0 Boston Public Schools Assignment Models Proposed

I will be spending the next few days wading through the Proposals made by the School Assignment External Committee - who with the exception of 1 of the gajillion proposals broke up the Roslindale Pathway - which is the model for the elementary to middle school feeder pattern they are touting for ALL areas! Proving that most, with a few shining examples like Ms. Mary Tamer, of the members were not paying attention....

Proposals 

Be sure to take the Survey 

Take the survey - families of BPS students be sure to weigh in! Could your child potentially end up going to a BPS school? TAKE THE SURVEY! 

Going through this survey, and using the interactive maps, plus careful reading of the questions t

o be answered shows how unfair all these models could potentially be.... there will still be over-chosen schools - those that are the better schools within a zone - and still ensure that K-8 schools like Lyndon, Kilmer, etc have no availability at Middle School level for anyone not already in that school for elementary school; we will still have all the same issues we face: buildings falling apart, schools having to cut programs due to budgets being cut, some schools getting more while others right down the street get less - even when they have more students (so much for the new per pupil system of budgeting). And yes, the Turnaround schools have improved, but at what cost? Has anyone else noticed that other schools whose budgets were cut every year, may now be struggling - hopefully not as badly as becoming a Turnaround school, but let's face it, check the scores and see how even those popular "great" schools have been going downhill both in scores and other areas :/ And what about the schools that were in the middle, or not quite turnaround level? How are they fairing? More to add to my investigation into the proposals....anyone want to help????

Despite the cries you will hear, this is not about segregation - with the exception of ELL & special needs students POTENTIALLY (need further info) - it is all about getting rid of busing in BPS for general ed students. The goal is actually to cut busing with the exception of those students who need it due to a disability. I already know the arguments: "But Karen, that will definitely lead to segregation of the races"

Not as likely - and not in nearly the same way it did way back when there was a larger number of whites in the schools. DESE BPS Profile breakdown:

 

Boston Public School Enrollment by Race/Ethnicity (2011-12)
Race                                              % of District           % of State
African American                                   33.7                       8.3
Asian                                                    8.3                       5.7
Hispanic                                              43.0                       6.1
Native American                                     0.3                       0.2
White                                                  12.6                     67.0
Native Hawaiian, Pacific Islander              0.1                       0.1
Multi-Race, Non-Hispanic                         1.9                       2.5

Still going over all of this and need some answers also because there are concerns besides the above, such as the fact that on the proposal page they state that ALL zone models will have a middle school feeder pattern, but in the survey they say it is a proposal - meaning that may not happen at all - so what becomes of the Roslindale Pathway?

And honestly, why am I beating myself up about all this? Honestly, my kids are past all this.... we only have one more school choice to go with BPS - high school, and that will not be impacted by these plans at all. But I do care, so I will keep digging....