BCEE calls on School Committee to approve the “100 percent” admissions policy for Boston Exam Schools advocates for All-Elected School Committee

BCEE calls on the School Committee to vote to approve the Exam School Task Force’s 100 PERCENT admissions policy WITHOUT DELAY and to move forcefully to provide all BPS students an education that’s AS  HIGH-QUALITY as that offered by the three exam schools.

We applaud School Committee Chair Robinson---for putting the 100 percent proposal back on the table after a maneuver by some city councilors almost derailed it—and applaud Superintendent Cassellius for recommending the 100% plan tonight.

The 100 percent policy assigns seats through a competition that’s fairer than in the past,  because students will compete against peers who are in roughly comparable socio-economic circumstances.

But we want to urge the School Committee to consider including the proposed tier for students experiencing homelessness, living in BHA housing, or in the care of DCF. The addition of this tier would be life-changing for those students in our community who are facing the greatest challenges.

Over the past few weeks, strong community support has been demonstrated for the 100 percent plan, a recommendation that was the result of nearly five months of study, debate, and vigorous public comment. 

If successful, tonight’s vote will represent a historic step forward for equity in Boston’s Exam Schools. A step that was in large part driven by individual activists and organizations coming together over many years from across the city: citizens young and old,     Black, White, LatinX, and Asian     from every neighborhood in Boston.

The sustained, active debate over this issue proves the case for an ALL-ELECTED School Committee. Boston residents care about their schools. They want and deserve a voice in school policy. With an appointed School Committee, all we can do is “comment,” as so many of us are doing here today. We can not hold you accountable. We can only hope that you do the right thing. 

The next big reform for Boston Public Schools MUST be an elected School Committee. 

If you’re interested in advocating for democracy with us: Visit our website at BosEdEquity.org and CLICK JOIN US to sign up for our mailing list. 

Equity Coalition calls on School Committee to vote to approve the “100 percent” admissions policy

The Boston Coalition for Education Equity calls on the School Committee to vote to approve the Exam School Task Force’s original “100 percent” admissions policy and to move forcefully to provide all BPS students an education that’s as high quality as that offered by the three exam schools.

We applaud School Committee Chair Jeri Robinson and Superintendent Brenda Cassellius for putting the 100 percent proposal back on the table after a last-minute power move by some city councilors almost knocked it down.

The councilors threatened to vote against the school budget, potentially harming all 53,000-plus Boston Public Schools students, if the Exam School Task Force did not substitute the councilors’ preferred admissions policy for the compromise that Task Force members had worked out among themselves.

The 100 percent policy assigns seats through a competition that’s fairer than in the past because students will compete against peers who are in roughly comparable socio-economic circumstances. The councilors wanted 20 percent of seats set aside for a citywide competition, which data shows favors wealthy, primarily white families that can afford extra tutoring and other kinds of advantages for their children.

“This is what systemic oppression looks like: powerful public and private forces colluding behind the scenes to override a democratic process in service of their own racial and class privilege,” said Lisa Green, representing the Equity Coalition at the School Committee’s July 7 listening session.

“The School Committee has an opportunity to break that cycle by opening the doors at the city's three academically selective schools to a more diverse group of students who look like the Boston we are now and who will lead us to the Boston we want to be.”

We’re especially enthusiastic about the inclusion of a tier for students experiencing homelessness, living in BHA housing, or in the care of DCF. The addition of this tier will be life-changing for those students in our community who are facing the greatest challenges. This innovation is a feature of the Boston system that we can all be proud of and that we hope is emulated in selective admissions schools across the country.

Strong community support has been demonstrated for the 100 percent plan, a recommendation that was the result of nearly five months of study, debate, and open public comment. The School Committee now has a choice between following the public process that it set up, or listening to the whispers of powerful political figures who refuse to show their faces.

Do the right thing.

FOUR DAYS OF ACTION for Equitable Exam Schools Starts with TWO MINUTES NOW: Email Mayor, Superintendent, School Committee and City Council with a few clicks

Enter your name, address & click, it's as simple as that. Email the Mayor, Superintendent, School Committee, and City Council with just a few clicks!

The Boston School Committee will be taking a historic vote on a new, permanent Exam School Admissions Policy THIS WEDNESDAY, and they need to hear from YOU today.

They will have a choice between the Exam School Task Force's original recommendation, which was developed through a rigorous four-month, data-driven public process and informed by the voices of hundreds of citizens like you, OR a plan forced on them in the shadows by a secret group of City Councilors, who held the budget for all 53,000 BPS students hostage in order to insert a rejected provision that would only benefit a tiny handful of the privileged. It's a choice between the open voice of the people and the whispers of a few backroom power brokers. A choice between democracy and corruption. And you only have a few short days left to weigh in with your choice before they vote.

Click here to go to our easy letter-writing tool and send a personal email to each member of Boston's School Committee, the Superintendent, the Mayor, your District Councilor, and all four At-Large City Councilors with a few quick keystrokes. You can do it in under a minute! Or you can take a little more time and include a personal message to tell them exactly why it's so important to you that they vote to approve the Task Force's original recommendation: 100% of seats distributed by rank in socioeconomic tiers.

