Boston School Committee: 11·1·23 Meeting Recap

Last Night At School Committee

Last night was a short meeting beginning with the Superintendent’s Report, in which Superintendent Skipper addressed the news earlier this week that nine members of the School Committee’s English Learners (EL) Task Force resigned in response to the BPS inclusion plan presented at the last meeting. The plan called for full inclusion of multilingual learners and students with disabilities into general education classrooms, but it did not include information about budget, professional development, or teacher recruitment, nor did it address support for increased bilingual education programs in which multilingual learners learn core subjects in their native languages while learning English. This led Task Force members – who represent the leading minds in multilingual learning across Boston – to resign their seats while continuing to advocate for a better path forward. Superintendent Skipper doubled down on the district’s proposed inclusion plan, which is awaiting feedback from the State Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE).

The Superintendent then discussed a memo released by BPS as the meeting was beginning on the new exam school admissions policy – outlining the 2021 process that led to the new policy, data from the first full year of implementation, and recommendations for further study. (For a full recap of the 2021 exam school process, check out yesterday’s special episode of “Last Night at School Committee.”) The memo highlighted outcome disparities among students who received bonus points despite not being economically disadvantaged and students who are economically disadvantaged but did not receive bonus points, calling into question whether the bonus points are necessary or are accomplishing their intended goal. Among the recommendations in the memo is further consideration of allocating these points to individuals rather than whole schools, a change that has been recommended by School Committee member Brandon Cardet-Hernandez.

The only report of the night was a presentation from the Office of Human Capital – an annual update on hiring and workforce diversity. This presentation mirrored the presentation that is given every year at this time, and it lacked key data on teacher performance, evaluation, metrics, or goals.

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