Peter Kadzis basically livetweeted an angry meeting of Mayor Walsh, Superintendent Tommy Chang and BLS teachers. Teachers demanded Walsh and Chang refuse resignations from Headmaster Lynne Mooney Teta and Assistant Headmaster Malcolm Flynn, Walsh got mad, Chang told teachers not to pull that sort of thing in front of the media but they did anyway.
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Comments
Oh I see
By tmrozzie
Thu, 06/23/2016 - 12:57pm
Yep, just get those teach for america youngsters in there and turn it all around, right!?
Like I said above
By Will LaTulippe
Thu, 06/23/2016 - 12:57pm
If they're any good, hire them back for when you reopen.
Who's the arbiter, you?
By tmrozzie
Thu, 06/23/2016 - 1:06pm
They are good. The number of teachers with unsatisfactory reviews is really quite small. But that's aside the point.
You're mad and want to fire all the teachers, because these particular teachers don't agree with the dismissal of their principal. Which has absolutely nothing to do with teacher quality. How did you get from the premise to your solution?
Shhhh...
By CraigInDaVille
Thu, 06/23/2016 - 1:19pm
Almighty Ruler of the World Will knows exactly how to fix problems. He doesn't need to be bothered with actual "details" or "follow up questions" or "facts."
Because if anybody knows how to run an urban school district (that's already ranked pretty damn high) it's a country bumpkin from Whitesville, Vermont. He went to school so he KNOWS how to run them!
(Expletive) off
By Will LaTulippe
Thu, 06/23/2016 - 1:25pm
I'm from Burlington. And I know bad schools, I attended a pretty terrible middle school. I went to a pretty damn good high school, though. They have a good tech program that I should have taken advantage of when it was offered to me for free.
I attended 13 years of public school. I could count on one hand (if ever) the number of times a teacher told me what salaries people make in the field that they were teaching. I would love to teach math to kids. First class of the year would be me telling them "people use this stuff to screw you out of money, so don't let anybody be smarter than you at math."
Right
By CraigInDaVille
Thu, 06/23/2016 - 2:23pm
So you're an expert on running a large urban school district because... you went to public school in Burlington, VT. Which is pretty much what I just said.
You certainly have strong opinions on how things should be run in the world (thankfully you no longer openly condemn people to death on UHub anymore).
Is it just the lack of people understanding your genius that keeps you from accomplishing those goals? Or is it maybe, just maybe, that your ideas tend to be simplistic and unrealistic time and again?
Am I an expert?
By Will LaTulippe
Thu, 06/23/2016 - 2:54pm
No, but I did attend urban schools (which are urban no matter how glib you want to be about BVT). I learned alongside immigrants from five continents, white trash, and the children of Howard Dean. I learned alongside kids who died years ago in car crashes/from drugs/etc, and alongside Harvard alums and kids with doctorates.
BVT might not have the poverty or the percentage of Caribbean immigrants that Boston does, but it does have plenty of immigrants for a city of its size. Surprise, they're having similar problems with their schools, too: The superintendent got hired from Canada and finally arrived to work recently after nearly a year of being held up with visa issues. One of his first acts was to transfer the high school principal of 17 years to an elementary school, a principal who's retiring in a year anyway.
The high school's enrollment has dipped by 25% in the 14 years that I've been gone, but some of that has to do with Burlington, like Boston, becoming a city increasingly for the rich and for the poor. So I see similar problems. And I know my own background as a kid who did very well in school initially, then languished in middle school among classmates for whom material had to be slowed and dumbed down. It's not not my fault at all that I became a crappy student, but at that age, adults need to have a proper eye on reaching kids.
Evolving
By CraigInDaVille
Fri, 06/24/2016 - 8:48am
See, even you can come up with some nuanced and "shades of grey" understanding of the subject if you talk about it long enough.
Which is why when you spout nonsense like you did earlier, no one takes you seriously. This isn't an easy fix. And the fact is, things aren't horribly broken as folks like to believe.
