Editorial Staff

Pioneer Institute Statement on the Latest State Audit of the Boston Public Schools

/in , , /by Editorial Staff
Share on Facebook
Share on Twitter
Share on
LinkedIn
+

View media coverage on this topic in The 74, State House News Service, The Boston Globe, NBC10, the Boston Herald, WGBH News, Greater Boston, and Education Next.

The third review of the Boston Public Schools (BPS) in fewer than 20 years makes clear: Things are getting worse.  Graduation rates are down, achievement gaps are up, an unacceptably large percentage of students attend schools ranked in the lowest 10 percent statewide. In a cruel twist, more than three in five students still are not taught material on which they are tested. There remains no clear strategy for improvement.  

Since the 2020 review we’ve learned that the district’s own data are unreliable. The district has underestimated the number of English language learners it is serving inadequately and may have overestimated graduation rates in five of the last seven years. Bullying is rampant across the district. Today we find out that student transportation has deteriorated even further.

With BPS spending $26,000 per student, money is no longer the issue. Out of the 100 largest school systems in the U.S., BPS funding ranks second. 

The central office has grown chaotic under a “musical chairs” of superintendents and is no longer capable of leading the necessary change. State and city officials must partner to:

  1. Provide stable district leadership by appointing a receiver-superintendent for a term of six years.
  2. Address widespread mistrust and lack of oversight and ensure accountability by appointing a hybrid school committee comprised of state and city designees.
  3. Enact a time-limited (six-year) joint state-city intervention that focuses on a short list of key actions that can put the district on a path of improvement: (a) right-sizing the district’s central office, which on a pro-rated basis employs far more people than other districts, freeing up and redirecting tens of millions of additional dollars to BPS classrooms; (b) aligning the district’s and various schools’ curricula with the state standards; and (c) implementing a targeted effort to improve the 31 Boston schools that are performing in the bottom 10 percent statewide.

Get Updates on Our Education Research

Related Content

Voc-tech schools thriving despite pandemic strictures

0 Comments
/
HANDS-ON EDUCATION plays a critical role at Massachusetts regional vocational-technical high schools, where students alternate weekly between academics and shop classes. Given that reality, you’d think the schools would be particularly hard hit by the switch to hybrid models under which students are in a physical school building only half the time. But thanks to innovative approaches to coping with pandemic-related restrictions, voc-techs are successfully bucking statewide public-school enrollment trends.

New Study Provides Toolkit for Crafting Education Tax-Credit Scholarship Programs

In the wake of a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that struck down a key impediment to private school choice, Pioneer Institute has published a toolkit for designing tax-credit scholarship programs. Now available in 18 states, nearly 300,000 students nationwide use tax-credit scholarships to attend the school of their family’s choice. TCS policies create an incentive for taxpayers to contribute to nonprofit scholarship organizations that aid families with tuition and, in some states, other K–12 educational expenses. This paper explores the central design features of TCS policies—such as eligibility, the tax credit value, credit caps, and academic accountability provisions—and outlines the different approaches taken by the TCS policies in each state.

Education tax credits don’t cost taxpayers a cent

0 Comments
/
This op-ed has appeared in WGBH News, The Providence Journal,…

MCAS testing essential to address falling test scores

0 Comments
/
Amid the chaos that was created by schools suddenly being shuttered in March as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, it made sense to cancel administration of Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System (MCAS) tests. But supporters of pending legislation that would place a four-year moratorium on using MCAS as a high school graduation requirement and create a commission to study alternatives to the tests are no longer responding to a crisis; they are using it to advance their anti-reform agenda.

Study: Signs of Progress at Madison Park, but Still a Long Way to Go

Four years after it began to implement a turnaround plan, Boston’s Madison Park Technical Vocational High School is showing clear signs of progress, but its performance continues to lag behind that of other vocational-technical schools in Massachusetts, according to a new study published by Pioneer Institute.

When ignorance and violence are permitted to trump justice

0 Comments
/
This week marks the 65th anniversary of the murder of Emmett Till, a 14-year old black boy from Chicago who was killed by two white Mississippians for whistling in the presence of a white woman.

Should the federal government provide free, universal child care?

0 Comments
/
Free, universal child care provided by the federal government would be contrary to the spirit of the Founders’ view of K-12 education as the constitutional domain of state and local governments.

MA’s Remote Learning Regs Should Specify Consistent District Grading Policies, Return of MCAS in 2020-21

The COVID-19 pandemic-related revisions to Massachusetts’ remote learning regulations should restore state and local accountability by specifying that any remote academic work shall, to the same extent as in-person education, prepare students to take MCAS tests, and that grading criteria should be the same across in-person, remote, and hybrid learning environments, according to a new policy brief published by Pioneer Institute.

New Pioneer Study Looks to International Examples to Inform Massachusetts K-12 Schools Reopening

With the fall semester fast approaching, Massachusetts should provide more specific COVID-19-related guidance for school districts about ramping up remote learning infrastructure; rotating in-person cohort schedules; diversifying methods of communication between students, parents, and teachers; and investigating physical distancing capabilities.  Districts must determine whether to adopt in-person, remote, or hybrid schooling options, and they will not be ready for the fall unless the state provides clear direction, according to new analysis from Pioneer Institute.

Education tax credit programs extend choice to families who can’t afford private schools or to move to a tony community

0 Comments
/
Thanks to the Supreme Court’s Espinoza ruling, many more students can reap the benefits of school choice

The Virtual Lessons Catholic Schools Can Teach

0 Comments
/
This op-ed originally appeared in The Boston Pilot. By Tom…

Public Statement: Pioneer Institute Applauds U.S. Supreme Court Ruling in Espinoza School Choice Case

Pioneer Institute applauds today’s U.S. Supreme Court’s decision striking down a bigoted state constitutional amendment in Espinoza v. Montana Department of Revenue. Like Massachusetts, Montana is among nearly 40 states with so-called anti-aid amendments, which have roots in 19th century anti-Catholic, anti-immigrant discrimination.