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BPS expands free test-prep class for exam schools
By adamg on Thu, 04/28/2016 - 12:16pm
Boston Public Schools yesterday announced an expanded number of seats in a program aimed helping students get ready for the ISEE test that helps determine who gets to go to the city's three exam schools - from 450 to 750.
Using money from both the Boston Latin School Association and an unnamed foundation started by Mayor Walsh, the expanded effort will also include outreach aimed specifically at "Boston students who attend public schools that have been traditionally under-represented in the Exam School Initiative program."
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This Used To Be Called Tribute
One of the reasons that we have a navy was that City States in the coastal Magreb (Algiers, Tripoli, Tunis, etc.) used to harass American ships that were just trying to do their job; trade.
Countries in Europe would pay (and still do) to stop the harassment by these pirates. The thing is that they still get back to harassing people, despite being paid. The US said no, and for the most part continued to say no until we started propping up Egypt after 1977 and that whole Saint Ronald doing illegal deals for the sake of our position in Lebanon thing.
This might be a better use of the BLSA monies than underwriting a fencing team. It still seems however like a payoff to the Globe and window washing to cover up the dismal job the BPS as a whole is doing for the children of the city.
How many years will go by before the people on Morrissey Boulevard look at the schools that are actually doing their job; educating properly, and say that they are the bad people and that they must kowtow to the whims of the Globe's editorial board and news staff owing to the sins of others?
I'd give it two or three years before the shakedowns start again. This reeks of payback by the Globe for the City holding firm on not firing Headmaster Teta.
My daughter noted in March
that none of the black kids in her class got in to an exam school. She asked me why. It's a pity that socio-economic factors still drag down kids who are very bright, but don't have the resources to get testing prep and other outside help that help many test in to these exam schools. A straight A student who has so-so ISEE test scores is out of luck versus a kid with A's, B's & C's on their report card, but stellar ISEE test scores.
Without BOTH "A" grades and
Without BOTH "A" grades and solid ISEE scores, a student will not get into BLS.
So true!
many a student took the prep course, got into BLS, only to drop out later because they were not smart enough to hang. You can lead a horse to water but you cannot make him drink.
Nope
BLS has a particular way of teaching. It works really well for some kids. Other kids have different ways of learning and would do better at another school. Doesn't mean they're any less smart than kids at BLS; just that another approach works better for them. That's why Boston really needs to do better with challenging courses at all its high schools.
Sorry, Mama!
No one gets into BLS with C's no matter how high their ISEE scores are. The formula for admission is about even for test scores and grades.
That's why it matters that some private schools give inflated grades (or the first grades the student ever received) in the 6th grade.
I ran into the opposite scenario in the BPS. Teachers who resented students going off to the exam schools actually graded them harder in the 6th grade just to make things more difficult.
Uh, no JPMom
I know of kids with a C on their transcripts who got in to BLS.
"with a C..."
yes, but not with many.
Only Math and English Grades Count
So a "C" in science or social studies does not matter. A "C" in math or English will keep you out, unless the grade is changed when reported to BPS. Like Jesus turned water into wine, some parochial schools change poor grades to an "A" when reported to Boston.
What about the taxpayers?
I guess the taxpayers, who work three jobs so they don't have to bus their children to the less than sub-par Boston Public Schools aren't invited to help their children get a good education. Hmmmmmm...This doesn't sound very inclusive, or legal.
Your three-jobs kids can apply to BLS just like anybody else
BLS provides a lot of services that are just for its students. Is this really so shocking to you?
This is for kids taking the
This is for kids taking the exam to enter Latin. This isn't a program for BLS students. My taxes are paying for this program to give kids an edge when taking the exam for the exam schools, which I also pay to keep running with my taxes. This is taxation without representation; I'm being taxed for a program that I'm not allowed to be represented in. Yes, me and my three jobs.
Your taxes pay for a lot of things you can't participate in
Are you this upset that you can't get a bed at a city homeless shelter? Me, I don't know why I have to pay taxes to support firetrucks in Charlestown - I never go there.
But aside from that, perhaps you missed the part where it says the program is being paid for with private funds.
Will families living in $500
Will families living in $500,000 condos and vacationing in Europe still be getting these free services?
Are you trying to dump on the rich?
Are you trying to dump on the rich? Because if you are, you're going to have to bump that $500K up to at least a million.