So maybe think a bit before you come up with grand pronouncements that apparently make you feel good but do nothing but clutter the discussion.
I'm all for you being a teacher
By tachometer
Thu, 06/23/2016 - 2:32pm
Don't let the haters get you down, it's high time that Stand and Deliver got a sequel :-p
It's high time
By Will LaTulippe
Thu, 06/23/2016 - 3:07pm
That teachers were more forthcoming with kids about adulthood.
I had some of the most boring and condescending science teachers ever growing up, so I never took an interest in the material. Maybe a more interesting teacher, or heck, even one who told me straight up that "guys who work in this field can make six figures and live in nice houses" would have made me care more.
This plan seems destined for
By Rob Not Verified
Thu, 06/23/2016 - 12:56pm
This plan seems destined for a successful outcome.
Sometimes you don't even have to put the hook in the water
By Hardy Har Har
Thu, 06/23/2016 - 2:28pm
They just jump in the boat on their own accord
The People Are Standing Up To The Witch Hunters
By John Costello
Thu, 06/23/2016 - 12:32pm
Mahty is in way over his head here. I am wondering how much this shaft of LMT was to bargain with Ms. Ortiz over on Fan Pier?
The teachers at BLS (The Faculty Senate as they call themselves) are a wonderful group of people. This show of support just goes to show you how much they back their leaders. Mr. Flynn has dedicated 2/3's of his life to this school and will call out BS when he sees BS.
LA Chang is on a witch hunt. As in Salem in 1692, as in Washington in 1952, we clearly saw after the fact that is was a naked power play by forces in power and nothing more.
Back down Mr. Mayor. Back down.
Boston Public Libraries' staff should let Media know more
By theszak
Thu, 06/23/2016 - 12:41pm
Boston Public Libraries' staff should let Media know more about our libraries as a workplace!
http://bplpsa.info/contents/wp-content/uploads/201...
http://bplpsa.info
Compare New York Public Library
http://www.local1930.org/
Never change, Zak. Never change.
By Rob Not Verified
Thu, 06/23/2016 - 12:52pm
n/t
Enough
By adamg
Thu, 06/23/2016 - 2:49pm
If you have something to say about the state of affairs at BLS in particular or BPS in general, please say it. But you don't need to keep posting stuff that has not the remotest connection.
Just because you can't follow them
By Bob Leponge
Thu, 06/23/2016 - 7:11pm
.. doesn't mean the links aren't there.
The name of the school is Boston Latin.
Latin was the language of the Roman Empire.
A similarly named state was the Holy Roman Empire (which was neither holy, nor Roman, nor an empire, but that's neither here nor there.)
The Holy Roman Empire occupied much of the territory now known as Germany.
Germany was where Gutenberg invented movable type, which ushered in modern book publishing.
Book publishing led to increasingly widespread literacy.
Literacy led to libraries.
And there we are. No matter where we go, there we are.
Extremely Well Played
By Irma la Douce
Thu, 06/23/2016 - 7:42pm
Sir.
Collective bargaining tactics.
By theszak
Thu, 06/23/2016 - 10:28pm
Or compare labor relations, collective bargaining tactics and a Mayor as former representative for collective bargaining
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collective_bargaining
Beg to differ
By Lie Berry
Thu, 06/23/2016 - 11:09pm
Ohhhhhhhh yes he does. He needs to do that like flowers need the rain.
BPS & Chang should be embarrassed .....
By BLS Parent
Thu, 06/23/2016 - 12:47pm
Copied from comment section in Herald, I couldn't write it any better so i copied it....
there is a direct and deliberate plan to social engineer the students of BPS. It comes from the leadership of BPS and most residents are not aware of it.
The make up of BPS students is 86% minority and has been a minority majority school system for years. Yet, all we hear is charges of racism. The last Superintendent of BPS was a black woman.
There was a task force created in 2015 called "Opportunity and Achievement Gaps Task Force".
The quote below is directly from a task force update in January 2016.
