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

[dazzleman]

Originally Posted by BostonBornMassMade

I appreciate it and I agree we need more real discussions and the ability to work through dissenting viewpoints as an American society.

Your last couple of posts were particularly interesting. I really appreciate that you don't just follow the party line. You're willing to acknowledge certain issues, and I think that's important if we're to solve these problems. It's also important for our society as a whole to acknowledge the problems that we have created, and recognize that they can't suddenly go away just because we eliminate or modify the policies that created them.

[mdovell]

Originally Posted by BostonBornMassMade

Parenting plays a part but it’s just one part. Trying to pinpoint one reasons is just fingerpointing and scapegoating. How many “bad” BPS parents do you personally know or even on a cursory level. BPS mismanagement is a huge factor and a populous that doesn’t have kids and mayors that have kids outside of BPS or never used BPS is another one.

Back in the day when there was limited choice I could see the argument. I'm not saying BPS is good or bad for that matter. Boston Latin is still one of the best high schools in the state which begs the argument why can't other high schools within BPS be that way. At this point there is public, private, charter, religious, vocational and online. I refuse the accept the fact that between all of these options that kids can realistically fall though without some neglect of parenting. Also the amount of resources today is much higher than before. Sure we can talk about the vetting of materials but that's what teachers and school boards do all the time.Some people argue that charter siphons off students and leaves special ed behind yet vocational does the same.

I'm not trying to scapegoat but the fact of the matter is if a kid doesn't have a good home life then everything else is going to be much harder. I'm not saying it can't be done but the foundation starts at home. Now I'm not going to promote some social conservative nuclear family argument but you have to have some form of home and family to go to at some point.

[dazzleman]

Originally Posted by mdovell

Back in the day when there was limited choice I could see the argument. I'm not saying BPS is good or bad for that matter. Boston Latin is still one of the best high schools in the state which begs the argument why can't other high schools within BPS be that way. At this point there is public, private, charter, religious, vocational and online. I refuse the accept the fact that between all of these options that kids can realistically fall though without some neglect of parenting. Also the amount of resources today is much higher than before. Sure we can talk about the vetting of materials but that's what teachers and school boards do all the time.Some people argue that charter siphons off students and leaves special ed behind yet vocational does the same.

I'm not trying to scapegoat but the fact of the matter is if a kid doesn't have a good home life then everything else is going to be much harder. I'm not saying it can't be done but the foundation starts at home. Now I'm not going to promote some social conservative nuclear family argument but you have to have some form of home and family to go to at some point.

The "social conservative nuclear family" argument is not such a terrible thing. When this type of family was more prevalent, the school system had fewer problems.

[BostonBornMassMade]

Mdovell there’s 76,000 school age children in Boston, only 48,000 use public schools at all. (46% of kids who don’t use BPS but exhaust other options are black- by far the largest group of kids opting out) Many many parents do utilize other options. And not all of BPS students are low income or low performing but by and large the poorest and least well resourced families turn to BPS. And then even still *most* of them graduate (with what skills is another question).

We’re talking about 20,000 really hard to manage kids which-in a city of 76,000 school age children- seems about right. It’s not as though there’s a ton of empty seats floating around in other school systems.

Somebody has to fill BPS and it will be the lowest common denominator kids.

[mdovell]

Originally Posted by BostonBornMassMade

Mdovell there’s 76,000 school age children in Boston, only 48,000 use public schools at all. (46% of kids who don’t use BPS but exhaust other options are black- by far the largest group of kids opting out) Many many parents do utilize other options. And not all of BPS students are low income or low performing but by and large the poorest and least well resourced families turn to BPS. And then even still *most* of them graduate (with what skills is another question).

We’re talking about 20,000 really hard to manage kids which-in a city of 76,000 school age children- seems about right. It’s not as though there’s a ton of empty seats floating around in other school systems.

Somebody has to fill BPS and it will be the lowest common denominator kids.

There are plenty of districts that do not (yet) accept metco. That could make a huge difference. I know of districts on the south shore that lost 30% of their student population in the part 15 years. Not all suburbs are growing as not everyone can afford kids

[dazzleman]

Originally Posted by BostonBornMassMade

Mdovell there’s 76,000 school age children in Boston, only 48,000 use public schools at all. (46% of kids who don’t use BPS but exhaust other options are black- by far the largest group of kids opting out) Many many parents do utilize other options. And not all of BPS students are low income or low performing but by and large the poorest and least well resourced families turn to BPS. And then even still *most* of them graduate (with what skills is another question).

