FYI from BSF, 08.19.22
Summer Reading
School might be out for the summer, but the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) and Boston Public Schools are keeping busy.
As covered last week, BPS presented strong progress on its key August deliverables for the Systemic Improvement Plan – the agreement with DESE reached to avoid going into receivership. Progress summary here and here. Bottom line, interim deliverables are on track with major upcoming milestones on Transportation and Special Education.
Unsettled in the Systemic Improvement Plan are the goals and priorities for improving academics in BPS, as those were “punted” for serious operational/organizational concerns during spring negotiations between BPS and DESE.
Incoming Superintendent Skipper indicated her focus would be on improving academics, announcing several new senior academic leader appointments, and naming “Prioritizing and accelerating academic performance” as her first priority in a communication to BPS families this week.
The State Board also recommitted to maintaining high academic standards as a core pillar of the Massachusetts’ education policy by raising the high school MCAS graduation requirement. This comes on the heels of research which revealed that controlling for demographic factors, students with higher MCAS scores have significantly better educational attainment, employment, and earnings outcomes. The research also showed the state’s current bar for competency determination (CD) was too low to give students a good shot at true college and career readiness.
A little history: In 2019 (pre-pandemic), DESE launched a redesigned and more rigorous 10th grade MCAS. This led to a drop statewide in MCAS proficiency, but even more so in urban districts like Boston, which dropped 37 points in ELA and 19 points in Math. When the pandemic hit, the state held off on raising the standard for competency determination and held students harmless from meeting the CD to graduate. Previously, we’ve covered the rise in grad rates vs. the decline in 10th grade MCAS proficiency in Boston.
The new policy changes the scale score from 472 to 486 in English Language Arts (ELA), and maintains the scale score to 486 in Math and 470 in Science. It goes into effect for the class of 2026 who are entering 9th grade this year. While this change, delayed by the pandemic, was expected, the Board also passed an amendment which raises the requirement again in 2031 to 500 for Math and ELA.
So how might current Boston students fare under these new, higher standards?
On average, BPS students are currently meeting the new requirement for the class of 2026 for both ELA and Math, and are within range of the more ambitious 2031 requirement in ELA.
But averages can be deceiving and when you look across student groups there are real differences especially in Math, where only Asian and White students on average are currently meeting the new graduation requirements.
There are also differences across schools. While school graduation rates are more uniformly clustered at the higher end of the range, the same is not true for average MCAS scale scores. In Math, most high schools, on average, are currently below the 2026 and 2031 graduation requirements. The picture for ELA looks better for 2026, but for 2031, again most schools, on average, are currently below the new requirement. The exam schools are an exception.
We know that both getting a high school diploma, and meeting certain academic standards matter for long-term employment, earnings, and life outcomes. A lot is at stake for Boston’s incoming 9th grade class, with the new MassCore graduation requirements and the increased MCAS competency determination. Last winter, we made some recommendations for how the city could shift toward a focus on nurturing and investing in high-quality school models that would help Boston students to meet new, more rigorous standards for graduation and college and career readiness.
The City of Boston is declining to share the second phase of the Mission Hill Report, which examines the organizational and personnel failures at the school and central office that led to what Mayor Wu called “the stuff of nightmares” to go on for over a decade. There were serious crimes committed which harmed students and families. We’ve testified about the importance of sharing this report. Building trust with families requires full transparency and taking visible steps toward accountability. Otherwise, Boston families will have nothing to assure them that this won’t be allowed to happen again.
While Twitter is having a field day trolling the MBTA, the Mayor and City Officials announced their plan for today’s Orange Line shutdown. For BPS students this includes, no penalties for tardiness, access to free Charlie Cards to practice alternative routes, and Yellow Bus service for 7th and 8th graders.
EdNext released its annual education poll. School quality perceptions are down, but parents are less worried about their children than during the pandemic. Similar to national trends, partisanship is up on many education issues.
Edunomics Lab shared a presentation on the multiple financial shocks likely to impact public school districts in the next few years. Boston seems at risk of at least 3 shocks - end of federal recovery dollars, enrollment decline, and inflation driving up costs of labor, goods and services.
DESE announced COVID-19 policies for this school year: No masking and testing requirements, and the removal of test-and-stay programs and mandated quarantine for exposures (coverage here and here).