Why is BPS so bad and what should be done to improve it? (Boston: 2013, neighborhoods)

[BostonBornMassMade]

Originally Posted by Boston Shudra

Fwiw, as much as I dislike exclusionary suburban schools and as much as I worry about the future of my alma mater, Wikipedia says this is how they’ll be doing admissions without the test:

“The School Committee opted for an admissions procedure under which 20% of the incoming class would be accepted based on top grades, and the other 80% based on grades and zip codes. Students coming from zip codes with lower-income communities would receive preferential treatment.”

And honestly that sounds pretty great.
Provided that BPS can control grade inflation.

You still wind up with top students, but you ensure a certain amount of diversified representation at least until every Boston zip has the same financial statistics!



So long as they only serve ~300 students at a time regardless of funding, they could have 50% of each graduating class be low income and still serve magnitudes fewer than the exam schools..

I mean........ there's far more students in privatesschools in aggregate than in Bostn exam schools lol.

And most of them serve 500+ kids. So no, objectively they serve far more students than came school and across eastern MA maybe more disadvantaged kids certainly not magnitudes less. There's something like 130 schools in the NEPSAC alone...i won't break down by state but it skews HEAVILY towards MA

[Space_League]

Originally Posted by Boston Shudra

You still wind up with top students, but you ensure a certain amount of diversified representation at least until every Boston zip has the same financial statistics!

so forever then..

Being only 3 schools it seems more like an experiment than anything but no matter what it will provide a useful data point. Hopefully it turns out well

[Boston Shudra]

Originally Posted by BostonBornMassMade

I mean........ there's far more students in privatesschools in aggregate than in Bostn exam schools lol.

In aggregate? Why should that matter?

[BostonBornMassMade]

Originally Posted by Boston Shudra

In aggregate? Why should that matter?

??? isn't that all that matters? Serving kids?

[Boston Shudra]

Originally Posted by BostonBornMassMade

??? isn't that all that matters? Serving kids?

The exam schools do a better job of serving low income kids than any individual private school.

The city of Boston is such a small fraction of the metro area: of course there’s going to be a higher grand total of kids in private schools over the entire span vs in the Boston exam schools. Doesn’t change the fact that the exam schools do more to serve underprivileged ones.

[GeoffD]

Originally Posted by BostonBornMassMade

I mean........ there's far more students in privatesschools in aggregate than in Bostn exam schools lol.

Can you put more words around this? What fraction of school-age children in the city of Boston attend private schools?

[BostonBornMassMade]

Originally Posted by GeoffD

Can you put more words around this? What fraction of school-age children in the city of Boston attend private schools?

In the city of Boston 3463 kids attend private school out of about 75k. That nnumber has decreased a good deal over time.

https://www.bostonpublicschools.org/...9-20_FINAL.pdf

Even in 2014 that nujmber was 4090

https://www.bostonpublicschools.org/...%2014-0502.pdf

[BostonBornMassMade]

Changes in admission rules for Boston exam schools boosted diversity of accepted students

The portion of admission offers going to white applicants decreased to 26 percent this year from 33 percent last year. For Asian applicants, acceptances dropped to 16 percent this year from 21 percent last year, according to data released by the school department.

By contrast, the portion of acceptances sent to Black applicants rose to 24 percent this year from 18 percent last year, and those going to Latino applicants increased to 28 percent this year from 24 percent last year.

Applicants currently enrolled in the Boston school system fared much better than previous years. Three-quarters of them received admission offers, compared to 65 percent last year. The data analysis suggests the increase could reflect the ZIP code allocations, with some areas with the lowest median family income, such as Dorchester, Roxbury, and Mattapan, receiving more invitations than last year.

Other disadvantaged student groups saw increases. Of the all the admission offers, 48 percent went to low-income students this year, compared to 33 percent last year.

Admissions for students with disabilities increased from 2 percent last year to 5 percent this year; students learning English fluency grew from 1 percent to 8 percent; and homeless students getting in rose from 2 percent to 6 percent this year, according to the data.


The data come as Boston Public Schools consider whether to make the change permanent, a controversial move that has already drawn a lawsuit and complaints from some parents.

School officials released the data at a meeting of an exam school task force charged with recommending permanent changes to the admission process. The School Committee is aiming to adopt the permanent changes in time for the next admission cycle.

Task force members asked a range of questions about the data, revealing little about whether elements of the temporary plan would be something they would like to make permanent. They also requested additional data analysis for future meetings.

A South Boston sixth-grader spoke against permanently adopting the ZIP code allocations.

“Although I’m very lucky that I received an invitation to attend Boston Latin this fall, some of my brightest classmates were not offered invitations, merely because of the ZIP code in which they live,” the sixth-grader said.

“I have a number of families who got a seat at the exam schools and have decided to turn it down, because they no longer have faith in the system,” said Anne Yount, a school-admission consultant in West Roxbury. “I only have one family who got an exam school seat who intends to accept it. I wonder if this will result in the exam schools being under subscribed this year.”

[Space_League]

Originally Posted by BostonBornMassMade

“I have a number of families who got a seat at the exam schools and have decided to turn it down, because they no longer have faith in the system,” said Anne Yount, a school-admission consultant in West Roxbury. “I only have one family who got an exam school seat who intends to accept it. I wonder if this will result in the exam schools being under subscribed this year.”

TIL that there are school-admission consultants.

[BostonBornMassMade]

Originally Posted by Space_League

TIL that there are school-admission consultants.

In West Roxbury? cmon now..that’s a given. Lol.