FYI from BSF, 09.01.23
Summer Reading
The snow of 2015 and the pandemic beginning in 2020 has pushed many schools and school systems to start this week, before Labor Day. That is true in Worcester and Belchertown and even true for many school schools in Boston, like Brooke Charter Schools.
With Boston Public Schools starting next week, Boston School Committee meeting and media coverage had a finish your book report-find your lunch box-buy new sneakers feel.
The focus of Wednesday’s meeting was Superintendent Skipper’s evaluation and preparations for the start of school. Bus staffing is reported to be on-track, new principals are hired, and improving attendance is a focus area. Full materials here, including a lot of data on operations and school start-up (memo). An internal report concerning working conditions, that prompted a rally by Black educators this week, was also reviewed.
Figures provided at Wednesday’s meeting also indicate further enrollment decline. Exact numbers and comparison for enrollment can be tricky, complicated by different points of time, different reporting methods, and student mobility in urban school districts. Fortunately, the district and the state give exact points of comparison.
Start of school BPS - both district and Horace Mann charter schools - enrollment is down about 1% (-435) from last year. Like last year, the October count for the state will bring this number down further, as attendance rolls reveal attrition from over the summer. What will be the count this October? The population pressures bearing down on Boston and other cities are not going away.
Nor are Boston’s families concern for high quality high school options, according to a new poll released by MassInc (full poll).
With all ~1M children returning next week to public and private schools across 351 cities and towns, there will always be a few snags and perennial problems. Concerns about bus driver shortages. Unclear leadership in systems such as Amherst and Marblehead. Start-of-school issues in Newton portend continued action by local teacher unions. There are normal back-to-school jitters, and we still make kids get up way too early.
Massachusetts has bucked the trend on vaccine skepticism.
A national story on the economic “urban doom loop” namechecks Boston as particularly at-risk.
Perhaps the largest shift in education over the past 20 years has been the conflagration of data. That doesn’t necessarily mean it is good data, or data used well.
A deep dive on the roots of the “parents rights” movement in schools.
The role of the federal government in education is a 2024 presidential election issue. President Biden stopped by for a first-day-of school in DC.
With Labor Day and school starting, it is a good time to read up on trends in the American teacher workforce.