Last Night at School Committee: October 8th, 2020 Meeting Recap

On October 8, 2020 during the most recent Boston School Committee meeting, a task force focused on looking at exam school admissions proposed a policy that would suspend the current admissions policy, and replace it for one year with a new policy due to the challenges and inequalities presented by COVID. BPS has historically used a combination of 5th and 6th grade Grade Point Average (GPA) and a student’s ISEE test score for invitations to exam schools, but, instead, this year, students will be invited to exam schools through a combination of GPA and/or MCAS score and resident zip code. 

In order to qualify to be included in the exam school applicant pool, students must have at least a GPA of a B or higher during the first two terms of SY 2019-2020 OR an MCAS score of meeting or exceeding expectations. There would then be school district verification that the student is meeting Massachusetts Curriculum standards.

The amended policy for admissions to exam schools this year proposes that 20% of seats at exam schools will be reserved for the highest performing students across the city based on their 2019-2020 GPA from the fall and winter. Students would be ranked by GPA and given a randomly assigned number (to break any ties), and the highest GPA (and lowest assigned number for tiebreaker) would be assigned to their first preference school. Once these seats are filled, the remaining applicants will be included in the process of filling the remaining seats.

The remaining 80% of seats will be distributed through a combination of GPA and zip code. Each zip code in the city will be allocated a certain number of seats based on the percentage of school-aged children living in that zip code. In each zip code, eligible students will be ranked by their GPA. The remaining invitations will be distributed in 10 rounds, with 10% of each zip code’s seats being distributed in each round. Zip codes will be ranked according to median household income, and zip codes with the lowest household incomes will have seats allocated to them first.

This proposed policy is a shift from previous years that strives to better reflect the socioeconomic, racial and geographic diversity of the City’s school age population. As shown below, the make-up of exam schools should represent a more diverse student body:

While the district has not released information on how many seats will be available this year in total and the breakdown for each zip code, here’s an example of what it could look like.

Usually, we can expect to see around 900 total seats distributed across the three exam schools for entering 7th graders. Using the proposed model, 20% of the 900 seats will be reserved for the top GPA earners, who will be ranked. This means there will be 180 total seats across the three exam schools reserved for the top performing students who will be ranked.

The remaining 80% of seats (720) will be distributed across each zip code and determined by the percentage of school age children living in that zip code, with invites going first to students from zip codes with the lowest household income.

To determine how many seats a zip code will have, we multiplied the percentage of school aged children by 720 seats. Below is a table of how many seats each zip code will be allocated:

Exam School Seats per Zip Code

Zip Code	Neighborhood	Median Household Income	Percentage of School-Aged Children	Number of Total Available Seats Across 3 Exam Schools
02108	Beacon Hill	$136,667	0.3%	2.16
02109	Downtown	$143,191	0.1%	.72
02110	Downtown	$116,932	0.3%	2.16
02111	Chinatown	$40,870	0.8%	5.76
02113	North End	$100,063	0.3%	2.16
02114	Beacon Hill/West End	$95,161	0.7%	5.04
02115	Longwood/Fenway	$37,340	1.4%	10.08
02116	Back Bay	$105,559	1.3%	9.36
02199	Back Bay	$91,125	0.1%	.72
02118	South End	$65,250	3.3%	23.76
02119	Roxbury	$30,551	6.1%	43.92
02120	Roxbury	$33,727	1.5%	10.8
02121	Roxbury	$30,712	8.2%	59.04
02122	Dorchester	$60,474	4.6%	33.12
02124	Dorchester	$53,174	12.4%	89.28
02125	Dorchester	$56,318	6.3%	45.36
02126	Mattapan	$52,474	6.3%	45.36
02127	South Boston	$99,340	4.2%	30.24
02128	East Boston	$55,483	9.0%	64.8
02129	Charlestown	$118,226	3.0%	21.6
02130	Jamaica Plain	$90,813	5.1%	36.72
02131	Roslindale	$73,199	6.5%	46.8
02132	West Roxbury	$100,915	4.8%	34.56
02134	Allston	$58,068	1.2%	8.64
02163	Allston	$49,659	0.1%	.72
02135	Brighton	$72,009	3.7%	26.64
02136	Hyde Park	$64,784	7.8%	56.16
02210	Seaport	$163,068	0.1%	.72
02215	Fenway/Kenmore	$45,337	0.4%	2.88

As seen above, the 02124 zip code will receive the most seats and the 02210 zip code will receive the least amount of seats. When seats are distributed through each round, students from 02119 will receive invites first, and students from 02109 and 02210 receiving invites last, with the rest of the zip codes ranked by lowest median household income. 

Although these numbers are just estimates and we aren’t sure of the total number of seats available for this admissions cycle (and how many seats will be available for each exam school), this is a good example of how the process will be conducted. 

There are still many questions about how this policy will be implemented. With a focus on a student’s GPA, questions about grades being calibrated from one school to another and grade inflation are very prominent. We know that every school grades differently, so a lack of an overall grade system makes for a loss of grade equity. Additionally, with so much uncertainty regarding the school year and the amount of planning that the district must continue to do to keep our students and schools safe, implementing this new admissions policy will require a focus on  implementation and communication. If the policy is approved by the school committee, they will have 3-4 months to identify candidates, have students submit school preferences, and determine who will receive invitations.

Here are a few questions that School Committee members might ask:

1. How many current 6th graders in the city had a 4.0 (A) GPA for the fall and winter semesters in their 5th grade year? How many students had a 3.0 (B) GPA?

2. What is the breakdown of the number of students with these GPAs by zip code? By school type (BPS, parochial, private, charter)?

3. From this previous admissions cycle last year, how many students had a 4.0 (A) GPA? Did they receive their first choice of school they indicated on their preference form?

4. How will MCAS scores be given point values to equate a student GPA? For example, should a student have less than a B average but was advanced on the MCAS, how will their MCAS score translate to a point system that will rank them?

5. Given schools across the city use different grading standards (e.g. developmental vs. mastery), how will the district handle this disparity?

6. How many seats will be available this year for the three exam schools? 

The school committee will be voting at the next meeting on October 21st to decide whether to implement this new policy for this year. We will provide more information about how this will be implemented and resources about the finalized application process.

Link to Presentation Made by the Working Group on Exam School Admissions

Memo from Exam School Admissions Working Group to Superintendent Cassellius re: Admissions Recommendation, October 5, 2020