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Superintendent would shut eight schools, expand K-8 schools, create two same-sex schools
By adamg on Wed, 10/01/2008 - 9:53pm
Boston School Superintendent Carol Johnson today unveiled her reorganization plan for Boston public schools that shuts some schools, expands others, and increases the percentage of "walk zone" students in elementary schools fm 50 to 60%.
Under the proposal, which goes to the School Committee on Oct. 23, the following elementary schools would be shut: Elihu Greenwood, Hyde Park; Hamilton, Brighton; Higginson, Roxbury; P.A. Shaw, Mattapan and Stone, Dorchester.
Three small high schools would also be shut.
Along with that, however, the school department would create eight new K-8 programs:
The BBeethoven and Ohrenberger elementary schools in West Roxbury would merge into a two-building K-8 campus; a new Edison K-8 in Brighton would serve students from the Hamilton and Garfield elementary schools in the current Edison Middle School building; the current Lewis Middle School building would house a new Higginson / Lewis K-8 in Roxbury, adding students from the nearby Higginson School; the Ellison / Parks Early Education School and the Mildred Avenue Middle School would merge to form Mattapan's first K-8 school; the Grew School in Hyde Park would become a feeder to Rogers Middle School; the Holmes School in Dorchester would become the Holmes K-8 School; and the King Middle School in Dorchester would become the Martin Luther King Jr. K-8 School.
Johnson is also proposing creation of two single-sex 6-12 schools in Dorchester, a Montessori school East Boston, Mission Hill or Roxbury and an academy for non-English-speaking students who enroll after the start of the school year.
Johnson estimated the city could save $5 million a year by increasing the percentage of walk-zone students given first shot at neighborhood schools and by increasing the number of special-education and English-language programs across the city.
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Comments
Amazing
Wow, this is a very bold move. The trickle down effect from the economy must be moving really quickly.
http://www.bostonknucklehead.com
Not really
She started talking about this stuff back in January.
Wait wait wait wait
Wait wait wait wait wait...
So we are increasing "walk zone" schools now? I thought we had riots in the street over busing in the 1970's?
I agree with trying out single sex schools in some parts of the city, especially at that age level, as sometimes boys and girls learn differently. I think it actually benefits the boys and the girls.
Im not really sold on the Montesorri school method, but maybe its just what East Boston needs right now.
Demographics have changed
At the advent of busing, people were much more ethnically and racially segregated than they are now - an issue that is biting Wikerson in the rump.
Well, as a girl who got plenty of shit for being competent in areas that were labeled "boy", I think that term SOMETIMES is a very important qualifier. There needs to be accountability for subject matter and standards as well - not teaching things in "girl" or "boy" friendly ways as a means of introducing differences which don't exist and exerting social control on girls and boys who don't neatly conform to gender assumptions.
Ever see the Simpsons episode where they did girl math? Split the kids up? It is an incredibly important warning tale.
I think people learn
I think people learn differently, never really seen it as a gender divide. I believe the gender-neutral approach to education is always superior in fairness and effectiveness.
While I do not think that same-sex schools/classrooms have a long-term impact on the person, I would seek to avoid them as a parent because I am not supportive of segregation.
I guess I don't see the
I guess I don't see the creation of single-sex classrooms in that light. I'm sure these classrooms would be an optional situation and not a mandatory one.
My college went from single-sex to co-ed halfway through my attendance and I was struck by the change wrought through that move. Young women whom I thought of as assertive, intelligent and capable suddenly morphed into shallow, scheming females. High school level social dynamics entered in, and it was discouraging.
I agree, people, regardless of gender have different ways in which they learn. For example, my husband says he hated history class in school as it was nothing but abstract names, dates and factoids devoid of any real substance. I loved history as to me all that was trivia to be stored away for future use. Now, as an adult, he loves it, due mainly to some of the cool shows on The History Channel. Yes, most of them contain a lot of CDG stuff, but when you see a visual reconstruction of a battle like Waterloo, with troop movements and the use of the land's topography, you begin to see why things fell into place as they did.
