Boston Public Schools

With a year of online teaching experience, Boston considers setting up an online school for September

By adamg - 4/28/21 - 9:22 pm

BPS is considering setting up an online-only school for the coming school year, and is asking parents if they'd be interested in that. Read more.

Election roundup: Barros wants details on all sexual-assault investigations of Boston cops; Wu wants electric school buses

By adamg - 4/22/21 - 9:48 pm

John Barros today called for disclosure of all BPD internal-affairs investigations of Boston cops over the past 30 years, and now, not after he's elected. Read more.

Exam-school admissions battle not over: Group appeals judge's decision

By adamg - 4/16/21 - 9:58 am

A group of White and Asian-American parents are appealing a judge's decision that the Boston School Committee did nothing wrong in the way it came up with a non-exam way to admit students to Boston's three exam schools for the coming school year. Read more.

Judge upholds Boston School Committee on alternative way to select students for exam schools this year

By adamg - 4/15/21 - 6:51 pm

A federal judge ruled today that the Boston School Committee can proceed with selecting students for the city's three exam schools via a formula based on grade point average and Zip codes, rather than using GPAs and the traditional entrance exams. Read more.

A bit of a disparity in private fundraising for Boston public schools

By adamg - 4/13/21 - 9:30 pm

Pie chart showing how much more of a private endowment Boston Latin School has than every other BPS school

The parent group Quality Education for Every Student today released data and charts showing the differences between different BPS schools when it comes to private fundraising. One school obviously stands out.

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Boston Latin School head: Fix other BPS schools; don't destroy the exam schools

By adamg - 4/7/21 - 10:13 pm

Rachel Skerrit, head of school at Boston Latin School, explains why she feels Tom Keane doesn't know what he's talking about in calling for the elimination of the city's three exam schools.

In a message to BLS parents yesterday, Skerritt, herself a BLS graduate, writes: Read more.

State lets Boston delay full re-opening of K-8 schools a bit

By adamg - 3/25/21 - 12:13 am

WCVB reports BPS has gotten until April 26 - after spring break - to start five-days-a-week in-classroom teaching.

Judge hopes to decide exam-school lawsuit by April 15

By adamg - 3/16/21 - 11:36 am

A federal judge said today he hopes to rule by April 15 on a lawsuit against the Boston School Committee's system for examless selection of exam-school students either in time for students to get notified of their selection this spring - or to order officials to quickly come up with a new way of selecting students for the schools before the fall. Read more.

Adult hired by BPS to work with student leaders tried to get them to cry

By adamg - 3/7/21 - 12:29 pm

The Globe reports a consultant hired by BPS to work with the Boston Student Advisory Council used re-evaluation counseling, in which meetings would turn from dealing with strictly school-related issues to getting the teens to reveal personal information and cry.

Student member of Boston School Committee says he's fed up, resigns

By adamg - 3/4/21 - 10:24 pm

Khymani James, a Boston Latin Academy senior, tonight resigned his post as the student member of the School Committee.

In a series of tweets, James explained why he was resigning, without getting into specifics about new issues that he said he "simply couldn't condone:" Read more.

BPS had planned to send out exam-school invitations on March 29, but lawsuit will likely delay that

By adamg - 3/3/21 - 11:07 am

A federal judge today held off any action on a bid by a group of White and Asian-American parents to block the way the Boston school system plans to enroll students in the three exam schools until at least March 16 to give the two sides - and lawyers for groups representing Black, Latino and other Asian-American parents - time to try to agree on the basic facts of the case. Read more.

Group of White, Asian-American parents sue to block exam-school admissions that use Zip codes

By adamg - 2/26/21 - 9:49 pm

A group of parents sued Boston Public Schools today over its decision to replace exam-school exams for one year with a system that uses pre-Covid GPAs and Zip codes to select students for Boston Latin School, Boston Latin Academy and the John D. O'Bryant School. Read more.

One year without exams isn't enough to peel away the racism inherent at the exam schools, BLA senior says

By adamg - 2/24/21 - 10:14 am

Boston Parents Schoolyard News posts a copy of the essay Khymani James wrote as part of his application to Columbia. James is a Boston Latin Academy senior and the student representative on the School Committee, which voted in October to eliminate the exam-school exam for one year due to Covid-19.