FYI from BSF, 11.15.19

 
 

Some things we have read through recently…

Meeting in the Middle

Tom Brokaw once told students at a college commencement, “You think you are entering adulthood, but you are really just heading back to middle school.”

Last week we shared work we are doing here to help 6 BPS schools add 6th grades.  Last night, Dr. Cassellius announced an expedited timeline for the creation of 12 more K-6s for next year, including all of the K-5s in East Boston.

Why are we talking about 6th grade so much?

When the city’s master building plan, BuildBPS, rolled out a few years ago, the concept of “reducing grade configurations” was quickly identified as a theme.  Sounds wonky, but imagine being a Boston parent and being able to make sense of this chart when picking a school:

The question, then, was how to create clearer pathways for families?

One of the implied or assumed decisions of BuildBPS (implied or assumed because we can’t find a public record) was that the three exam schools would remain grades 7-12.  From our past analysis, we all know that exam schools are big, serving over 25% of the students in the city in those grades.  

And, there are charters - 41% of all Boston charter seats are in grades 5-8.   Combined with the size of the enrollment and demand for exam schools, massive enrollment pressures and swings are created at elementary (K-5 and K-8) and middle schools.  

Here is what this looks like at one school in East Boston, where over 80% of the families send their kids to schools in that neighborhood and there are two high-demand charter schools (Brooke and Excel).

Given that enrollment drives budgets, you would be hard-pressed to find a principal and team of teachers that can build a strong model with the lines you see flying around above and low 5th grade enrollment.

Adding 6th grades increases enrollment, but also can improve retention if families want access to a 7-12 school.  But, no student is guaranteed a seat at an exam school (requires a test and GPA) or the only other 7-12, New Mission (lottery admission).

The timeline for the 7-12 stage for BuildBPS is not as clear, nor the future of K-8s, many of which were just created in the past decade under Superintendent Carol Johnson.

Sorry, but we aren’t done with middle school.

Notes in the Margin

Boston School Committee met again on Wednesday for a public retreat.  Here is the agenda.  Here are the released meeting materials from the November 6 meeting

Chatter about the Student Opportunity Act continues.  It is in conference committee, but positions on state accountability and even Prop 2 ½ are being aired publicly.

Some BuildBPS announcements from last year continue to draw concerns at the McCormack and the Jackson Mann.

An interactive tool made by folks at WBUR allows you to visualize 10th MCAS results over time.  By town and subgroup, and you can compare. For example:  

The same week we have had another school shooting, a lawsuit is moving forward against gun manufacturers following Sandy Hook.

Diversifying schools in American continues to be a challenge.  A recent exhibit from the Baltimore suburbs.

In higher ed news, Massachusetts passed a law to increase financial transparency for private colleges.  Quite a few MA colleges seem to still be a good bet.

School Matters

School registration season starts very soon.  Any Boston family you know should sign up for news and alerts from Boston School Finder.

 
 
Will Austin