President Obama to Visit TechBoston
President Barack Obama, joined by Melinda Gates, will be visiting  TechBoston in Dorchester today, a school where over 80% of it’s students receive free or reduced lunch and is overflowing with private invenstment. The White House issued a press release stating the president is visiting the school to “build on his State of the Union call for America to out-educate the competition to win the future.”
TechBoston shows promising results :
- 82% graduation rate (BPS’ is 63%)
- >94% of graduates attend 2 and 4 year colleges and universities
- proficient/advanced MCAS scores at 55%/65%
- 94%attendance rate
There are two lists on the White House press release that seem to be factors that contributed to the school’s success. One list contains structural changes to the school day and the other list contains private investments made in the school. BPS Superintendent Carol Johnson made it a point to explain that as a Pilot school, TechBoston “has flexibility around staffing, budget, curriculum, and has a longer school day than what is authorized in the general Boston Teachers Union contract.” Her characterization is another reminder of the misconception that collective bargaining rights hinder student performance. Looking at the table below, it is very clear that it took much more than just extra time in the classroom to bring those kind of results.
How to Contact State Legislators on the Education Committee and Members of Your Local School Boards
This excel spreadsheet contains public contact information for some of the people who make important decisions regarding our schools. Make your voice heard.
Civil Rights Complaint Filed Against Boston Public Schools
Filed on January 25th, 2011, by the Black Educators’ Alliance of Massachusetts and the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law of the Boston Bar Association, the complaint alleges that the school department’s plan to close and merge schools is disproportionately affecting students of color. This is the second time, recently, that federal entities have investigated Boston’s commitment to providing a quality educational experience to students of color. In 2010, the Department of Justice found that “the district had violated the civil rights of thousands of [ELL] students.” Read about the settlement reached between the DOJ and School Committee regarding English Language Learners here.
Below are some key points taken from a Boston Globe article written by Milton J. Valencia:
- The complaint asks federal authorities to investigate what options the school district had, other than closing schools
- 46 percent of the students who will be affected by the school closures are black, 44 percent are Latino, and 5 percent are white. In contrast, black students make up 36 percent of the school population, Latinos 41 percent, and white students 13 percent.
- the school closings affect a disproportionate number of students in low-income neighborhoods such as Roxbury, Dorchester, and Mattapan, compared with neighborhoods serving higher percentages of white students, such as West Roxbury, Roslindale, and Brighton.
- accredited high schools where black and Latino students are in the majority would be merged into schools that are not accredited.
- complaint asks whether the plan will crowd black and Latino students into schools with larger class sizes, while keeping small class sizes for white students.
- complaint asks whether the district has properly established English-language learner programs for students being moved from the Agassiz, Emerson, and the Engineering School.
BPS Student Assignment (in a nutshell)
So, as you probably already know, the Boston Public Schools is soon to revisit the issue of student assignment and is likely to propose a new student assignment plan sometime in the Spring. Naturally, we suspect it might be a good time to reflect on the topic ourselves. TAG Boston folks are likely to “weigh in” on student assignment in the coming months, so we want you to be informed!! Below you’ll find a rough summary of student assignment issues, in “timeline” format:
Information about BPS’s initial public engagement process, as well as detailed information about the student assignment plan proposed in 2009 (known as the “Five Zone Plan”) can be found here.
2/27/2009 – The Boston Globe editorial staff weighs in on the student assignment issue, arguing that Boston is “Beyond the busing era.”
5/14/2009- The Coalition for Equal Quality Education hosts a community summit on student assignment. The Bay State Banner covers the event.
5/29/2009 – Three local civil rights organizations submit their recommendations about the proposed student assignment plan.
6/3/2009 – Superintendent Johnson proposes that the five zone proposal be tabled, pending further exploration of the concerns raised. Her memo to the school committee can be found here. Related Boston Globe stories include Boston superintendent requests delay in changing school assignment zones (6/3) Vote on school assigning delayed (6/4) and Boston shelves 5-zone proposal (8/29).
8/2009 – Boston applies for a federal grant for technical assistance in redesigning its student assignment policy. The money is to be spent to “prepare, adopt, or modify, and implement student assignment plans that successfully avoid racial isolation and/or resegregation and lawfully facilitate racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic diversity.” More info here.
11/01/2009 – Boston’s student assignment story draws national attention.
12/2009 – Boston is one of eleven districts to win federal funding for student assignment.
3/9/2010 – The Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race and Justice hosts a summit on student assignment at City Year. Related resources here and here.
7/15/2010 – In an open letter, the civil rights organizations involved with the TASAP grant officially sever ties with BPS. They release another set of recommendations. Read the Globe coverage here.
