Details.

"Turnaround" schools that will face "serious consequences" if they don't shape up:

• William Blackstone Elementary School in the South End
• Paul Dever Elementary School in Dorchester
• Ralph Waldo Emerson Elementary School in Roxbury
• Elihu Greenwood Elementary School in Hyde Park
• Curtis Guild Elementary School in East Boston
• John P. Holland Elementary School in Dorchester
• John F. Kennedy Elementary School in Jamaica Plain
• William Monroe Trotter Elementary School in Dorchester
• Orchard Gardens K-8 School in Roxbury
• Maurice J. Tobin K-8 School in Roxbury
• Henry Dearborn Middle School in Roxbury
• Harbor Middle School in Dorchester
• The English High School in Jamaica Plain
• Odyssey High School in South Boston

School Superintendent Carol Johnson will release their names and proposed action plans at a School Committee meeting tonight, the Globe reports, adding at least half are in "the Circle of Promise, an area that includes parts of Roxbury and Dorchester.

Geeky Mama takes a look at "student mobility" rates in elementary schools in West Roxbury, Roslindale and Jamaica Plain - she figures that the fewer students move from a school, the happier parents must be with the education their kids are getting. The top two: the Kilmer and the Lyndon. The bottom two: The Ellis and the King.

Geeky Mama visits the Boston Teachers Union pilot school in Jamaica Plain (so for West Zone kids), explains why "there's still work to be done, but it seems they have a decent foundation for a school."

Geeky Mama, in the middle of that pre-lottery school hunt unique to Boston parents, is impressed by the Curley School in Jamaica Plain.

Today's the day when sixth graders across Boston take the ISEE, which will help determine whether they get an invitation to one of the city's three exam schools (it counts for 50% of the decision, with the rest based on their last fifth-grade marks and their first sixth-grade marks). Here, kids - and their parents - wait in line at the West Roxbury Education Complex for check in. They had to show both an acceptance letter for the test and a passport or birth certificate - nobody was going to pull a Curley today.

Beacon Press posts a note from Michael Patrick MacDonald, author of All Souls: A Family Story from Southie and Easter Rising, on his recent visit to the four Boston high schools that use his books in their curricula:

... At Codman Academy today, students read passages of All Souls to me and talked about their personal connections to each passage, e.g. one young woman related to my outrage at the injustices in my brother Steven's case, telling me -- and the assembly of students and faculty -- that she experienced similar rage at her sisters imprisonment on murder charges. I was so moved by the experience at Codman Academy that I announced that this would become an annual institution, making pro bono appearances in the Boston Public Schools every year on All Souls Day (and the following days), thus bringing the intentions of the All Souls Day vigils we once held in South Boston, into the schools (where they are as relevant as ever). ...

Justin Rice reports his BPSsports.com will cover all the activity at local public schools - and give high-school and college students a chance to commit some journalism. He starts with a look at South Boston High's only female varsity football player.

WBUR takes a look at what was supposed to be the BPS's answer to charter schools.

Geeky Mama reports from an education session Flaherty had in Roslindale last night - which started off with some BPS parents worrying that Flaherty's doom and gloom approach might wind up frightening away parents from the good schools the city does have. She reports Flaherty wants to ditch the current school assignment zones and said he would use the city's current good bond rating to get money for capital improvements at schools - and to build new ones.