Why not be part of the QUEST for Quality Education?

For the past few months, the Parent Imperfect has been going to meetings of a group of parents concerned about the plans of the Boston Public Schools to change the district’s Student Assignment Policy. The group is mostly made up of mothers from Jamaica Plain and Roslindale, but is slowly involving people from other parts of the city, and even a few fathers. Just recently the group decided to take a name, which makes it a little easier to talk about it. It’s now QUEST (Quality Education for Every Student). Catchy, huh?

QUEST agrees that the current system is a mess, but insists that it must be changed in a way that promotes Quality Education for EVERY Student. This is a hard dream to disagree with, and the BPS certainly talks as if they are with the program. So far, however, the BPS hasn’t exactly jumped on the QUEST bandwagon. Why is that? QUEST fears that equal access isn’t always the most important thing for the BPS.

Using data provided by the district, the recent study published by QUESTer, Meira Levinson shows clearly that under the current system, students in some neighborhoods have much more access to quality schools than those in other neighborhoods. It then analyzes each of the assignment options being put forward by the BPS and finds that each one of those actually makes a bad situation WORSE. QUEST believes that it ought to be possible to change the assignment system in a way that makes access to quality education MORE rather than LESS equal across the city. This is possible, but only if we make equal access to quality education a priority. The current plans are more focused on the goal of getting kids in schools closer to their homes.

The Mayor has vowed that he’ll announce a new assignment process that has “more children going to school close to home” in his State of the City 2013 speech in January. The BPS is, therefore, rushing to judgement on a series of plans that are all bad. There is nothing the matter If you agree with QUEST that Boston’s school children deserve better, then sign QUEST’s petition asking the BPS to slow down and take a more careful look at the options. In signing the petition, you’ll be sending a message to Superintendent of Schools, Carol Johnson, Mayor Tom Menino and other important decision makers on this issue. Join the QUEST!

The End of the Affair?

A 16-year-old sophomore is set to be arraigned today and charged with arson in connection with fires set on three consecutive days at Boston Latin School. In a communications with parents, a school administrator said that, as in all cases involving school action against students, the name of the student won’t be released to the public.

By all accounts, teachers, staff and administrators at the school acted quickly and effectively in each of the three fires to put out the blaze and get students out of the school. In conversations with students present at the time of the fires, the Parent Imperfect has yet to find anyone who felt that they were in any real danger.

Since students at the school must have a pass any time they are in the halls during class, each fire likely focused attention on a smaller number of people. If the administration could be sure that all visitors to the school also had passes, they were in a good position to identify a single person who was in the halls during each incident…assuming that one person was setting the fires.

Rumors swept the school yesterday that, if a third fire were to occur, state law would require that the school be shut down for up to three weeks. Students expecting that sort of break returned to school today, disappointed.

Unfortunately, the “crowd-sourcing” capacity present at the school will likely produce a wealth of rumors regarding the identity of the alleged perpetrator. This is normal, and all part of the natural tendency to want to attribute acts like this a single disturbed or angry person. Once that person is removed, students can return to the grind that is BLS and parents can feel comfortable sending their children to school each day.

The PI joined in that collective sigh of relief when the police arrested someone, although there is no guarantee that the person in custody acted alone, or is even the one who set the fires. Vince would never admit that he was at all on edge about the fires, but he definitely seemed a bit more relaxed today (If he were any more relaxed, he’d have to be carried to the bus). If the police have the right person, he is lucky that the authorities put an end to this before he seriously hurt someone or was physically injured, himself. We hope that he will get some help for whatever problems led him to this series of acts that he knew would eventually get him in lots of trouble.

The PI won’t fan the rumors by speculating about why a 16-year-old might have done this, but it is obvious that students at BLS must be able to deal with a lot of pressure and competition at a very early age. In recent years, the school has taken important steps to strengthen systems to provide support to students having trouble at the school, or outside the school, but the stress on students and their families continues to be considerable. As resources get tighter, addressing the effects of such stress, always a challenge in a large school, becomes even more difficult. The events of the past few days affirm the importance of efforts to shift the culture at BLS to one where every student feels supported to be a successful and productive member of the community. The identification, arrest and arraignment of one young man should not be the end of the affair.