Last week, over a thousand advocates like you from across Boston made their voices heard by signing our petition and by emailing and calling decision-makers in support of the Task Force's original recommendation. Although reporters had written it off, through the power of joining our voices in solidarity, the 100% recommendation is now officially back on the table. Thank you for your advocacy! But we still have A LOT of work to do together before Wednesday to get it approved and enacted.

HERE'S WHAT YOUR CAN DO TODAY and for the rest of this pivotal week:

  • RIGHT NOW, we're going to need you and EVERYONE IN YOUR NETWORK to take a minute to click here to email Boston's decision makers to demand the 100% recommendation be approved.

    • Let's make some noise! Opponents of change have been mobilizing, but together we can raise our voices to a level that decision makers can't ignore!!

    • CIrculate this letter widely via email and share the link to the letter-writing tool on social media using hashtags #bospoli and #KeepIt100.

  • MONDAY, take 5 minutes to CALL the Mayor (617-635-3510), Superintendent (617-635-9050), and School Committee (617-635-9014) to tell them that you want them to #KeepIt100

    • Your message can be as simple as this: "I support the Exam School Admissions Task Force's ORIGINAL recommendation: 100% of seats distributed by rank in socioeconomic tiers. It's the most equitable option and I urge the School Committee to VOTE to approve this admission plan on Wednesday evening."

  • TUESDAY, we're going to need you and EVERYONE IN YOUR NETWORK to sign up to testify at the School Committee meeting before Wednesday's vote.

    • We will send you a reminder with the link for testimony as soon as it's made public.

    • We'll also include some talking points to help you with your testimony. Remember, you don't have to use the whole two minutes if you don't want to. Just a sentence or two in support of the 100% recommendation will go a long way towards showing the widespread support for equitable admissions.

  • WEDNESDAY, keep up the pressure on social media and keep organizing your networks to SPEAK UP in support of the Task Force's original 100% recommendation.

Follow us on Twitter @BosEdEquity and visit our website for updates throughout the week. Email us with any questions or with contact info for anyone we should add to this distribution list.

THANK YOU SO MUCH for your continued advocacy on this issue. TOGETHER, we can deliver this historic vote for EQUITY in Boston. A few minutes over the next few days could mean we achieve the change Boston's been demanding FOR DECADES this Wednesday. Let's start NOW!


A Quick Primer on the Task Force's Original 100% Recommendation

While the Exam School Admissions Task Force’s original 100% recommendation is the product of four months of rigorous and data-driven work, the proposal itself is straightforward & easy to understand. We’ve pulled together this quick primer with some background on exam school admissions & the Task Force’s 100% recommendation. Please share widely and let the Boston School Committee, the Mayor, and Boston City Council know TODAY that you support the passage of the Task Force’s original 100% recommendation on July 14th.

Education equity coalition calls on school committee to enact original 100% recommendation

After four months of intense study and debate, the Exam School Admissions Task Force agreed to assign 100% of exam school seats by rank in socioeconomic tiers. The data is clear; having 20% of seats set aside from the tiered system only helps the city’s most privileged.

Despite the clear evidence, on June 30, under duress from political forces who have yet to identify themselves, the Task Force acquiesced to putting forward a plan that would exempt 20% of seats from their proposed new admissions policy. The evidence—simulations BPS ran, last year’s BPS admissions data, and Chicago's similar admissions plan—shows that the 20% set-aside would continue to enable the unjust concentration of wealthier white families in the city’s most-resourced school. It would give more to those who have more and harm those who have less.

The Boston Coalition for Education Equity calls on the School Committee to move forward with the recommendation the Task Force originally agreed on: 100% of seats distributed by rank in socioeconomic tiers. 

As the Task Force concluded before it was interfered with, we should not be giving more advantages to Boston’s most privileged families, who already make up a significant percentage of exam school attendees, most acutely at Boston Latin School. The Task Force’s charge, and the School Committee’s duty, is to ensure that the new policy creates an exam school student body that “better reflects the racial, socioeconomic and geographic diversity” of the city. That is unquestionably NOT accomplished by the “20% set aside for the privileged” plan. It IS by the Task Force’s original 100% recommendation. 

The Task Force’s original recommendation, while it could go farther, is a significant step toward equity and justice. The sudden, forced shift to a set-aside for the privileged seeks to continue rather than disrupt the cycle that’s kept this oppressive system entrenched for so long. This is what systemic oppression looks like: powerful public and private forces colluding behind the scenes to override a democratic process in service of their own racial and class privilege. 

The School Committee has an opportunity to break that cycle by opening the doors of the city’s three academically selective schools to a more diverse group of talented students, who look like the Boston we are now, and who will lead us to the Boston we want to be. Opponents of this plan have asked for more time, but our children’s education is happening now and they do not get a do-over. Distributing seats by 100% rank in socioeconomic tiers sends a clear message to students who may never have considered that these three schools are for them. 

Boston School Committee: You must make the choice to break this cycle. Keep the 100%.

The Boston Coalition for Education Equity is a collaboration among civil rights, education, and community organizations from across Boston that are committed to dismantling education inequity. 

Tell the Boston School Committee to Keep it 💯

Click Here to Sign the Petition: https://www.change.org/keepit100bps

Click Here to Sign up for public comment on Wednesday

What’s going on?

Last Wednesday, the Exam School Admissions Task Force presented their recommendation to the School Committee. But it was not the recommendation they planned to present.

