NOW THAT THE public has definitively rejected MCAS as a graduation test, there is much pressure to create new graduation requirements. We at Citizens for Public Schools believe any major changes must come from public discussions centering the knowledge and views of those who will be called upon to implement these changes and those who will […]
Dan French
Posted inEducation
End discriminatory admissions policies in vocational schools
SHOULD AN EIGHTH-GRADE student with a low grade-point average and/or low attendance, due to feeling disengaged from the school and curriculum, be excluded from enrolling in a Massachusetts vocational high school even though they may excel in a hands-on carpentry, plumbing, or electrician shop? That is the situation that currently exists in almost all of […]
Posted inEducation
State receivership wrong step for Boston schools
A NEW PIONEER INSTITUTE report decries the current state of Boston Public Schools and calls for state receivership. The report relies on a March 2020 state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education report which cites churn in district leadership, a high number of schools scoring in the bottom 10 percent of schools statewide on MCAS, […]
Posted inEducation
Vocational and exam school admission changes a good start
THIS YEAR, two broad-based coalitions worked to successfully push for new admissions policies in Massachusetts vocational schools and Boston’s three public “exam schools.” In both cases, the goal was to remove unnecessary barriers to access that disproportionately affect students of color, low-income students, English learners and students with learning disabilities. And in both cases, there […]
Posted inOpinion
Voc school admission guidelines racially unjust
DR. IBRAM X. KENDI, author of How to be an Antiracist, says racism is “like a metastatic disease that literally has spread to every part of the body politic.” What’s the cure? Identify racist policies and replace them with antiracist policies. One such policy is Massachusetts’ current guidelines for admission to vocational schools. These guidelines […]