The Boston School Committee is currently deliberating changes proposed by Boston Public Schools (BPS) that would reduce, or in some cases, eliminate bonus points awarded to vulnerable students in exam school admissions. Early projections from BPS data suggest that the changes would likely lead to decreased enrollment among Black, Latino, and low-income students, prompting concern from advocates ahead of the committee’s vote in November.
How the current BPS points-based system works
Currently, exam school admissions are determined by a combination that includes a student’s test scores and GPA along with a points-based system designed to account for socioeconomic factors. The points system was adopted in 2021 as an attempt to make the application process more equitable by providing students an additional 15 points if they live in Boston Housing Authority housing, are in the care of the Department of Children and Families, or are experiencing homelessness. Students who previously attended a school where at least 40% of the student body is economically disadvantaged are also eligible to earn up to 10 bonus points, based on their socioeconomic tier. BPS’s new proposal suggests eliminating school-based bonus points entirely, and reducing points awarded due to housing and homelessness from 15 to 10. BPS also called for one-fifth of seats to be reserved for the highest-scoring students citywide, regardless of their familial income level.
At a Sept. 29 City Council meeting, Monica Hogan, chief of data, information, and systems improvement for BPS discussed data from a simulation BPS ran of what admissions might look like with the new policy changes. The results estimated a 4% decrease in socioeconomically disadvantaged students, a 1% decrease among Black students, a 3% decrease among Latino students, and a 3% increase in white students.
“These changes will undo a successful and effective policy and will undo it when the data BPS has already run shows that it would effectively shift seats in exam schools away from low-income students, students from diverse backgrounds […] and it would shift those towards the wealth class in Boston,” said Leon Smith, executive director of Citizens for Juvenile Justice, a nonprofit advocacy group.
A federal lawsuit and how the proposed BPS changes came about
In June, BPS published a five-year review of the exam school admission policy. According to the report, “invitations to the exam schools are more representative of Boston’s school-aged population than they were five years ago” as measured by neighborhood, race and ethnicity, socioeconomic status, language and disability status of the applicant. That considered, Smith said, “After a five-year plan, which in many ways was successful in making exam schools more diverse, BPS is now advancing a plan that would further widen the significant inequity that already exists in Boston and make those schools less diverse, and that is highly problematic at any time, but especially problematic right now.”
The proposed changes come amidst a federal lawsuit filed by parents in July against the school committee and BPS Superintendent Mary Skipper over the current exam school admissions policy, which they argue discriminates against white students. At the Sept. 29 City Council meeting, Skipper said her proposed changes “have nothing to do with the lawsuit.” She cited issues such as students earning more than 100 points but not receiving an exam school seat, and students attending schools they were assigned to rather than those chosen by their parents, as reasons for modifying the policy.
Krista Magnuson, an organizer with the Massachusetts Education Justice Alliance (MEJA), said, “This threatened lawsuit is really just a pathway to roll back any version of affirmative action that’s ever been created. It feels like capitulating behind the scenes, which is very upsetting.” Her sentiment was echoed by Smith, who said, “You cannot view local and state decisions right now, in this political climate, without looking at them in the context of the rhetoric coming out of the federal government.”
A lack of public outreach and communication?
Magnuson, a parent of two BPS students, said she was made aware of the proposed changes after hearing about them from her city councilor at a community event. “There was not a lot of public fanfare,” she said. “If I hadn’t talked to my city councilor, I’m not sure when I would’ve found out about this.”
After releasing the five-year review in June, BPS organized “information webinars” on Aug. 21 and Sept. 9 to inform the BPS community about the proposal. Jillie Santos, community engagement coordinator at Citizens for Juvenile Justice, said she views this as a lack of community engagement around the changes.
“There needs to be a space where parents can either be in person, or if it’s a virtual space, be able to come up and speak,” Santos said. “There also needs to be concerted outreach to folks who are underrepresented in the exam school space—Black families, Latino families, but also students who have special education needs, students who are English language learners—because there are other axes of diversity that we could be promoting in these spaces that are just totally being left by the wayside.”
The school committee is slated to vote on the proposed exam school admissions changes on Nov. 5 during its regular meeting at Boston City Hall. Historically, the committee has overwhelmingly approved superintendent recommendations, with a study by the Boston Teachers Union indicating that over the past 18 years, on nearly 2,200 votes, the committee has voted unanimously 98.81% of the time. While the outcome of this vote currently remains officially undecided, the measure will mark a significant moment for BPS policy and citywide discussions about access to exam schools.
“Until you can have an intentional conversation with everyone, how can you formulate a policy that is going to be actually representative of the diversity in Boston?” Santos said. “And going beyond just representation, how can you formulate a policy that is equitable?”