After a five month public process, the Task Force agreed upon a recommendation that is clear and data-driven: to assign 100% of seats by rank in socioeconomic tiers.

Then, the night before they presented their recommendation to the School Committee, political forces moved in secret to compel the Task Force to change its recommendation to restore some of the privilege that students from wealthier families and white families have enjoyed in the past.

Opponents of exam school admissions reform are working as hard as they can to ensure that those with privilege remain privileged. They’re firing up their networks and working their powerful connections behind the scenes to block this change—just as they’ve fought fair access to exam schools for decades.

The Task Force’s original recommendation represents a historic step towards equitable access for ALL Boston’s students—and the good news is THIS FIGHT IS NOT OVER!

We need YOUR help & the help of everyone in your network to ensure that the Task Force’s original recommendation is approved by Boston’s School Committee on July 14th.

Here’s how YOU can help:

  1. Sign the Petition

    Let the MAYOR, SCHOOL COMMITTEE & CITY COUNCIL know you know that you support the Task Force’s original 100% recommendation by signing the petition here: https://www.change.org/keepit100bps


  2. Testify at Wednesday Listening Session on Exam School Admissions

We need as many people as possible to sign up to testify in support of the Task Force's original recommendation: 100% of seats distributed via rank in socioeconomic tiers.

Please encourage as many people as possible in your networks to sign up too!

The Task Force’s original recommendation is clear & easy to understand:

Distribute 100% of seats by rank within socioeconomic status tiers.

Ranking - Students will be ranked using the following formula:

  • 30% Assessment, 70% Grades

  • additional points for High Poverty Indicators

  • (For the first year, no assessment will be required due to continuing COVID-19 pandemic)

Invitations - Distributed in 10 rounds, with 10% of each SES tier’s seats allocated in each round

  • A specialized tier for students experiencing homelessness, students in the care of DCF and students living in Boston Housing Authority housing.

  • Each round will begin with the specialized tier, followed by the tier with the lowest socioeconomic band.

We support this recommendation because:

  • The Task Force engaged in a rigorous five-month public process that yielded a straightforward, data-driven plan to ensure equitable access: 100% of seats assigned by rank in socio-economic tiers.

  • Black and Latinx students have been under-represented and disproportionately disadvantaged by Boston’s exam school admissions system for decades.

  • Data was unequivocal that reserving seats for the privileged via the 20% set-aside would go against the charge of the Task Force

  • Acceding to shadowy maneuvers to ensure those with privilege remain privileged would tarnish this effort and demonstrate that Boston is still subject to the systems of inequity that have barred a generation of Black and Latinx students from access to exam schools.

Statement from Boston Coalition for Education Equity on Exam School Task Force Recommendations

Today is a good day for children in Boston and also a very bad day.

Good, because the BPS budget passed and because the School Committee is receiving a proposal from the Exam School Admissions Task Force, who have worked diligently and publicly for months to open three schools, especially Boston Latin School, to more low-income, Black, and Latinx students, more English learners, and more students with disabilities. 

But it’s also a very bad day, because at the last moment, after the Task Force had reached consensus, several city councillors moved in secret to compel the Task Force to change its proposal to the recommendation you will hear tonight-- to restore some of the privilege that students from wealthier families and white families have enjoyed in the past.

BPS data showed that distributing 20% of seats by citywide rank would only serve to increase representation for white students and students from wealthier neighborhoods such as West Roxbury, which would be significantly overrepresented by inclusion of the 20% set-aside. So the Task Force agreed to eliminate this handout to a tiny handful of Boston’s most privileged families. 

This conflict is really over 20% of Boston Latin School. 90 students. And for the maintenance of that privileged access, a few Boston City Councilors threatened the 53,000 mostly Black & LatinX, economically disadvantaged students in BPS in the worst year that they and their communities had faced in their young lives.

That was shameful. 

The Boston Coalition for Education Equity calls on the School Committee to move forward with the recommendation that the Task Force originally reached consensus on this Monday, the result of four months of intense study and debate: to assign seats using 100% straight rank in socio-economic tiers. 

Your charge is to look out for all Boston’s children, not just those who already enjoy so much more privilege than most.

The Task Force’s original plan, not the one agreed to under duress, is a significant step toward equity and justice. We call on you to vote next month to take that step.

Statement from Boston Coalition for Education Equity on the Exam School Admissions Task Force

Education Equity Coalition says exam school reform must go forward

The push to diversify Boston exam school enrollment is a vital part of the citywide movement against structural racism. It must move forward so that future classes of exam school students more closely reflect Boston's student population as a whole. 

We call on the Exam School Admissions Task Force to complete its work and make its recommendations to the School Committee next week, so that the Committee can then take action by June 30 and the new admissions process can get underway. 

The admissions process used this year resulted in significant improvement in the geographic, socioeconomic, racial, and language diversity of students in the three schools. The A– average grade point average for this year's accepted students proves that Boston can have an admissions process that is more equitable while maintaining high academic standards. 

But it was a one-year measure. The Task Force was charged with devising a long-term way to increase diversity at the schools while maintaining rigor. Task Force members have spent many long hours reviewing data, studying the experience of other cities, listening to students and parents, and coming up with a number of viable approaches. Now some defenders of the old exam school admissions system want to stop the Task Force from putting forward its recommendations. 

