing was postponed for 10th graders. In the fall there was a tentative plan to return to the building in November, but the safety concerns were too great when the time approached. Instead, for the duration of my practicum, only teachers were permitted to report to the building, which is where my mentor and I collaborated while using Google Meets and Google Classroom as our main ways of teaching and connecting with students.