Exam school admissions debate reemerges ahead of new policy recommendation

The exam school admissions debate split the BPS region across the city once again as the superintendent and School Committee members take policies towards new protocol changes this fall Our district goal remains the same to create an equitable and transparent plan that ensures all students have an opportunity for a seat at one of the exam schools within the city this time around commented Superintendent Mary Skipper before the School Committee on Wednesday However it s crucial to me that we have a stable strategy that will be left alone for a period of years BPS executives presented on constituents comment on three proposed avenues to alter the current controversial exam school admissions structure at the meeting The district will offer recommended adjustments to the guidelines based on residents feedback and our analysis at the next school committee meeting Skipper disclosed Following the superintendent s recommendation the committee will vote on whether or not to adopt any changes The exam school admissions procedures has been tweaked every year for five years changing the structure at the elite BPS high schools Boston Latin Academy Boston Latin School and the O Bryant School Under the current iteration seats are distributed evenly across socio-economic tiers based on neighborhood and students are awarded extra points based on factors like attending a school with an over economically disadvantaged population living in DCF care and homelessness Of the three proposals up for debate the first option would consider removing the school-based extra points and removing or altering the housing-based points The second would alter the four socioeconomic tiers Instead of distributing the number of seats based on the number of children within each tier the seats with be distributed based on the number of applicants in each tier The third would consider adding a citywide round allowing for students with the highest composite scores to compete for of seats outside of tiers BPS representatives presented on simulations of admissions under each strategy option in a special June meeting before the residents comment period began Skipper declared Wednesday BPS aims to leave the next agenda in place for ideally three years Within the citizens comment period district personnel noted they received hundreds of participants and various responses from mainly BPS students and families The themes of populace comment were broken down by option For the school-based option several families saw the advantage as a departure from merit or poor proxy for individual socioeconomic need while others saw them as a tool to account for historical fund disparities among schools or incentive to stay in diverse BPS schools In the tiers option BPS staff commented particular of those in favor noted it addresses the wide disparity in minimum composite number across socioeconomic tiers or adjusted the approach to the actual applicant pool rather than Census numbers Those opposed commented that it would complicate the process regularly and make invitations less geographically representative Regarding the city-wide option specific criticized it would hurt the impact of the tiers and disproportionately benefits higher socioeconomic students while others revealed it could guarantee the highest-achieving students a seat and send a message that all students interest have a shot More community comments from all sides of the issue came in during Wednesday s meeting with more opponents of all proposed alterations joining in I agree with the critics that all applicants should have a shot at an exam school seat commented Roseanne Tung former member of the Exam School Admissions Task Force However the approach should not backslide on equity gains Yet the three simulations do exactly that Tung argued all three simulations would product in lower invitations for the lowest socioeconomic tier multilingual learners former English learners students who are economically disadvantaged students from BPS-sending schools and BPS students applying to BLS and increase white students students from the highest socioeconomic tier and students who do not attend BPS elementary schools Peter Alvarez Madison Park alum and BPS parent from West Roxbury testified in favor of Option C saying it s really essential to have of students across the city to obtain admission to the exam schools and low income students can go to any school in the city Related Articles BPS superintendent reports early transportation hiring attendance records following first week of classes Teen stabbed at Madison Park High School police document Boston Citizens Schools transportation records best first-day performance agents BPS back to school Officers aim to get more kids in classes as year kicks off Account points to BPS transportation safety changes after death of -year-old hit by bus Equitable for students regardless of where they happen to live or go to school Alvarez reported We can t have students getting a composite points and not being admitted and that s the affair under the current procedures And under C the highest non-admitted number goes down to Several school committee members questioned the plan options Wednesday including new member Rachel Skerritt who served on the original Exam School Admissions Task Force BPS authorities are expected to present on the subject again at the Sept School Committee meeting School Superintendent Mary Skipper Nancy Lane Boston Herald File