Not holding a vote or delaying the vote would be a reassertion of the racist systems that have long denied access to these schools for Black and Latinx students, English learners, and students with disabilities. Proposals for change are threatening to many white families with privilege and resources who have benefited from past admissions policies. Those policies unfairly discriminated against and harmed Black and Brown students. 

If city leaders are to make good on their repeated pledges to make Boston an anti-racist city, this year’s progress must be preserved, improved upon, and made permanent. 

The Boston Coalition for Education Equity strongly reaffirms our commitment to an elected school committee that is representative of Boston’s diversity and accountable to all citizens. The city has lost two strong Latina voices for equity and the School Committee is now in complete disarray – meanwhile the voters of Boston have no democratic mechanism to repair this broken branch of city government. Like every other municipality in the Commonwealth, Boston voters deserve the right to elect their representatives on their School Committee. 

The Boston Coalition for Education Equity is a collaboration among civil rights, education, and community organizations from across Boston that are committed to dismantling education inequity. The organizations signing onto this statement are:

  • Black Teachers Matter

  • Boston Teachers Union

  • Center for Law and Education

  • Citizens for Public Schools

  • Downtown Progressives

  • Healthy Food for Boston Schools Organizing Network

  • Jamaica Plain Progressives

  • Massachusetts Asian American Educators Association

  • Massachusetts Communities Action Network

  • Progressive West Roxbury Roslindale

  • QUEST (Quality Education for Every Student)

  • Showing Up for Racial Justice (SURJ)

JOINT STATEMENT: EDUCATIONAL EQUITY IS NOT A ZERO-SUM GAME 

The debate over changing admissions procedures at the three highly selective public schools has been a difficult and heart-wrenching conversation across our city for decades. 

As leaders of civil rights, community and education advocacy organizations representing racially diverse students, families and educators, we stand united in efforts to bring greater socio-economic, neighborhood, cultural and racial equity and high quality educational opportunities to all students in Boston. We also stand united in our opposition to the lawsuit, Boston Parent Coalition for Academic Excellence v. Boston School Committee, filed on Friday February 26, 2021. The lawsuit is a short-sighted attempt and distraction which stalls much needed efforts to ensure all students have equitable access to quality public schools, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

The most important path to educational equity is to improve all public schools in the city, not just focus on admission into the three elite exam schools. All students deserve to feel like they have won the lottery, no matter what BPS school they attend. 

All families, regardless of race, class, language or neighborhood want a quality education for their children. However, the inequity of resources and opportunities in Boston Public Schools (BPS) creates a scarcity mindset which leaves many families feeling that the exam schools are one of the only opportunities for a quality education. The impact of this sentiment is acutely felt by working class and low-income families who represent the largest percentage of children in the BPS; Asian American families, the demographic group that has the highest

percentage of its children staying within BPS; Black families who send their children outside of BPS at the highest rate in search of a quality education; and Latinx families who represent the largest racial/ethnic demographic group (42%) in BPS. The Boston Parent Coalition lawsuit preys upon this scarcity of opportunity in the most pernicious of ways: it pits white and Asian American families against Black and Latinx families, as though educational opportunity is a zero-sum game. 

Historically, Boston’s Black, Asian American, and Latinx communities have formed alliances to fight for affordable housing, fair wages, voting access and educational equity. The vast majority of Boston’s Black, Asian American and Latinx communities are working class. The median household income for each of these groups is at least $40,000 less than that of white households. 

As a diverse group of long time public education activists, organizations and community leaders committed to racial equity, we both acknowledge that there has been a historic lack of attention to and misunderstanding of the needs of Asian American students in the district and at the same time, Black and Latinx students have been historically underrepresented in Boston's exam schools among other challenges. We fully support the suspension of the entrance exam as a criterion for selection to attend the exam schools in favor of criteria that value high academic standards, increased neighborhood equity, socio-economic inclusion and racial diversity. This is possible to achieve. 

The district’s temporary model for admissions to its exam schools is not perfect. Faced with no practicable means for administering an entrance exam, and significant doubts about the validity of grades during a pandemic, Boston Public Schools adopted an interim admissions policy for its three exam schools that relies on pre-pandemic grades. However, grading policies differ across school types, benefiting students from some schools over others. Future proposals should also consider a priority for public school students in Boston, so that those

who have spent K-6 in the public system are not disadvantaged in the application process by students who have spent time in elite private schools. We also need to be sensitive to access for low-income families who reside in neighborhoods with higher median family income, whether it is public housing or otherwise, as seen in neighborhoods like Chinatown, South End and Brighton. 

But, most importantly, we need to improve educational opportunities for every student, in every Boston Public School. Until we do that, the exam school controversy is a diversion. 

That said, we will not allow our communities to be pitted against each other; rather, we are committed to working in unity to ensure all students, particularly Black, Latinx, Asian American, low-income and working class families, who have been systematically denied opportunities, have more equitable access to fully-resourced and highly desirable schools. 

We are resolute in our conviction to continue our work together, with shared accountability, to help ensure the children of Boston receive a world class education. 

