FYI from BSF, 06.16.23
How does a Boston high school that receives $16,000 more per pupil than another Boston high school have 33 less foreign language classes, 8 less art courses, 25 less AP classes, and 23 less athletic teams?
That word problem is at the heart of intensive study of Boston’s high schools, published in the Boston Globe yesterday.
The personal narrative that anchors the piece may be new, but the underlying issues are not. The district commissioned Ernst & Young (then Parthenon) to author two reports - in 2007 and 2018 - that laid bare data and concerns about BPS high schools. High school redesign has been a consistent theme of the three past mayoralties. High school quality was flagged by state audits in 2009, 2020, and 2022.
The high school senior’s experience at the Jeremiah E. Burke - one of the city’s comprehensive, open enrollment high schools - is the consequence of demographic trends and policy decisions extending back three decades.
How does a school that is provided with so much money seem to not have resources for its students?
Enrollment
There are 9,000 less students in traditional, comprehensive high schools than there were 30 years ago.
The Burke went from serving ~1,000 students in grades 9-12 in 1994, to serving just 420 students in grades 7-12 this year.
Where did those students go?
Many left, or never came. We have written extensively about the long-term decline in Boston’s child population. Large comprehensive high schools were broken up in the smaller school movement, funded largely by the Gates Foundation.
Alternatives rose in popularity. In the last ten years alone, ~3,000 more students are attending high school in Boston’s charters, exam schools, or autonomous/alternative schools.
Budgeting
Over a decade ago, BPS moved to a weighted student funding formula, allocating dollars to schools based on their enrollment and the needs of their students. Schools with lower demand and lower enrollment still have the same fixed costs - staffing (with salaries and benefits rising annually), administration, facilities, operations, etc. - they just have less revenue to meet them. Additional funds are needed from the district, or there are cuts.
A funding formula based upon enrollment took hold right when enrollment was declining in high schools, with the losses concentrated in a set of schools that struggle to draw students. This year’s demand report lists the Burke having some of the lowest ranks of any school for grades 7 and 9.
With high demand, large classes, and less variation in student needs, exam schools do not have more resources because they have more money; those schools receive significantly less money per student, even when you account for additional dollars from alumni and affiliated foundations. This analysis also extends to fully enrolled comprehensive high schools such as East Boston High School.
These schools have more resources because they are big and very efficiently enrolled.
Need
Comprehensive high schools - like the Burke - feel an additional squeeze because they offer lots of different programming for different, often high, needs. The concentration of students with high needs is a consistent finding of the EY reports and state audits.
Services for high needs students - special education, English learning supports, etc. - require training, additional staff, and specialists. The higher per-pupil is intended to cover these costs, but the benefits of specialization are left unrealized without full enrollment and full funding.
How do we make sure resources find their way to all students in all schools?
We have a few options. Update the funding formula. Align programs with family demand and choice. Rationalize class sizes and offerings at more schools. Provide a foundation of academic rigor in all high school classrooms. Higher/more efficient enrollment.
Answer?
Probably, all of the above.
Notes in the margin
Research supports Boston’s new grade configurations, even if other districts don’t follow suit.
A Boston educator is recognized as an inspiration to his students and colleagues.
An organization with a reputation for education reform and the head of the national teachers union agree it is time to change reading instruction. Most Massachusetts colleges and universities did not receive passing grades for preparing teachers for effective literacy teaching.
Should Massachusetts teachers have the right to strike? A school committee member and a union leader debate.
Ludlow, MA enlists in the culture war.
A day in the life of educators and students, post-pandemic.
4 out of 5 American school districts are staring down serious fiscal risks in the next year. Learn why - and what to do about it - here. Declining enrollment is definitely a driving factor.
American kids grade the adults: B-.
With potential changes to college admissions looming via a Supreme Court ruling, a new Massachusetts advisory council is formed to prepare for its impacts.
OTHER MATTERS
We see your “smog day,” and raise you with a “bear day.”