We’re talking about 20,000 really hard to manage kids which-in a city of 76,000 school age children- seems about right. It’s not as though there’s a ton of empty seats floating around in other school systems.

Somebody has to fill BPS and it will be the lowest common denominator kids.

It's the lowest common denominator kids who drive out everybody else who can afford other options. People across the political spectrum are willing to move or pay for private school to keep their away from the lowest common denominator kids. It's a self-reinforcing cycle.

[massnative71]

Didn't actually think it would come to this, but...


Study recommends state receivership for Boston Public Schools


https://www.bostonherald.com/2022/03...ublic-schools/

"The state is being urged by the Pioneer Institute to appoint a receiver to take over leadership of Boston Public Schools due to the district’s “chronically low-performing schools.”
“Boston’s schools are failing most students,” said Cara Candal, a senior fellow at Pioneer and author of “The Boston Public Schools’ Road to Receivership.”
Candal added in her study that BPS “has had generations to turn around chronically low-performing schools, and despite modest pockets of progress, it has been unable to sustain even small improvements.”
Candal pointed to a 2020 state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education report that found that about one-third of BPS students attend schools that rank in the bottom 10% statewide.

Although the district has received more than $400 million in federal COVID relief funding, she said, the district remains in disarray.
One of the key findings in the DESE report, Candal noted, was the instability of top BPS leadership. Since Superintendent Brenda Cassellius’s recent announcement that she will step down on June 30, the district is now looking for its fifth superintendent in 10 years."

[WestieWhitie]

Originally Posted by massnative71

Didn't actually think it would come to this, but...


Study recommends state receivership for Boston Public Schools


https://www.bostonherald.com/2022/03...ublic-schools/

"The state is being urged by the Pioneer Institute to appoint a receiver to take over leadership of Boston Public Schools due to the district’s “chronically low-performing schools.”
“Boston’s schools are failing most students,” said Cara Candal, a senior fellow at Pioneer and author of “The Boston Public Schools’ Road to Receivership.”
Candal added in her study that BPS “has had generations to turn around chronically low-performing schools, and despite modest pockets of progress, it has been unable to sustain even small improvements.”
Candal pointed to a 2020 state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education report that found that about one-third of BPS students attend schools that rank in the bottom 10% statewide.

Although the district has received more than $400 million in federal COVID relief funding, she said, the district remains in disarray.
One of the key findings in the DESE report, Candal noted, was the instability of top BPS leadership. Since Superintendent Brenda Cassellius’s recent announcement that she will step down on June 30, the district is now looking for its fifth superintendent in 10 years."

That's what happens when you have the centered green new racial social justice gestapo running the school system. Instead of letting most succeed at the cost of a few failing everyone gets to fail in the name of equity.

[dazzleman]

Originally Posted by WestieWhitie

That's what happens when you have the centered green new racial social justice gestapo running the school system. Instead of letting most succeed at the cost of a few failing everyone gets to fail in the name of equity.

That has been our urban education policy for decades. We allowed a small escape valve with limited charter and exam schools, but now that is being taken away in the name of "equity." Whenever the left starts to use a new term, watch you. Serious corruption of the language, combined with pernicious policies, are sure to follow.

[BostonBornMassMade]

While state takeover might be helpful (idk if I’m really convinced) I don’t look at a recommendation from the Pioneer Institute very seriously.

I’m not opposed to state takeover but I’d want to hear a chorus of shared opinion from multiple organizations on all side of the political spectrum.

As for charters yes I think they harm public schools- I’d prefer pilot schools. However public schools have a lot of self inflicted wounds and are wayy to overly self-congratulatory. It honestly turns my stomach that’s they’ll tout at 78.8% graduation rate and 2% dropout rate like they’re actually producing well functioning graduates and they’re not lowering the bar when they CLEARLY are. I also don’t believe BPS teachers need higher pay or more power in the union.

At the same time I blame mostly bureaucrats and parents for BPS not teachers and not students.

It’s also my lost in me that since they reoriented try e younger grades to be more neighborhood based in 2013 the white % enrollment slowly crept up until last year. More white people are feeling like they can use Boston elementary schools, more white people are bearing children in Boston (according to birth data the city has) and that’s good, it is. but it really bothers me that after 50 years of incompetence and various DECADES that warranted a state takeover… a takeover is only now seriously being considered when there’s a critical mass of white parents. And of course it’s just as POC in Boston really have a political voice/might and 79% of Bostonians votes in favor of an elected school board- is now the best time to do this?? But what else is new?