Why is BPS so bad and what should be done to improve it? (Boston: school district, income)

[Guineas]

Originally Posted by bigfatdude

What are the chances you aren't a part of the crowd that brags about all sorts of things cultural on their Tinder profile but whose actual cultural experience mostly consists of pounding $8 (plus tip) bud lites at some southie dudebro inebriatory and going to an occasional sox game?

Not high.

[Shrewsburried]

Originally Posted by Boston Shudra

Is Tower Hill even a nice botanical garden? I looked up pictures on Google and it looks like its a wedding venue first and garden second..

We have a family membership and average 4-5 visits a month, including winter. The staff does a great job of rotating plantings throughout the season and, prior to Covid, they were ramping up social events (local musicians, local beer, and a generally chill social vibe). They've also begun funding some interesting installations. For example, they had multiple George Sherwood installations for the 2019 season which was absolutely fantastic.

They’re leveraging the lower traffic due to Covid to make further expansions to the site intended to appeal to a younger audience ... similar to what the Heritage Museum in Sandwich did some years back. It should feel more park-like once complete.

When I lived in Boston I had free access to ISG and also frequented Arnold Arboretum, Mt. Auburn Cemetery, Larz, etc. I don’t feel Tower Hill feels lesser than these places, just different. It feels more like a Botanical garden as they have a diverse collection of specimens on-site, unlike ISG which is more curated seeing as the gardens are secondary to the art/architecture. AA and Mt. Auburn are obviously more park-like and larger in scale.

Their Flickr page provides a better understanding of their focus. The weddings are merely a profit stream, though it is a nice venue if you have capital to burn.https://www.flickr.com/photos/towerhillbg/

[Boston Shudra]

Mmkay. I'll add it to my list.

[Lampert]

Originally Posted by Shrewsburried

4-5 visits a month

The only place I visit 4-5 times a month is the grocery store

[BostonBornMassMade]

It’s time for Boston to start talking about closing its exam schools
Improving the admissions process won’t change the systemic disparities created by selective schools.

Saw this on the Globe's website today.

Interesting, but not shocking tidbit was this:

To the first point: Selective schools have little real value. Our belief that they do is attributed to what researchers at MIT called the “elite illusion.” They compared two groups of students in Boston and New York: One group had scores just above the cutoff to get into an exam school; the other was just slightly below. If the schools actually educated kids better then there should have been differences in how the two groups performed on things like standardized tests and college admissions. The researchers found none.

Looking at this study as well as others from schools around the country, Susan M. Dynarski, professor of public policy, education, and economics at the University of Michigan, concluded there was “precisely zero effect of the exam schools on college attendance, college selectivity, and college graduation.” And in particular, she called out Boston, saying its exam schools had “zero effect on test scores, including the SAT and PSAT.”

^This is often the case with private schools compared to elite public schools. It's really about the kids and the family's in your school building, much less so the actual teaching. We know this to be true for poorer schools/student bodies, not surprising it holds true for richer schools and student bodies. Anecdotally, having gone to private school my entire life-this holds water.

Its called selection bias, these students were going to do well not matter where they went ( file under: reasons, why I think sending some of these kids to Brighton High is needed)

FWIW both the author's daughters went to exam schools.

[Lampert]

Isn't this what everyone has always been saying? People pay to go to Concord not because the teachers are better but because the environment of the school is what the parents want?

[massnative71]

Originally Posted by BostonBornMassMade

FWIW both the author's daughters went to exam schools.

Exactly.

[Urban Peasant]

It is one thing getting into college and it is another surviving college however. For all its drawbacks, I can tell you that Boston Latin worked us so hard that college came out to be a lot easier than high school. I mean in college, there was just so much free time to get things done that there was a lot less pressure. A former coworker went to Stuyvesant High School in Manhattan and told me it was just the same down there. That was not the same for many classmates who came from district public schools who found college harder than high school, some of whom actually struggled in college. A few dropped out, transferred to junior colleges, or otherwise had to obtain remedial work to catch up. That's the thing, outside of the exam schools, a great many of our Boston public high schools are not rigorous enough to challenge our youth to sustain themselves in college level critical thinking and time management. It was the case in 1999, it was the case in 2009, and I'm sure it's the case right now.

[Boston Shudra]

Originally Posted by BostonBornMassMade

. Anecdotally, having gone to private school my entire life-this holds water.

Yes. If Boston’s exam schools become public then so should all of MA’s private schools. Philips, BB&N, BC High, RL. All of them.

[Urban Peasant]

Originally Posted by Boston Shudra

Yes. If Boston’s exam schools become public then so should all of MA’s private schools. Philips, BB&N, BC High, RL. All of them.

Boston's exam schools are public . Boston Latin School is the oldest public secondary school in the nation, founded 1635.