// 

American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts (ACLU) 

Anti-Defamation League, New England Region (ADL) 

Asian American Resource Workshop (AARW) 

Asian Community Development Corporation (ACDC) 

Black Boston COVID-19 Coalition (BBCC) 

Boston Coalition for Education Equity (BCEE) 

Boston Network for Black Student Achievement (BNBSA) 

Citizens for Public Schools (CPS) 

Greater Boston Latino Network (GBLN) 

Greater Boston Legal Services’ Asian Outreach Unit 

Greater Malden Asian American Community Coalition 

Lawyers for Civil Rights (LCR) 

Massachusetts Asian American Educators Association (MAAEA) Massachusetts Advocates for Children (MAC) 

Massachusetts Black Lawyers Association

Mijente Boston Asamblea 

NAACP Boston Branch 

The Talented and Gifted Association, Inc. 

Vietnamese American Initiative for Development (VietAID) 

West Roxbury/Roslindale Progressives 

Rev. Willie Bodrick, Senior Pastor 12th Baptist Church* 

Karen Chen, Chinese Progressive Association* 

Cheryl Clyburn Crawford, BBCC, NAACP Boston* 

Matt Cregor, Mental Health Legal Advisors Committee* 

Thang Diep, VietAID* 

Stephanie Everett, Esq., BPS Parent 

State Representative Russell Holmes, MA 6th Suffolk District Suzanne Lee, retired principal 

Pamela A. Leins, BPS/MMA student caretaker, BLS Alumna 

Katie Li, BPS educator, MAAEA 

Mark Liu, BPS parent 

Jose Lopez, past President of the Massachusetts Association of Hispanic Attorneys* 

Lydia Lowe, Chinese Progressive Political Action* 

Veronica Navarro, BPS educator and Democratic State Committee member* Sung-Joon Pai, BPS parent, MAAEA, Progressive Education Network * Kim Parker, Black Educators Alliance of Massachusetts (BEAM)* Go Sasaki, BPS educator, MAAEA 

Andrea So, BPS educator, MAAEA 

Ilyitch N. Tabora, BLS Parent, BLS Alumna, President of the Talented and Gifted Association, Inc. 

Jessica Tang, MAAEA, MA Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance, and Boston Teachers Union* 

Rosann Tung, parent of BPS graduate, MAAEA 

*organization affiliation listed for identification purposes 

Media Contacts: 

Tanisha M. Sullivan, NAACP Boston Branch- 617-433-7409 

Ivan Espinoza-Madrigal, Lawyers for Civil Rights- 617-988-0624

Jessica Tang, MAAEA - 617-650-0632 

Thang Diep, VietAID - 617-701-6028

BCEE Statement on Mayoral Transition and Overwhelming Public Support for Elected School Committee 

The Boston Coalition for Education Equity (BCEE) believes the appointment of Marty Walsh as Labor Secretary presents a timely opportunity to promote equity and accountability to the Boston Public Schools through the restoration of an elected School Committee. We call on the City Council and on Council President Kim Janey, who will take over as acting mayor, to start the process by affirming their support for an elected School Committee and beginning public discussions on the board’s new formulation. Boston is the only municipality in the Commonwealth without an elected school committee; recent events have proven that this governance structure has failed and must be immediately reformed.

A recent poll conducted by Poll Progressive indicated that 60% of eligible voters would support the reinstatement of an elected school board, with just 14% expressing opposition (the remaining respondents had no opinion or were neutral). The voters cited the appointed board’s lack of responsiveness to the parents and students whose interests it is supposed to represent. In recent years the school committee has made several decisions that went against the wishes of BPS families, including the expropriation of the McCormack Middle School’s athletic fields, the closure of both the Mattahunt Elementary and the West Roxbury Educational Complex, and instituting drastic changes in start times at schools throughout BPS (this decision was later rescinded after unprecedented levels of pushback). 

In 2019, the Boston Herald analyzed a year’s worth of School Committee votes and found that the committee approved all 111 action items put before them, with just four abstentions and no votes against. Then-Chairman Michael Loconto refused to comment on the body’s voting record and told a Herald reporter not to reach out to other committee members. In 2016, School Committee member Regina Robinson was the only member not to vote in favor of closing the Mattahunt Elementary School. She was also the lone member not to vote to close the West Roxbury Education Complex in 2018. Less than two weeks after her second abstention of her four-year term, Mayor Marty Walsh announced that he would replace Robinson with Quoc Tran, a state official and civil rights lawyer. 

These are just a few examples of how a mayorally appointed school committee is responsive directly to the mayor, and through the mayor to the power elite of the city, rather than to the students, families, and educators it is intended to represent. BCEE finds the School Committee’s performance particularly galling in a system made up of more than 80% students of color, reinforcing structural racism. 

Returning to an elected school committee is a necessary and critical action Boston must take toward dismantling this undemocratic and racist power structure. A majority of Boston City Councilors support electing at least some of the School Committee members, as seen in BCEE’s 2019 City Council Candidate Questionnaire. (https://www.bosedequity.org/city-council-questionnaire-responses). The Coalition will be releasing a new questionnaire later this year for the 2021 election cycle.

In the recent Poll Progressive poll, support for an elected school committee was consistent across demographic groups, including age, gender, education level, and racial identity. For a full breakdown of the poll results, visit Poll Progressive’s website at https://www.pollprogressive.com/. 

