BPS dropping exams for examination schools this year (Boston, Brookline: middle-class, live)

[BostonBornMassMade]

Originally Posted by Lampert

If you remove the test you are just going to ultimately lower the quality of the school.

Which I mean, could be the idea, a bit of lower quality but more diverse. But they should make it clear.
Because it's not going to be same quality but more diverse simply removing the tests and letting people for worse elementary/middle in.

this is all hypothetical.... if the curriculum and teachers don't change-what becomes worse? let's dig into this.

Now the theory is the GPA of the new students is lower? Perhaps but if these are successful students they're used to rising to the occasion.

[Lampert]

Originally Posted by BostonBornMassMade

this is all hypothetical.... if the curriculum and teachers don't change-what becomes worse? let's dig into this.

Is not really hypothetical. The class goes at the speed of the slowest students. If you let students that are more behind on many topics the all class has to slow down to let these students catch up.
Were I went to school there really isn't a bug difference between schools because every school has a mix of very different socio-economically population. All schools are about average because they all have to go at the speed of the slowest students.

Again, is not the end of the world in any way. Just make clear that you are not going to have a school for the excellence. The problem is that this is not how the system works in the US and the risk is that BLS is going to drop in term of quality compared to the schools of the suburbs.

Teachers are only a part of the pictures. If it was all about teachers a lot of bad school districts would not be as bad as they are.

Originally Posted by BostonBornMassMade

Now the theory is the GPA of the new students is lower? Perhaps but if these are successful students they're used to rising to the occasion.

If there is a test screening and you use the zip code only to discriminate between very similar results there is not going to be any risk of lowering the overall quality, the more the zip code gain importance, the more risk there is.

This isn't because the new students are not as smart is a matter of how much education they already received.
You see this even in 1st grade. There are kids that can already read and do some calculation and kids that cannot, typically just because their parents didn't teach them/didn't have the money to pay a great daycare.
When the 2 kids go together is 1st grade the one that knows more stuff has to "wait" for the other kid, so it's kind of wasting time.

At high school level isn't going to be reading obviously but is going to be something else.

This is just about "does BLS want to be an absolute top school or not?" If it does, the zip code can only come into play after the tests (or whatever academic metric), if it doesn't than just say it.
Say: we want BLS to not be a school for our élite students, these students can go to private schools, we want BLS to be a school for our good students because we don't think that is the role of the Boston Public School system to invest that many resources in students that can get that super-high level of education they(their parents)want somewhere else.

[msRB311]

I think GPA is WAY more important than test scores. Again the test is something you take once or twice. How can you really measure someone by that? I mean if they do good then chances are they are very bright...but if they do poorly maybe they had a bad day and again some don't test well. I don't think it means they don't belong at an exam school. I went to an ISL school and had to take a test to get in for the 9th grade as did everyone. I know people who got all A's through high school but didn't do great on the SAT.

On the flip side I know someone who got a 1590 and got Cs and Ds all through high school because they didn't care.

[Lampert]

Originally Posted by msRB311

I think GPA is WAY more important than test scores. Again the test is something you take once or twice. How can you really measure someone by that? I mean if they do good then chances are they are very bright...but if they do poorly maybe they had a bad day and again some don't test well. I don't think it means they don't belong at an exam school. I went to an ISL school and had to take a test to get in for the 9th grade as did everyone. I know people who got all A's through high school but didn't do great on the SAT.

On the flip side I know someone who got a 1590 and got Cs and Ds all through high school because they didn't care.

I don't mean test as SAT or similar. I mean test as short for "some sort way to evaluate the academic level". Can be a test, GPA, a combination or things.

[bigfatdude]

It does assuming the few who do the work really well get an A, those who do it slightly worse get a B, those who do a barely adequate job get a C, those who barely do anything get a D and those do not do it at all get a big fat F. But as we all know when it comes to BPS standards are racist meaning everyone gets an A, which in turn makes GPA completely irrelevant.

Originally Posted by BostonBornMassMade

GPA measures your ability to do the work in front of you to a level satisfactory for the teachers. Don't penalize the kids for where they go to school, that's the entire point of the movement.

[bigfatdude]

Current curriculum is rigorous enough for those who are not the best of the best to fail out. Are you saying nothing will change and everyone will be perfectly happy with 80% of the class made up of woefully unprepared sojustapo picks failing out?

Originally Posted by BostonBornMassMade

this is all hypothetical.... if the curriculum and teachers don't change-what becomes worse? let's dig into this.

Now the theory is the GPA of the new students is lower? Perhaps but if these are successful students they're used to rising to the occasion.

[bigfatdude]

GPA is meaningful assuming As don't get handed out left and right as participation trophies. It doesn't mean much when one student can do triple integrals and another can barely add and subtract yet both somehow have 4.0.

Originally Posted by msRB311

I think GPA is WAY more important than test scores. Again the test is something you take once or twice. How can you really measure someone by that? I mean if they do good then chances are they are very bright...but if they do poorly maybe they had a bad day and again some don't test well. I don't think it means they don't belong at an exam school. I went to an ISL school and had to take a test to get in for the 9th grade as did everyone. I know people who got all A's through high school but didn't do great on the SAT.

On the flip side I know someone who got a 1590 and got Cs and Ds all through high school because they didn't care.

[Boston Shudra]

Originally Posted by BostonBornMassMade

Im not in favor of keeping the test in place.

Do you support getting rid of the test entirely, or just for public schools?

[massnative71]

Originally Posted by bigfatdude

Current curriculum is rigorous enough for those who are not the best of the best to fail out. Are you saying nothing will change and everyone will be perfectly happy with 80% of the class made up of woefully unprepared sojustapo picks failing out?

That's the thing. Are you going to want 80% of the class to flunk out after the 1st or 2nd year? How does that benefit the school or the student?

[CaseyB]

If you want BLS to remain an elite school, then you have to keep the test.