Hey, there! Log in / Register

Boston Public Schools to try once more with changes to school assignment policies

Geeky Mama reports school officials and civil-rights groups will meet March 27 to consider possible ways to save money on busing while ensuring families have access to decent schools - with the help of a federal grant.

In recent years, school officials have tried repeatedly to figure out a way to increase the number of assignment zones for elementary schools to reduce busing costs. They shelved the most recent plan - to go from three to five zones - last summer because most of the city's underperforming schools would have been lumped together in the same zone.

Neighborhoods: 
Topics: 
Free tagging: 


Ad:


Like the job UHub is doing? Consider a contribution. Thanks!

Comments

How is having an underperforming school in your neighborhood a civil rights infraction? WIth the exception of the West Roxbury schools, most schools are majority minority in student demographics. Where's the bias? If people in Roslindale work to make their schools better, how is that violating the rights of people who live in neighborhoods where there is less involvement? Does this mean my civil rights are also being violated because my kid's school isn't as good as the ones in Newton?

up
Voting closed 0

Find out where the underperforming students actually live (not where they go to school), and just built the best School in Boston there with the most resources and the best teachers and administrators. Make the students in that neighborhood go to that school.

Then find out where the secondmost group of underperforming students live and build a school as great or almost as great in their neighborhood.

Then compare the stats of underperforming students in a few years from those areas, and see if you can find out the amount of METCO and private school kids in that bunch and see how they did at other schools. At least you save the transportation costs cut in the time being.

up
Voting closed 0

Now you're being silly. That's the last thing they'll ever do. What if they built fantastic new schools in Roxbury, filled them with the best teachers from around the city, and got the same results? And what if results went up in the old schools around the city, with the teachers that didn't make the cut for the new super-schools at the same time? If you take away the last "lingering effects of racism" excuse, and still get the same result, then what?

up
Voting closed 0

I mean, you still have 2 new great schools right? And if you get the same result, then it might prove that busing isn't the answer right?

up
Voting closed 0

The schools in those neighborhoods already get more money.

up
Voting closed 0

Build brand new schools with all new stuff and have computer/student and teacher/student ratios better than surburban school systems.

Its time for real answers here.

up
Voting closed 0

The schools which serve primarily black and hispanic kids from Boston, from low income households, will not score well, no matter how beautiful the schools are, how technological or how much money goes in. They will never improve as long as the parents are poor, generally single or uncommitted to the education of their kids, or they are working too hard and don't have the time for it.

I do not think black and hispanic kids are any stupider than white or asian kids. And some do well. However there are not enough kids in Boston who perform well to get the critical mass of kids in each classroom to bring up the underperformers. You can't have a class where 80-90% of the kids are performing below grade level and ever expect it to become a high-achieving class.

The city has made some efforts to get kids from whit(er) neighborhoods into black(er) neighborhoods through the locating of advanced work classes in Mission Hill for example or exam schools in Roxbury. At the same time they offered seats in whit(er) neighborhoods to black kids, so at least they wouldn't be in danger outside. The result in my neighborhood at least was grade schools 90-95% bussed from black(er) neighborhoods that still had terrible scores.

up
Voting closed 0

So if blacks are failing at white schools, then busing should simply stop and the money spent on busing should just go to better schools in black neighborhoods.

I have this feeling that in like 100 years people will look back at this busing system and wonder how dumb people were that ran education in Boston from 1970-2070.

up
Voting closed 0

What we really need is a system that isn't dependent on localism. If you improve these schools, people with money will push out people who don't have money to get their kids into them.

What would work far better is a guaranteed minimum level of funding per student with increments of additional funding for enrichment and tutorial programs and special education programs dependent on enrollment characteristics. That way, money would follow need.

I think people are overstating the role of parents and income here, too. You aren't doomed if your parents are poor and you live in a shitty area. Nor do you necessarily have incompetent parents if you are poor and live in a poor area. I have a couple of pieces of paper on my wall that can speak to that. I also know immigrant parents through soccer - people who barely speak English and live on tight budgets - who have kids on honor roll term after term. Having access to an education which can provide for a decent future and expectations of competence can make a difference.

My ability to get into a good college despite my economic and social circumstances was made possible by living in a state that required economic integration of schools. That was enforced by changing boundaries of school districts to reflect demographic shifts, which were not tied to municipal boundaries. This resulted in solid educational opportunities for trailer trash like me, when I would have been otherwise geographically consigned to a school full of people like myself while the rich kids all went to the nearest school together.

up
Voting closed 0

... you get what you have now. The underperforming schools get a LOT of money while the exam schools are cut to the point that the kids are just sitting around for 30% of the day in study hall. This doesn't happen at the underperforming high schools.

up
Voting closed 0