"Acknowledge the impact of entrenched and institutional racism and
poverty, and explicitly address it"
This task force has taken it upon themselves to declare that there is institutional racism in BPS. Was this a unilateral decision? What is the racial make up of the task force?
Boston Herald please do the public a service and initiate an investigation on this task force. Please ask Mayor Walsh and Superintendent Chang to comment on the task force and their declaration of institutional racism. If this is true, does this mean that Mayor Menino and prior Democratic mayors allowed the institutional racism to exist all these years? Does this mean the prior Superintendent allowed the racism to exist during her tenure as a black woman?
Taxpayers of Massachusetts and Boston this is what your tax dollars are paying for....a task force that can unilaterally declare BPS is full of institutional racism.
We should demand from Mayor Walsh, Tommy Chang, and this task force specifically, a full explanation and examples of the institutional racism that they claim exists.
And that's the worst part of all this
By Will LaTulippe
Thu, 06/23/2016 - 2:45pm
Is that it's turned into a race thing. If you're black, 2+2=4. If you're white, 2+2=4. If you're Asian 2+2=4.
I don't accept that education has anything at all to do with race. Well, there's probably a few differences between the way a white guy and the way a black guy would tell the story of 1960s America to a history class, but at least for math and science, those are the last languages that the educationally inclined world agree on.
So yeah, somebody go ahead and explain to me how schools are institutionally racist. Do the black kids have to sit at their own table during lunch or something?
Again, perhaps quit while you're behind
By adamg
Thu, 06/23/2016 - 3:01pm
We're talking here about BLS, which, according to state statistics for the school year just ending has a student body that was 47.4% white, 29% Asian, 11.6% Hispanic and 8.5% black, compared to a school system that was 14.2% white, 8.7% Asian, 41.5% Hispanic and 32.4% black.
If you fail to see why that might not be the basis for at least asking questions about why that is, there's not much more to discuss, I guess. But for everybody else, institutional racism is not the same as deliberate racism, and yet can still have the same effect - for example, how the fact that white parents in West Roxbury can afford ISEE prep classes for their kids while schools in Roxbury and Mattapan may not even tell black students about free ISEE prep classes (held at BLS no less) might result in a school that has a way higher percentage of white students.
How is BLS responsible....
By Michael Kerpan
Thu, 06/23/2016 - 3:09pm
... for public schools in Roxbury and Mattapan not telling students about the availability of free ISEE prep classes? My understanding is that these schools don't want to "lose" their own best students to BLS. Possibly due to the legislatively-mandated test-mania that would ultimately punish the schools for preparing a lot of students well enough for them to move on to BLS (thus lowering future test scores at the prior schools).
Indirectly, it is responsible
By adamg
Thu, 06/23/2016 - 3:20pm
Because, as the Globe reported, the guy in charge of the program to try to recruit minority kids for the ISEE tests is a BLS administrator (granted, who gets paid mostly by the BLS Association, not the city) and he basically gave up on the job because - and this was the thing I found incredible in that Globe story - nobody told him to specifically do recruiting.
But, no, I wasn't specifically blaming BLS for that - just giving it as an example of an institutional thing that winds up shunting kids away from BLS that has the same effect as if there were racists involved in the system (which I don't think there are). That's why it could be an example of institutional racism.
I see this as a BPS screw-up, not a BLS one
By Michael Kerpan
Thu, 06/23/2016 - 3:31pm
The funding was slashed and the person given the job to oversee things was not told to do recruitment visits (and clearly had neither the time to do a lot of recruitment himself or staff to help do such activity).
Category error
By Sock_Puppet
Thu, 06/23/2016 - 3:54pm
The demographic of BLS should be compared to the demographic of Boston instead. The population of BPS in general not representing the city at large is also part of the problem, and should also be addressed.
Estimated 2013 demographics for Boston as a whole: White: 52.9% (and dropping), Black: 24.1% (and dropping); Asian: 9% (and rising); Hispanic: 18.8% (and rising).
Compared with BLS demographics, the problem is what again? That Asians are taking seats away from Blacks and Hispanics? The white kids have been here all the time; they're just returning to the public system.