9/2010 – Diversitydata.org releases two reports – one about segregation rates and another on equity/student assignment in Boston. The first report attracts significant attention in the news, including a front-page story Area school segregation called rife (9/20) and a Globe editorial Reforms, not desegregation, will bring school advances (9/26). Opinion articles explored various aspects of the issue, including one by Derrick J. Jackson arguing that as a society, we have become “arrogantly comfortable with a system hurtling backward toward a modern apartheid” and that “[c]hildren of color continue to be exposed to disproportionate disadvantages that make the gap almost impossible to close.” Letters to the editor expressed concerns about how “racial disparit[ies] in schools [feed] the racial disparity in our juvenile justice system” and reminded readers that “Ed reform [and] integration [are] not an either-or proposition.”  Diversitydata.org’s second report, while not attracting as much media attention, offers concrete recommendations about how to advance equity through student assignment.  The report notes that, “[a]s the Boston Public School District strives to improve student achievement and provide access to a highâ€quality education for every student, it should carefully consider the tradeâ€offs between reducing transportation costs and exacerbating inequality by concentrating certain students in highâ€poverty schools.”
Video on School Closings
Boston filmmaker Robert Lamothe has condensed more than 20 hours of testimony on school closings into a short video called “TEACH: The People Behind the Curtain, What’s Happening to Our Public Schools.” View the video here. Share your thoughts!
Event: Education for Liberation Network Conference
Date: July 7-10, 2011
Event Name: Free Minds Free People
Sponsor: Education for Liberation Network
Type of Event: Conference
Location: Providence, RI
Time: n/a
Event Website: http://www.freemindsfreepeople.org/
Free Minds, Free People is a national conference presented by the Education for Liberation Network, The Brotherhood/Sister Sol, the Chicago Freedom School and Youth in Action that brings together teachers, high school and college students, researchers, parents and community-based activists/educators from across the country to build a movement to develop and promote education as a tool for liberation. The conference is a space in which these groups can learn from and teach each other, sharing knowledge, experience and strategies.
Education for liberation prepares the most excluded, under-served members of our society, in particular low-income youth and youth of color, to fight for a more just world by:
Exploring with students the causes of inequalities and injustices in society and how communities have fought against them.
Helping students to develop both the belief in themselves that they can challenge those injustices and the skills necessary to do that.
Supporting students in taking action that leads to disenfranchised communities having more power.
Event: Critical Race Studies in Education Annual Conference
Date: May 19-21, 2011
Event Name: “And liberty & Justice for All? Race and the politics of education reform and public policyâ€
Sponsor: Critical Race Studies in Education Association
Type of Event: Annual Conference
Location: San Antonio, TX
Time: n/a
Event Website: http://www.crseassoc.org/events-speakers.html
Event: NYCORE Education Conference
Date: March 26, 2011
Event Name: Whose Schools? Our Schools!
Sponsor: NYCORE
Type of Event: Education Conference
Location: NYC, Julia Richman Education Complex
Time: 8:45AM – 5:45PM
Event Website: http://www.nycore.org/conference/
Join educators, parents, students, activists, and community members from across the city and beyond for a one-day conference focused on exploring the connections between education and social justice. This conference is an opportunity to network, inspire one another, and build a movement.
This conference is an opportunity to get together and share how we are doing this, in our classrooms, our schools, and our communities. Join us in celebrating the daily courage of educators in our city and beyond. Join us in networking, connecting, and building a movement of educators and community members who care about social justice.
Event: Powerful Teaching: Towards a Pedagogy for the Global City
Date: March 15, 16, 17 of 2011
Event Name: POWERFUL TEACHING: TOWARDS A PEDAGOGY FOR THE GLOBAL CITY
Sponsor: Simmons College
Type of Event: Lecture/Book Series
Location: Simmons College, Linda K. Paresky Conference Center
Time: 4:30-6:30 pm
Event Website: http://www.raceandeducation.com
The Race, Education and Democracy Lecture and Book Series, a collaborative effort of Simmons College and Beacon Press, will bring annually to Boston a prominent scholar to deliver four to five public lectures on the topic of Race, Education and Democracy. These lectures will form the basis for a book to be published by Beacon Press.
Dr. Ernest Morrell will deliver the 2011 Race, Education and Democracy Lectures. Professor Morrell is Associate Professor in the Urban School Division of the Graduate School of Education and Information Studies at University of California at Los Angeles. His recent publications include, Critical Literacy and Urban Youth: Pedagogies of Access, Dissent, and Liberation, Routledge Press, 2008; The Art of Critical Pedagogy: Possibilities for Moving from Theory to Practice in Urban Schools, with Duncan-Andrade, Peter Lang, 2008 and Linking Literacy and Popular Culture: Making Connections for Lifelong Learning, Christopher-Gordon, 2004.
March 15, 2011
Powerful Teaching: Toward Pedagogy of the Global City
March 16, 2011
Youth Participatory Action Research, Academic Literacy, and Civic Engagement in Urban Schools
March 17, 2011
Popular Culture, Media Production, and a Re-Imaging of Classroom Life
Event: “RACE: Are We So Different?” Exhibit at Museum of Science
Date: Until Sunday, May 15th, 2011
Event: Name: RACE: ARE WE SO DIFFERENT?
Sponsor: n/a
Type of Event: Temporary Museum Exhibit
Location: Museum of Science, Stearns Hall
Time: n/a
Event Website:Â http://www.mos.org/exhibits_shows/current_exhibits&d=4438
Learn the story of race from biological, cultural, and historical points of view — through interactive components, historical artifacts, compelling photographs, and multimedia presentations. The RACE Project explains the differences among people and reveals the reality — and unreality — of race, while encouraging visitors to engage in discussion about how race continues to shape our lives today.