I agree, Ive volunteered
I agree, Ive volunteered with a group that splits according to gender and it was interesting to see how people acted when the other gender wasnt around. Amazingly some of the boys were much better behaved, I cant even explain why it is, but thats what Ive seen. We also tended to get the boys moving, would gross them out every so often when talking about history (theres always someone having their head cut off or something, boys eat that up) and just overall worked with them in a way that made them interact more. Its already a proven fact that more boys are on ridiline and diagnosed with ADHD then girls, and more boys end up in fights, in detention, in trouble ect. Im not saying girls should be forced to play dress up and drink fake tea on their side of the fence, but I think we really need to sit down and figure out the boy "problem". When I was in high school out of the top 10 in the class 8 were female, and you see that more and more. More girls are in college as well. Thats NOT a bad thing, but it is showing a growing gap that will only continue. While it is true that the top of the science crop are still male, it is also true that if you take the top 50 percent of students as a group girls are doing better then guys on average. Maybe traditional classrooms are not working for the average boy, while it works for the smartest boys.
Walk Zones
We had riots in the 70s when some schools were almost all black and some schools were almost all white, and they wanted to mix them up. We don't have any of the latter anymore, so it's okay now.
Racial/ethnic distribution
We don't have any of the latter anymore.
You might want to check out some of the schools in West Roxbury that aren't the Ohrenberger or the Beethoven (OK, OK, the other two schools in West Roxbury). Now consider where some of the strongest proponents of "neighborhood" schools come from.
Almost all vs. mostly
I wrote it as "almost all" specifically - I know there is a small handful of schools in Boston that are majority white - let's say, Kilmer, for example. But they are also not almost entirely white, as those neighborhoods' schools were in the 70s. They're just over half and half. That's a big, big change. We really don't have any more of the almost all-white schools of the 70s, and we're unlikely ever to have them back, even if we go full neighborhood, because the neighborhoods are more integrated now too.
As for proponents of neighborhood schools, I think it makes good sense to support neighborhood schools if you live in a spread-out neighborhood far from T access. It's not all race. Who wouldn't rather have their kid walk to school than have to drive him to the T?
"Walk zones" in Boston
Don't mean what they mean in the rest of the world.
First: Boston is divided into three elementary-school zones. Any student is eligible for any school within their zone (there are some exceptions for people who live right near the border of a zone; they can apply to get their kids into a nearby school in the neighboring zone).
Second: There's a lottery each year for kindergarten and first-grad slots. You get a form, fill out your top three picks for your kids and hope your number comes up high (note: If your kid gets into the school you hope for kindergarten, you're set - you don't have to try again for first grade).
Third: Every elementary school in Boston has a one-mile walk zone. Kids in that walk zone get preferential odds in the lottery if they apply to that school - after kids who already have siblings in that school.
So I suspect what will happen is that kids within a walk zone will now get slightly better odds than before. It's more of a modification to the existing system than the complete return to "neighborhood schools" that some people would want.
And, theoretically, a school could have well under 50% (or 60%) of its kids being "local." Say, for example, we had 4 kids instead of 1. Since she got in, all the others would have better odds of getting in. Since the school is pretty small (only two classes per grade), that would skew the numbers.
You can read more here.
WOW!!! You are really well
WOW!!! You are really well informed. Most people don't know this information. You have really done your homework. You added a BPS website page that is very informative. I hope that other parents take a look at it.
Single sex schools
Up until 1972, there were two single-sex 7-12 schools in the Boston Public School system - Boston Latin School and Girls' Latin (now Boston Latin Academy.) Both were made co-ed in the 1972-73 year, which was my senior year at Girls' Latin.
I do feel strongly that I benefited from single-sex education, but I agree with Swirlygrrl that care must be taken to provide equal educational opportunity at both schools. There was an enormous disparity in quality between BLS and GLS, which remains to this day in the difference between Latin School and Latin Academy.
I think the best way to
I think the best way to handle it would be to have the schools be duplicates of each other. They should get the same funding, and be run by the same administrator at the top. I also think having teachers cross between the two would do a great deal as well.