Institutional racism has a lot of different effects and manifestations; one of these is suppression of white participation in BPS outside of BLS. Pretending that this aspect of institutional racism doesn't exist, as one does when talking about BLS demographics only in the context of the skewed BPS demographics, is a method of preserving it.
Maybe if BPS could provide an elementary education that resulted in minority students achieving Latin entrance at rates closer to their participation in the general population, BPS could also provide an elementary education that more than a small minority of white parents want to send their kids to.
But that would cost more, and it seems like a key aspect of BPS' savings scheme is to provide such a crappy service that few people with a choice take advantage of it. More than a quarter of the kids in this city don't go to public school; if half of them came back, it would be a fiscal emergency.
Pretty much agree
By Michael Kerpan
Thu, 06/23/2016 - 4:08pm
The relevant demographic is Boston population, not Boston public school population. However, I suppose one should look at Boston (and compare) _school age_ population figures, not general ones.
Boston's budgeting depends on the fact that it doesn't have to pay a significant percentage of children residing within its borders. To tell parents who _save_ the city a significant amount of money by sending their kids to non-public elementary and/or secondary schools (while paying school-related costs through taxes) that their kids are disqualified (or seriously disadvantaged) from enrolling at the exam schools would be very problematic -- politically and legally.
Is Chang looking to screw over Asians?
By Sock_Puppet
Fri, 06/24/2016 - 5:59am
This is the part I still don't get. The white kids are coming out of the woodwork to go to BLS, it's true, but not at greater numbers than the Boston demographic would suggest. There's no special ability or test prep needed to reach those numbers, just parental acceptance.
In comparison, Asians are taking up spots at BLS at three times their preponderance in both the Boston general population and the BPS population. This is the group most favored by purely academic entrance criteria, for cultural reasons. If Chang cooks up some kind of flim-flammery to stack the deck racially at BLS, it's the Asians who will be hurt the most.
Maybe this is what happened in those meeting he had with "black community leaders" last year - they asked him if he was willing to screw over his own people for their benefit.
A really large amount of the
By anon
Thu, 06/23/2016 - 3:16pm
A really large amount of the problem is while race and education don't have a ton to do with each other, affluence and education are proven to be positively correlated over and over and over again. And, in the United States, due to a long, long history of instutionalized racism, class and race have also become positively correlated. It's hard to educate yourself out of poverty when you come into kindergarden barely knowing ABCs and other kids are already reading. It's hard to educate yourself out of poverty when your parents work two jobs and aren't home to help with homework at night. It's hard when your family doesn't have history of academic success - when your grandparents really were denied academic success based on their skin color, and your family is still playing catch up.
Universal pre-K
By tachometer
Thu, 06/23/2016 - 4:03pm
This is something that universal pre-k would help address. I hate that video that is going around touting how kids in Finland start school later and do as well or better than us. Their socio-economic situation is very different from ours and those kids are more likely to be getting learning at home. Let alone that Finnish is a language which has spelling that matches the pronunciation so it isn't nearly as confusing to learn as English. That's according to an old friend who is from there, he said that there is no such thing as spelling tests in Finland because once you learn the basics "if you can say it you can spell it"
Except the Dept of Ed has
By anon
Thu, 06/23/2016 - 5:58pm
Except the Dept of Ed has decades of studies iindicating pre k is ineffectual. Quality elementary ed is more important and has longer lasting effects.
Re: You're kidding, right?
By Angel
Thu, 06/23/2016 - 3:40pm
Everything from the funding formula to segregation contributes to a school system in which people of color are disadvantaged. By the way, your question at the end? Hilarious!
A definition of terms is in order. While some people now may not be racist, they do benefit from a system that was set-up to always give them the advantage. It's too long a history lesson to go into here, but you would have to go back to Reconstruction and the attempts of newly freed blacks to build communities, wealth and a political base of power. All crushed by groups like the KKK and apathy from the Feds and local governments. Then, of course, Jim Crow laws codifying that racism. Add to that, firebombing of homes purchased by blacks in places like Cicero, Illinois.