Third Fire at BLS

Parents on the BLS Village mail list just reported that there was a third fire at the school today. One parent reports that his son says that the fire was larger than the other two and that the students were outside of school for a longer time. Several students in that student’s homeroom did not show up for school at all today.

This begins to feel like the car fires in LA…except there are hundreds of young people around the cars. Monday this was serious. On Tuesday it became a story. If these reports are true, what is it after a third fire today?

Balance and Harmony

 

Image by mirsasha via Flickr

 

The Parent Imperfect is not quite ready for it, but the first term of the school year at the nation’s oldest public school is almost over. He and Liz have given Vince much more freedom to organize his own schoolwork this year, on the condition that all would be up for reconsideration when the first official results are in. Given all of the PI’s historical pontificating about the uselessness of grades, this is just one more irony of imperfect parenthood.

Unlike last year, Vince seems to like all of his teachers this time around, and is even guardedly enthusiastic about a couple of his classes. None of this year’s teachers seems to be consciously humiliating him on a regular basis, which makes it much easier for him to drag himself out of bed each day at 6AM. That said, Math and Latin continue to give him a very hard time. By all accounts, this is true for a good part of his cohort, especially the boys.

In response to pressure to provide a more supportive learning community, the school now offers a couple of different options for students to receive extra help with their studies. There are after school help sessions offered by older students and the school also runs a Saturday Success School on Saturday mornings, beginning each November. In addition to these options, many people opt for pricey private tutoring, especially in Math and Latin.

Last year, Liz and the PI thought about these options all year and talked a lot with Vince about them. For all of the talking, extra help never really happened, except at home. This took a toll on both parents and on their relationships with Mr. Vince. This year, they really want to pursue another option, but Vince shows no real interest in anything that requires him to put more time into his studies. This conversation will come to a head in the next couple of weeks as the drum roll builds to the release of the first report cards.

As the puzzled parents go round and round about this with each other and their son, a discussion appeared on the school’s community list-serv suggesting that they are not alone. A new parent sparked the debate by innocently asking, “Why do so many students at the school need outside tutoring?”

What followed was a fascinating set of responses that suggest what parents think of themselves and their child’s school. Some parents want to believe that students at the nation’s oldest public school don’t require any more tutoring than at any other school in the city, but most know better.

Selection for the school is based on the student’s grades in grades 5 & 6, as well as their performance on the standardized test used for admissions to the nation’s private schools. A teacher at the school suggests that this admissions process does not measure “intelligence” and is, therefore, not a good predictor of who will do well at the school. As a result, many gain admission who are not prepared to do well there.

The PI agrees, in part, but it seems a little odd to say that those who don’t do well at the school lack “intelligence.” A good percentage of students at the school do not thrive in an environment in which teachers are under pressure to take a large number of students through a demanding curriculum without time to give attention to the needs of individual students. Hence, the need for “extra help.” A lack of “intelligence” (whatever that is) might be one reason why a student doesn’t respond to this environment, but there are certainly others.

Reflecting on all this, one parent offered a particularly thoughtful observation to members of the mail-list. Speaking particularly about new students at the school she writes:

They  (and us) were shocked by the volume, pace , strictness and demands for the organizational skills which very few at their age may have acquired. As a result they are not “doing so well” as they (and us) are used to. It is upsetting, embarrassing, stressful, threatening etc. I am not sure who feels more uncomfortable, the kids or the parents. I also considered tutoring after school in Latin, but I am deciding against it at the moment. Can we and should we overcompensate for the new demands in presentation, organization and life skills? What are your kids mostly struggling with? I doubt that it is the content. My family’s intention now is to make sure that all of the elements of life which were important to us and created balance and harmony are returned and remain intact, in spite of the homework I hope that the vigor that is making everyone so stressed will take on an intellectual quality, only then the school deserves its reputation.

Amen (as the PI searches for old recommendations of a Latin tutor).