The Boston Coalition for Education Equity is a collaboration among civil rights, education, and community organizations from across Boston that are committed to dismantling education inequity.

Read Ibram X. Kendi's Testimony in Support of the Working Group Recommendation to #SuspendTheTest

At the Boston School Committee meeting on October 21, 2020, NAACP Boston Branch President Tanisha Sullivan delivered testimony written by Ibram X. Kendi in support of the Working Group Recommendation to suspend the exam school entry test during the COVID-19 pandemic. Read Dr. Kendi’s incredible testimony below.

Public Statement by Ibram X. Kendi

Members of the Boston School Committee, I am writing to express my support for suspending the high-stakes test for Boston’s three exam schools. My name is Ibram X. Kendi. I am a Boston resident and a parent.

I am not going to speak to you about what is best for my child. It is not your job to do what’s best for my child. It is your job to do what’s best for all Boston children. And I’m one of many Boston residents who share your perspective: thinking about what’s best for the community of Latinx and White and Black and Asian and Native and biracial and low-income and middle income and upper-income kids in this city. And what is always best for the community is admission policies that create equal opportunity for all. And we know a policy is creating more equal opportunity if it is closing racial and economic inequity. We know a policy is not creating equal opportunity if it is maintaining racial and economic inequity. And the data is indisputable on the effects of this plan: it will close racial and economic gaps.

That’s how we should be assessing proposed and existing policies. Are they reducing or maintaining racial inequities? Because if they are reducing racial inequity, then they are antiracist. If they are maintaining or expanding racial inequity, then they are racist. And so, I urge you to approve this antiracist policy proposal. Because it is what’s best for the community. Again, I am not supportive of suspending the standardized test for my child. I’m married to a physician, and my wife and I have the resources to sign her up for an expensive test prep course. We have the resources to hire a test prep consultant. We have the financial ability and job flexibility to take off from work to tutor her ourselves. All the test prep will end up being money well spent: it will boost her score. 

All the while, I’ll come here and tell you that she worked hard in school, and she’s so smart—and that’s why she got such a high score that got her into the exam school. I won’t tell you I took advantage of the multi-billion-dollar test prep industry. I won’t tell you that across the United States test prep companies and consultants are concentrated in White and Asian neighborhoods—and no wonder they tend to get higher scores on standardized tests. Because we’re not supposed to talk about all this. We’re not supposed to be talking about the fact that all Boston children do not have equal access to high quality test preparation—and it’s impossible to create that equal access. We’re not supposed to talk about all this legal cheating: because that’s what it is.

It is like allowing some NFL teams more time to practice in the offseason and when those teams regularly win the Super Bowl somehow claiming the rules are fair. And of course, when you try to take away the practice advantage to those winning teams, they are going to resist the policy change. They are going to claim you are being unfair. They are going to claim they are being persecuted and their teams are the best, all the while they know privately, they were gaming the system all along. 

This is the elephant in the room that the folks claiming the standardized test is fair do not want to discuss. They will just claim White and Asian kids on average score higher on tests because they are smarter or work harder. Meaning Black and Latinx kids are not as smart or not as hard-working. Meaning White and Asian kids are intellectually superior. And all these racist ideas from people claiming they are not racist. 

I could claim that low-income Black and Latinx children are intellectually inferior; that there’s something wrong with them. After my child receives extraordinary K-6 schooling, after my child receives extraordinary test prep, I can sit here and lie through my teeth and argue that the standardized test is fair; that my child is extraordinary; that she deserves the extraordinary opportunities in these three schools. But I’m not going to do that. As much as I care about my daughter, I care about fairness, I care about justice, I care about equity, I care about the truth. We have a culture of lies to substantiate the exalted and the advantaged in this country. We do not want to tell the truth to provide equal opportunity for the denigrated and disadvantaged in this country.

And to tell the truth about standardized tests is to tell the story of the eugenicists who created and popularized these tests in the United States more than a century ago. Eugenicists today are commonly considered to be racist but somehow many Americans consider their tests to be “not racist,” whatever that means. 

In 1869, Charles Darwin’s cousin, English statistician Francis Galton, hypothesized in Hereditary Genius that “[t]he average intellectual standard of the negro race is some two grades below our own.” Galton pioneered the western eugenics movement but failed to develop a testing mechanism that verified his racist hypothesis. Where Galton failed, other eugenicists succeeded. 

Stanford University psychologist Lewis Terman introduced and defended the viability of the nation’s first popular standardized intelligence test in his 1916 book, The Measurement of Intelligence. These “experimental” tests will show “enormously significant racial differences in general intelligence, differences which cannot be wiped out by any scheme of mental culture,” Terman maintained. He imagined a permanent academic achievement gap, a permanent racial hierarchy, verified by these supposedly objective measures.

It is fascinating how Americans today can rightly decry the Nazi Holocaust, Americans can rightly decry Jim Crow segregation, but still defend the invention of eugenicists: the standardized test.  By the 1960s, genetic explanations to explain the so-called achievement gap itself had largely been discredited. Instead lower test scores from Black and Latinx students were explained by their environment. The new racist ideas claimed their broken cultures and broken homes and broken schools and broken families had made them culturally or behaviorally inferior—not their genetics.  