As I've said elsewhere, racism in the country exists on a continuum. There is no such thing as isolated racism. It exists because it was set in motion at some point in our history.
I've also said elsewhere, the BLS situation got out of hand due to a failure of leadership on all sides. This could have been a moment for community instead of division. When a family comes to you with a concern, take it seriously. All of the anger and unity about the headmaster and her deputy among the faculty and parents of BLS could have been really powerful if directed at addressing the concerns of some students. They are part of the community too. At least, they're supposed to be.
Cicero Illinois?
By John Costello
Thu, 06/23/2016 - 4:02pm
The kids at BLS, black, white, brown, magenta, are focused on learning about the actual Cicero and translating his works, as well as everything else.
For god's sake, Let's not make what happened at BLS a reflection of the entire history of the US. PS - The wealthiest kid in my 8th grade English class at BLS was black and moved to Weston for high school.
Once again - Not every black kid is poor and unprepared and not every white kid comes from a stable home and has a vacation place to run to on the weekends.
It is incredibly disingenuous that you don't account for the hard work done by the young men and young women there regardless of the color of their skin. Your assumptions that all non-white people have been given the shaft from the get go makes you an outstanding race baiter and your comments meritless.
Re: That's insane
By Angel
Thu, 06/23/2016 - 4:40pm
You either didn't read my comment or you are actually engaging in race baiting by conflating a simple discussion of the history of race in the country into an act of racism. Who's being disingenuous? Granted, I wasn't at BLS, but I did to go BLA. I grew up in the projects with three siblings. I was fortunate in that my parents were married and stoked an interest in reading. A lot of kids who grew up like I did don't even have one book in the house.
I and many of my peers have worked hard for every opportunity we have. Attitudes like yours really puzzle me. I feel like most of my remarks were conciliatory. But, if that's lost on you, sorry. Clearly someone feels I have something to contribute. In the interest of being fair, (though I've received no such courtesy from you) I would suggest you read my comment again. If you still somehow come to the conclusion, that I'm some radical racist agitator just because I want to give some context as to why our radar pings when incidents like this happen in a city that has not acquitted itself well in matters of race, there is not much else I can say.
Institutional Racism at BLS
By No
Fri, 06/24/2016 - 2:21pm
Will, there is a magical button called Google where in under 5 minutes you can read all the accusations against BLS and racism. Maybe you should have taken those tech classes at cow pie high, you may have learned how to use a search engine. See you just type in Boston + Latin + School + racism or in my case typing in "Boston Latin" autofilled to racism. Then you actually can read about something and get informed before your cromagnon hands slap the keyboard.
Here's a quick rundown:
-White students are accused of being racist to black students.
-One white student threatened a black student with no punishment.
-The black students tried to start basic initiatives to curb racist behavior and the school has not been working hard to let students know about it or doing much in general to work on student racism.
Oh and yes they have been seperating in the lunch room and having meetings about racial issues and the recently resigned headmaster didn't bother to show up to any of them.
It's clear you didn't know any of this basic info so maybe start with the story you are commenting on before armchair fixing a schooling system you never went to.
BLS students
By Fenwick
Thu, 06/23/2016 - 8:26pm
I wish that people who do not have children in BPS would refrain from stating as fact their uninformed opinions of BPS. I wish that more comments in this stream would acknowledge that the perspective of the students of color and their experiences of racism is the only perspective that matters in this situation. They are talking about their experiences. We do not get to tell them they are wrong, or misinterpreting the situation. I wish that more people would acknowledge the point that Adam has made repeatedly -- BLS is an imperfect institution, and wanting to change it does not mean you want to blow it up, or that you need to blow it up. I wish BLS teachers and administrators would simply mention the students more. Finally, I wish someone would acknowledge at the school, city, and community level how much more difficult it must be to be a student of color at BLS these days?
Re: Yes!
By Angel
Thu, 06/23/2016 - 9:41pm
You hit the nail on the head. While some may disagree about the remedy, I've read too much venom toward the children who are students at the school.