Anyone who lobbies against
Anyone who lobbies against charter schools for being exclusionary and siphoning money from students that really need the resources, yet prop up these exam schools should really examine their sense of fairness. At least at a charter, kids who don't test well have a chance at a decent education.
A chance
And then they wear the wrong color sneakers to school or are too fidgety and they wind up suspended and then back in BPS.
You can get kicked out of an exam school, but you really have to work at it.
Most Kids Flunk Out
There is a high drop out rate at the exam schools. Most people do not talk about this, but it is a big problem. BLS has been fudging the numbers in recent years by having kids repeat a grade so they can hang in there. Many still eventually drop out. BLS college admission stats are not stellar. Most kids go to UMass Amherst, and some to BU, BC and NU. The top kids go to Harvard. The rest have such poor GPAs that their college chances are severely diminished. I know a smart kid with a poor GPA at BLS who got deferred at UMass Amherst this year. BLS is not all it is cracked up to be, and it is not for most kids.
No, most kids don't flunk out
As the father of a kid who graduates next month, I can tell you that most of the kids she started seventh grade with are still there. Yes, kids do transfer, yes, kids do repeat years (you make it sound like that's a bad thing; I suspect in the old days they wouldn't have been given that second chance). Also, something like 7% of her class got into Harvard. Again, it's not perfect, it's not for everybody, but come on, it's hardly the bottom of the barrel.
Oh, is it anecdotal rebuttal time?
I have a charter school kid and the handful of kids who have left the grade over the past 4 years mostly moved out of the city. To the best of my knowledge, the amount of kids who were kicked out for fidgeting or wearing the wrong shoes is zero. I'm sure a few (maybe 1 or 2) were not a fit for the school and have left for BPS just like kids leave BPS schools for other BPS schools.
Kids do repeat grades, but as you say, that's not a bad thing necessarily if it's ending with an improved result for the kid.
As always, the point remains there are crap public and charter schools and great public and charter schools. There's little value to speaking generally about either.
Except for
the drain that charter schools exact on the city of Boston and state funding to public schools in Boston.
Spy vs. spy
Somehow I think we'll never see eye to eye on this one.
They drain nothing, Kathode
Chapter 70 funds are intended for ALL public schools kids, including charters. The difference is it is the only funding charters receive, whereas the city is obligated to pay the bulk of its own education funding as a "rich" city. The dollars follow the students, and you're making a pretty big assumption that all those charter schools kids would go to the BPS. You're wrong on that front, and many others.
How about a better question
Why have charters at all? MA has the best schools in the country - and, like it or not, BPS is included in that best in the nation ranking.
Our schools need a tune up - they don't need corporatizing and militarizing for the sake of bunches of millionaires and their pet foundations dedicated to pushing testingtestingtesting and fact-free solutions to problems that exist only as targeted marketing in "everybody just knows that the schools are BAD BAD BAD" dreamworlds.
Where does this mythical
Where does this mythical militant charter school exist? Because I've yet to come across it and I have children in two charters and have checked others out and I've yet to witness what you're describing.
The only child I've seen leave a charter school for discipline reasons threatened to bring in a gun after months of also bullying kids. The parents pulled him out.
To start ...
Up Academy.
And anecdote #2: Community Charter School of Cambridge
You Never Forget was an interesting piece by a former teacher at Shady Hill who saw a student go into the Community Charter School of Cambridge.
I visited CCSC when my elder daughter was looking at boarding schools and local private high schools. We were horrified. Not because the school was primarily black and minority students, but because the level of strictness was something I hadn't seen since my military commitment. I wanted my kid to grow in whatever direction made sense, not be pruned if she didn't grow as expected.
My daughters ended up at CRLS. Cambridge Rindge and Latin is odd because of the student distribution (link goes to PDF) — half of the students are kids on free lunch, half of them are the offspring of professors, scientists and engineers.
My daughters have made friends of every color and every possible background, and they're both doing very well. The elder one is going to Hampshire in the fall, the younger one is on the honor roll and is doing immersion language training this summer.
Others
https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2014/11/19/report-cites-high-suspensio...
Have a friend who has kids in
Have a friend who has kids in charter school in the 'burbs. The 'problem' kids get weeded out one way or another. Gotta keep up those test scores!