The Bay State Banner reports the BPS's Opportunity and Achievement Gap Task Force unanimously urged a one-year halt on exams because of Covid-19 - just as some colleges are doing with SATs, two days before BPS announced it would be using a test from a non-profit testing concern.
Boston Public Schools yesterday eliminated the positions of ten curriculum directors at its Bolling Building headquarters as part of a shift toward school-centric teacher development. Read more.
The Dorchester Reporter reports the death this week of Keith Love, co-headmaster of the Dorchester high school, of prostate cancer.
The Globe reports and discusses other leadership changes at BPS high schools.
Jamaica Plain News talks to Katie Grassa, principal of the Curley K-8 School in Jamaica Plain about the challenges of running what is now a distributed school.
I’m used to using getting hundreds of hugs a day or high fives in the hallway, fist bumps from kids. But it has shifted to lots of waves and excited faces when I hop onto Zoom calls.
"I don't think there's any question: Kids aren't going back to school May 4," Mayor Walsh said today. Read more.
WBZ reports BPS is using some of its buses to deliver food to families whose kids can't make it to school meal distribution points.
The middle of a pandemic, when students and teachers are still getting used to doing things online, is no time to talk about what could be a fundamental restructuring of BPS, several city councilors say. The Dorchester Reporter has more.
Over the weekend, BPS custodians and Tufts Medical Center staffers converted the Quincy Elementary School cafeteria, just down Washington Sstreet from the hospital, into a clinic for screening people with Covid-19 symptoms. Read more.
Dan DeHart, the music teacher at the Haley Pilot School in Roslindale, composed and performed this song for his now remote students.
Will make it easier to fight virus and will let BPS to procure supplies and other things it needs to support students through April 27. Read more.
Mayor Walsh announced tonight he's ordering Boston Public Schools shut starting Tuesday. The closure will last through at least April 27, but Walsh said students could be called back earlier if things improve. Read more.
BPS today alerted parents of students at the Eliot K-8 School in the North End that it is closing all three of its building tomorrow for a week because somebody affiliated with the school has tested positive for Covid-19.
In e-mail, School Superintendent Brenda Cassellius wrote: Read more.
City Councilor Michelle Wu reports that School Superintendent Brenda Cassellius has directed schools to keep bathroom dispensers stocked with soap and paper towels - which many current and former students and parents will tell you has long been an issue - and to check the dispensers at least three times a day.
The Bay State Banner reports state officials may be concluding they have to wrest control of BPS away from the city - not to mention parents and teachers - even though it doesn't have all that great a track record with the systems and schools it's taken over in the past.
BPS today issued an RFP for a company that can write exam questions that will both ensure potential students are ready for the "rigorous" exam schools while also "furthering equitable access to the exam schools, particularly for Black and Latinx students who have historically been underrepresented." Read more.
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