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.

Buried in a press release about "exciting new and expanded programs" for parents this fall in the Boston Public Schools is this nugget:

Harold M. Clemens, a pseudonymous teacher somewhere in the BPS system, reports that when he switched from a school in a largely black neighborhood to one in a largely white neighborhood, people stopped asking him how bad the kids were, even though the actual makeup of the student body is roughly the same:

... the irony is where I work now is faaarr liver than my old gig. today a kid got stomped in the caf 'til his assailants drew blood. I've heard about at least two other fights and I've broken up one myself. last week one of my students was jumped and another stabbed two days later. the school-year is barely a month old. from what I understand this year isn't an exception.

my racially paranoid mind compels me to wonder if my present school is shielded from having a reputation for violence because it sits in a mostly pale neighborhood.

Chris Faraone considers the arguments by the Massachusetts Teachers Association.

Geeky Mama summarizes a state Department of Public Health report on the Agassiz elementary school, where staffers have reported headaches and respiratory issues and students have a higher-than-average rate of asthma.

From Beth Israel, which staffed the medical tents for Hub on Wheels: