🎓 College diversity blueprint

It's Thursday.

Today's weather: Sunny with temps in the high-50s.

🎂 Happy birthday to Axios Boston member Mindy Spitz!

Today's newsletter is 895 words — a 3.5-minute read.

Massachusetts officials released recommendations yesterday to boost diversity at colleges – without running afoul of the Supreme Court ruling outlawing affirmative action.

Why it matters: Massachusetts' top colleges are already seeing lower levels of Black and brown students in the absence of affirmative action.

• The Healey administration has vowed to find ways to reverse the trend starting next year. 

Catch up quick: Education Secretary Patrick Tutwiler and higher education commissioner Noe Ortega authored the 34-page report with help from an advisory council the state formed in 2023. 

• Today's report follows college admissions guidance Gov. Maura Healey and Attorney General Andrea Campbell released last year. 

The latest: The report outlines recommendations for private and public colleges to make admissions processes more "holistic." 

• It also calls for boosting college prep resources and helping ensure underrepresented students finish college and find jobs with their degrees. 

Some of the recs include:

💸 Increasing access to SAT/ACT prep, including help with registration fees and providing access to local testing sites. 

📚 Increasing access to Advanced Placement courses and expanding early college and career technical education programs, especially in underserved communities.

🧑🏽‍💻 More help for students applying for state or federal financial aid, as well as adding more need-based grants over merit-based grants.

📚  Holding college and career events at middle schools so students learn about opportunities earlier. 

👩🏼‍🏫 Encouraging colleges to voluntarily implement "equity-centered, creative and targeted recruitment efforts" to attract a diverse applicant pool.

• That would mean admissions officers consider income level, disadvantages an applicant overcame, cultural competencies, whether an applicant is a first-generation college student and other personal experiences.

🔎 Conduct a statewide assessment of admissions processes and criteria, including legacy admissions and binding early decision offers, to see if those create barriers for some students.

🍽 Offering mental health services, emergency financial aid and help with food, housing, transportation and child care — any major barrier that could prevent historically underserved students from completing their studies. 

Reality check: These recommendations would be voluntary when it comes to colleges, especially private institutions.

• Colleges that adopt them would need to train college admissions officers, faculty members, advisers and others to take a more holistic, equity-centered approach with their students if they don't already, per the report.

Keep reading: Helping adults get degrees

Former presidents, congressional leaders and other dignitaries filed into the Cathedral of Saint Matthew in Washington, D.C., yesterday to celebrate Ethel Kennedy's life.

Zoom in: The larger-than-life family's matriarch raised 11 children after her husband, Robert F. Kennedy, was assassinated in 1968.

• She founded the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights.
• She also advocated for human rights, gun control and reducing poverty.

ICYMI: You can watch the ceremony here.

🍸 The owner of Little Haiti International Cuisine in Hyde Park wants to offer jazz there and open a jazz club in Roslindale should he get one of Boston's new alcohol licenses. (UHub)

• Meanwhile, a North End restaurant owner asked for two of the four new liquor licenses that aren't neighborhood restricted, per UHub.

🔎 Federal investigators found that the Green Line train that derailed near Lechmere Station was traveling 36 mph in a 10 mph zone. (Globe)

BOS Nation FC apologized after a video ad repeatedly focused on "too many balls," drawing accusations of transphobia. (Boston.com)

Patriots defensive tackle Christian Barmore accused five Providence police officers of "unprofessional racism" after he was pulled over and cited for driving with an expired registration. (NBC Boston)

Aspiring green thumbs often approached Angus Junkin, a former landscaper, for advice on how to start gardening. He realized there was a market for gardening starter kits.

The result: Junkin made 20,000 Amazon sales within his first year, and today sells his products across the globe.

Keep reading.

Brandon Cardet-Hernandez wants to raise literacy rates across Greater Boston.

• To do that, he left the classroom and turned to gaming. 

Why it matters: Fewer students in Massachusetts are meeting expectations in English language arts, per the Boston Globe's analysis of MCAS results, with 39% meeting expectations in 2024 compared to 42% the prior year.

Between the lines: The results suggest students have not recovered from pandemic learning loss, but also point to socioeconomic factors like housing instability and food scarcity.

Flashback: Cardet-Hernandez, a Boston Public Schools committee member, led Ivy Street School in Brookline until he left last year to join Mrs. Wordsmith.

• The UK-based company sells educational games. 
• Cardet-Hernandez was named company president in July.

 State of play: He has since launched a pop-up for Mrs. Wordsmith in the Seaport, which runs through February.

Zoom in: The pop-up is packed with workbooks, iPads with video games, board games like "Blah Blah Blah," the phonics game Cardet-Hernandez started playing with his son before learning about Mrs. Wordsmith.

• The phonics games are activities that parents could put in front of their kids in lieu of a YouTube show while they're making dinner or folding laundry, he said. 
• Word Tag, a vocabulary video game, takes maybe 25 minutes to complete. Readiculous, a card game, takes 15 minutes. 

What they're saying: "You might need those 15 minutes to unload groceries, and I want you to feel good about what you're putting in front of your kid, Cardet-Hernandez tells Axios. 

• "I want to design products that allow you to hold onto that feeling like you're making a healthy decision. You know what's in front of your kid, and the stuff is quality."

Tell your parent friends.

The good news: The Celtics start a new season with a new NBA championship under their belts.

The bad news: Tickets won't be cheap, especially those being resold.

• RIP your bank accounts.

For Dumpling Daughter founder Nadia Liu Spellman, selling her dumplings and sauces in the Amazon store is about connection.

Looking ahead: Spellman uses Fulfillment by Amazon to ship her sauces globally. "It's amazing that we can share this little bit of Boston with the world," she says.

Read on.

Deehan is out this week.

Steph wants to know about your holiday decorations.