If you don't want the NAACP or Tito Jackson or the Feds to get involved, maybe listen to students who are actually part of the school community. Studies have shown people don't go for the nuclear option if they feel heard. Listening doesn't mean lowering standards. It's listening. Something in very short supply in this affair.
The teachers and
By JP mom
Thu, 06/23/2016 - 9:57pm
The teachers and administrators are under a gag order directed by BPS, that is why they aren't talking about the students.
Re: That's ridiculous
By Angel
Fri, 06/24/2016 - 7:31am
That's failed leadership. BPS should have been out in front of this story. I'm not comfortable with Black at BLS and the faculty being left out in the breeze. There are ways to handle incidents like this effectively. Instead, everybody has to fend for themselves while acrimony and charges and counter charges of racism and race baiting fly publicly and in forums like this.
You seem to know more about the particulars of this situation than most of us. Is there something I'm missing?
Some alleged incidents...
By Michael Kerpan
Fri, 06/24/2016 - 1:20pm
... were disproved (like the teacher supposedly addressing a student as "my nigger") -- and BPS even sent out a press release -- which the press apparently completely ignored.
One caveat
By anon
Fri, 06/24/2016 - 10:13am
I have a kid not currently in BPS who will likely attend an exam school for 7th grade. We've lived in Boston for my kid's whole life and were BPS parents through 2nd grade. I have exactly as much 'right' to weigh on on the future and purpose of BLS (or really any BPS school my kid could attend) as someone with a 5th grader currently in BPS.
There are problems with the test prep and how minority students aren't encouraged to attend BLS, given. However as noted above by other posters, while BLS doesn't reflect the city demographics neither does BPS. Go to any Rosi K-5 and you'll see a much less diverse population of kids than you'll see around town. Only one of those issues is being politicized though because, of course, Boston needs middle class families to opt out of BPS and pay their own way for private/parochial schools otherwise the budget would be so, so much worse.
Social Promotion
By Arthur
Fri, 06/24/2016 - 9:16am
Tito and his band of racial arsonists won't be happy until this school goes from being one of the most prestigious in the country to the equivelant of a Baltimore public school (I think their's are just a little worse than ours) where social promotion is viewed as success.
Please
By adamg
Fri, 06/24/2016 - 10:02am
Have you actually talked to Jackson or any of the kids in Black at BLS?
Tito is finding it hard to perform his usual
By bulgingbuick
Fri, 06/24/2016 - 11:16am
gymnastics of playing both sides. When you have educators intimidated, investigated and belittled you stifle the intellectual growth of the students "leaders" claim to care for. This is political brinksmanship. Nothing more.
Re: it really is pointless
By Angel
Fri, 06/24/2016 - 1:41pm
Adam,
As I mentioned elsewhere, race, particularly in Boston, has a narrative. And part of it is defensiveness, doubling down on rhetoric and lying about the existence of racism.
I feel badly because I can only imagine the comments we haven't seen, but you have. After 45 years, I can't get angry (kind of) anymore. Its the fiercest form of tribalism I've ever seen and they will never let an opportunity to drag us back into the morass of pre-1974 Boston.
I would argue those who refuse to admit we have a real problem in this city are the real reason we can't get past it.
Anyway, good luck. Keep your head up and don't get let them rattle you. I'm taking a break.
Re: it really is pointless
By Angel
Fri, 06/24/2016 - 2:28pm
Adam,
As I mentioned elsewhere, race, particularly in Boston, has a narrative. And part of it is defensiveness, doubling down on rhetoric and lying about the existence of racism.
I feel badly because I can only imagine the comments we haven't seen, but you have. After 45 years, I can't get angry (kind of) anymore. Its the fiercest form of tribalism I've ever seen and they will never let an opportunity pass to drag us back into the morass of pre-1974 Boston.
I would argue those who refuse to admit we have a real problem in this city are the real reason we can't get past it.
Anyway, good luck. Keep your head up and don't get let them rattle you. I'm taking a break.
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