And today, many Americans still imagine an achievement gap rather than an opportunity gap. We still think there’s something wrong with the kids rather than recognizing their something wrong with the tests. Standardized tests have become the most effective racist weapon ever devised to objectively degrade Black and Brown minds and legally exclude their bodies from prestigious schools.

Why do Black and Latinx children routinely get lower scores on the standardized tests? Either there’s something wrong with the test takers or there’s something wrong with the tests. Why are Black and Latinx children routinely under-represented in the exam schools? Either there’s something wrong with the Black and Latinx children or there’s something wrong with Boston’s admissions policies. To say there’s something wrong with Black and Latinx children is to say racist ideas. And those who say racist ideas, typically deny their ideas are racist.

We need to stop putting down Black and Latinx and Native children. We need to stop putting down low-income White and Asian children. There’s something wrong with the test; there’s something wrong with the admissions policies—not the kids. We need to radically change our educational system and stop attacking the kids and their caretakers and their teachers.

Members of the School Committee: It is your job to do what’s best for the children of caretakers who don’t have the time and privilege to make statements today. I’m speaking about the overwhelming majority of caretakers of the city’s low-income Black and Latinx children; these families are suffering the brunt of the coronavirus pandemic in this city; these families are facing unemployment and food insecurity and housing insecurity.

The children who have the least in their homes often have the least in their schools—an ongoing crime that you have the power to begin to change. I wholeheartedly support this plan that begins to reverse the status quo: Instead of advantaged kids having the edge in admission decisions, disadvantaged kids should have the edge in admissions decisions. From eliminating the test to setting aside a number of seats from each zip code, this proposal will allow our exam schools to more closely reflect the racial and economic makeup of Boston kids. This proposal can begin the process of Boston transforming our high-quality exam schools into high-quality opportunity schools. Let’s call them that, let’s make them opportunity schools.

A Primer on the Working Group Recommendation for Boston's Selective Schools

Through our discussions about the Working Group Recommendation for Boston’s selective schools, we have found that many residents have questions or misconceptions about the proposal. We’ve tried to demystify the complexity of this elegant proposal with this 9 slide primer on the recommendation. Please share widely and let the Boston School Committee, the Mayor, and Boston City Council know TODAY that you support the passage of the recommendation without delay.

Statement on Interim Admissions Process for Boston’s Selective High Schools

The Boston Coalition for Education Equity is disappointed that the School Committee is even considering use of a standardized test for admission to Boston Latin School, Boston Latin Academy, and the John D. O’Bryant School of Mathematics and Science in the midst of the current pandemic. Is there anyone who doesn’t agree, that despite all efforts to mitigate the harm, Black and LatinX children and children from low income families have suffered far worse than children in families that have ample resources to mitigate the impacts of this crisis?

Advocates for keeping a test contend it’s necessary because these are schools with a high level of rigor. But even our nation’s most rigorous and most prestigious colleges and universities are suspending the use of tests for admissions this year. This movement away from standardized testing for admissions started before the pandemic because colleges and universities know that these tests are poor predictors of student success. They measure race and class much better than they measure potential. In this pandemic year, that will be even more true than it’s been in the past.

Equity should be the top priority in deciding any interim process during this crisis.

It’s essential that the School Committee implement a fair admissions system for next fall’s entering class, and there are many models to draw from. The NAACP and Lawyers for Civil Rights have proposed several workable approaches. Dr. Hardin Coleman on the School Committee, academic researchers, and community members have suggested others.

We look forward to hearing the working group’s recommendation tonight. 

Black and Brown students have been under-represented and disproportionately disadvantaged by Boston’s exam school admissions system for decades. Their families and neighborhoods are now being disproportionately harmed by the pandemic and economic shutdown. We ask that you not make an inequitable situation even worse and urge you not to approve any admissions process that includes a standardized test for this year.

###

Statement on Boston School Committee’s Vote to Expropriate McCormack School Athletic Fields

The action of the Boston School Committee last week, allowing the Dorchester Boys and Girls Clubs to build their field house on the McCormack School’s athletic field, proves once again that Boston needs an elected School Committee.

The McCormack School and Harbor Point neighborhood communities have spent the past several years fighting the City and BPS. Students, parents, teachers, elected officials and advocates from across Boston testified against the proposal for hours. And yet, near midnight, the School Committee passed the vote anyway, with only 3 of 7 members supporting. 

If Boston elected its School Committee, like every other district in Massachusetts, the political careers of the Committee members who supported the land grab would be at an end.

Instead, they will suffer no adverse consequences for disregarding the voices of students, teachers, and residents and putting the desires of the Mayor and his allies first.

It’s not the first time this has happened and it won’t be the last, because the current system is designed to make the public officials who govern Boston’s schools accountable to the Mayor rather than to students, parents, and educators.

The last time a School Committee member bucked the Mayor, he did not reappoint her. We’ll see what happens to the members who stood up for the McCormack students this time. We applaud Committee members Lorna Rivera and Jeri Robinson for their courage in voting to oppose.

On June 12, 2020 Mayor Walsh declared racism “a Public Health Crisis in the City of Boston.” We agree with his words, but his recent actions—directing the School Committee to give away the athletic fields of a school whose students are mostly low-income children of color, show that structural racism is alive and well in Boston.

Boston’s appointed School Committee—responsible to the mayor, and through the mayor to the power elite of the city—is an integral part of that structure.

