Once again, Boston’s battles over equity center on schools

[Boiler 46,086]

Quote

 

Last October, the Boston School Committee voted to temporarily rework the admissions process for the city’s three exam high schools, substituting grades, MCAS scores, and ZIP codes for the traditional entrance exam for one year.

Under the plan, 20 percent of the seats would be allocated on the basis of grades. The remaining 80 percent would be based on a combination of grades and ZIP codes, with the neighborhoods with the highest percentage of school-age children getting the greatest number of seats.

The idea behind this change is no secret: The change grew out of a years-long push to increase the number of Black and Latino students at the three elite schools: Boston Latin School, Boston Latin Academy, and the John D. O’Bryant School of Mathematics and Science.

Now, a parents group, the Boston Parent Coalition for Academic Excellence, has filed suit, claiming that the change would discriminate against white and Asian students, by reducing their presence at those schools. Meanwhile, civil rights groups have declared their intention to intervene to oppose the suit.

This is the latest chapter in a fight that has defined Boston for decades: the battle for educational equity.

The group that’s suing — officially, on behalf of 14 Asian and white students and their families — argues that ZIP code is being used here as a transparent proxy for race and ethnicity, which is pretty much true.

But it’s also true that the opportunity offered by city’s exam schools — the jewels of a system with too few quality high schools — need to be opened up to more Boston residents.

 

https://www.bostonglobe.com/2021/03/01/metro/once-again-bostons-battles-over-equity-center-schools/

 

I thought this was interesting, I can see both sides. The real issue is that according to the article there are only 3 good High Schools in Boston.

 

I do not know if that is true but assuming it is then why?  strikes me the focus should be raising the others.

 

Suggesting there is a clear civil rights issues seems spurious at best, if that was the case then allocation should be a lottery, they just want selection skewed their way. Which I can understand.

 

 

 

 

[TBoneTX 46,113]

Public education is not a democracy and it was never intended to be.