With charter schools, the effect of admissions criteria is unclear. One charter school has parents sign a statement acknowledging that they are "expected" to donate money to the school. Some require parents to attend information meetings or students to submit an essay before entering a lottery for admission. Eighteen of the state's 62 charter schools, generally overseen by the state and run by parents, teachers, and others, also have admissions requirements. Similar concerns have been raised about charter schools' admission policies. In the 2005-06 school year, 27 percent of pilot schools' ninth - graders scored in the bottom quartile on their eighth - grade math MCAS exam, compared with 44 percent of freshmen at regular high schools. The majority of Boston's pilot high schools enroll far fewer failing students than regular schools, according to a new study by Boston Plan for Excellence, a nonprofit that works with the city to improve schools. "The kids farthest behind are not in the pilot schools." "Pilot and charter schools are doing a really good job with urban kids, but we shouldn't be comparing them to regular schools because they're educating kids who aren't exactly the same," said Ellen Guiney, executive director of Boston Plan for Excellence. State education officials, who last year proposed modeling four failing schools around the state after Boston's high-scoring pilot schools, said they were unaware of the pilots' admissions requirements and would ban the four schools from using them. Some headmasters continue to resist, insisting that they use the information to better understand students' needs and that they do not screen for the highest achievers. Contompasis said he is concerned about the perception that pilot schools are picking the best students and ordered them in recent years to stop reviewing transcripts and to phase out other requirements. "If you allow us to get rid of 25 percent of our kids, I can assure you I'd do a much better job than I am." "I think it's unfair, obviously," said Michael Fung, headmaster at Charlestown High School.
And, cities around the state and the nation, including Los Angeles, are creating pilots because of Boston's success.
Regular school principals who accept any student who walks in the door say the pilots' admissions criteria infuriates them, given how a recent study hailed pilot schools' superior test scores and college-going rates. The goal was to have traditional Boston public schools then replicate the success. The pilot high schools, run by the public school system, often demand student transcripts, teacher recommendations, and essays from applicants, practices more common in private schools, a Globe review of admissions policies has found.īoston's superintendent and others say the hurdles fly in the face of the pilot schools' original purpose, which was to show that given more freedom in budgeting, teaching, and hiring, they could produce higher test scores with the same pool of students.
Most of Boston's experimental pilot high schools, held up as a national model and acclaimed for outperforming traditional public schools, have quietly created admissions hurdles that call into question whether they are stacking the deck with the most successful students.
0 kommentar(er)