Moving to an elected School Committee is a necessary and critical action Boston must take toward dismantling this racist and undemocratic power structure.

Statement on Boston School Committee’s Expropriation of McCormack Middle School Athletic Fields

On the Columbia Point peninsula, the McCormack Middle School is in the process of transforming into a 7-12 secondary school through merger with Boston Community Leadership Academy. The new high school must offer varsity sports to attract students, and fortunately, the McCormack does have an athletic field.

But for at least the past two years, some city and school officials have been trying to turn that field over to the Boys and Girls Clubs of Dorchester, at no charge, for construction of a BGCD field house, to which McCormack students would have only limited access.

The School Committee has been asked to approve this arrangement at its Wednesday, August 5, meeting.

We call on the Committee to put off any commitments regarding this school-owned land until plans for the new McCormack secondary school are complete and the combined faculty and students can take part in the planning.

We also call on the Committee to respect the interests of the Harbor Point neighbors who have been maintaining the field and using it after hours for decades.

Students, faculty, and neighbors have said clearly and almost unanimously that they want improved open space, not a closed structure covering most of the land.

Their voices have been consistently disregarded. It is probably not a coincidence that the residents and students of the area are mostly low-income people of color, while the board of the BGCD includes well-connected leaders of the construction and real estate industries, wealthy philanthropists, congressmen and celebrities.

In this period of heightened awareness of the systemic racism that American society it built upon, and the structural racism inherent in both education and land use in Boston, the word “equity” has been used frequently by Boston Public Schools officials and our Mayor. School Committee members can now show they mean what they say by listening to the voices of the school and Harbor Point communities and refusing to approve the current proposal to let the Boys and Girls Clubs of Dorchester build on the McCormack land.

The Boston Coalition for Education Equity is a collaboration among civil rights, education, and community organizations across the city of Boston that are committed to dismantling education inequity.

Statement on the Admissions Process for Boston Latin Academy, Boston Latin School and the John D. O’Bryant High School of Math & Science

The Boston Coalition for Education Equity calls on Mayor Walsh and the Boston School Committee to honor the unanimous recommendation of the School Committee’s Opportunity and Achievement Gap Task Force, and for the School Committee to vote to suspend the admissions policy to remove the testing requirement for Boston Latin Academy, Boston Latin School and the John D. O’Bryant High School of Math & Science for the upcoming admissions cycle. 

The current admissions process for these three schools already consistently produces racially unjust outcomes. We know this is not a new conversation given the reports and recommendations from Lawyers for Civil Rights, the NAACP Boston Branch, and other education experts leading up to this point. The unprecedented action on the part of the School Committee OAG Task Force calling for a suspension of the test as part of the next admissions process and the subsequent outcry from thousands of residents and supporters, demand that the School Committee take immediate action to revise the admissions policy and remove the testing requirement for this year due to the COVID-19 crisis.  

We are now in a pandemic that disproportionately impacts Black and LatinX communities.

Mayor Walsh has declared racism a public health crisis in the City of Boston. That crisis makes it even more imperative to suspend admissions testing this year given the barriers many low-income students face in obtaining the academic support they need to fully access a high quality public education during the pandemic. Contrast this with students from middle class and higher income homes who may not be financially limited in accessing the tutors and supplemental academic support necessary to not only receive a high quality education during this time, but also be prepared to demonstrate their aptitude on a high stakes test. 

Racial equity should be the top priority in deciding any interim process during this crisis that disproportionately impacts Black and LatinX families. Even our nation’s most elite colleges and universities are suspending the use of tests in the admissions process for the upcoming selection cycle.

Moving forward with an admissions policy that includes a test perpetuates structural racism and fails to meet the calls of the current anti-racist movement. This moment of widespread and deepening inequity demands that the School Committee disrupt the status quo and act intentionally to implement an explicitly anti-racist admissions process.

To learn more about ongoing efforts to create a more equitable admission process, visit our Selective High School Admissions Equity Resource Page.

The Boston Coalition for Education Equity is a collaboration among civil rights, education, and community organizations across the city of Boston that are committed to dismantling education inequity.

Full list of organizations who have signed on to this statement:

  • NAACP Boston Branch

  • Lawyers for Civil Rights

  • Black Teachers Matter

  • Boston Education Justice Alliance (BEJA)

  • Boston Network for Black Student Achievement

  • Citizens for Public Schools

  • Downtown Progressives

  • Healthy Food for Boston Schools Action Network

  • JP Progressives

  • Mijente Boston

  • Progressive West Roxbury /Roslindale

  • QUEST

  • Showing up for Racial Justice (SURJ)

New Request for Proposals issued today for Exam School admissions test

A few weeks after it was revealed that BPS could no longer use the ISEE for Exam School admissions, BPS today issued a Request for Proposals for a new test to be administered this fall. What does this first peek at the new process tell us? What do we know about the Exam School admissions process as a driver of inequity? What will be the impact of swapping out the ISEE for a new test? What else needs to change to create an equitable process for Exam School admissions?

We’re collecting source documents, media reports, research & advocacy here, so that you can learn more, make more effective arguments in your advocacy & take action to support needed reform to Exam School admissions system—even after this RFP process is over in June. Please bookmark our Exam School Equity page for updates.