{"id":4306,"date":"2016-11-02T09:48:25","date_gmt":"2016-11-02T13:48:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/ioc\/?p=4306"},"modified":"2025-02-24T10:17:54","modified_gmt":"2025-02-24T15:17:54","slug":"boston-public-schools-assignment-plan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/ioc\/2016\/11\/02\/boston-public-schools-assignment-plan\/","title":{"rendered":"Boston Public Schools&#8217; Assignment Plan"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>By <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/ioc\/who-we-are\/leadership\/\">Patricia Cahill<\/a><\/p>\n<p>On February 4, 2016, The Initiative on Cities held a panel discussion that brought together Boston Public Schools (BPS) and Boston University community members to discuss the newest BPS Assignment Plan that was rolled out in 2014. This new plan reorganized Boston schools into tiers and normalized the distribution of \u201cquality\u201d schools across all tiers. It is still based on a lottery system designed by MIT Ph.D. candidate Peng Shi and is meant to increase the opportunity for choice for BPS families.<\/p>\n<p>Moderated by <strong>Dean Hardin Coleman<\/strong> of the BU School of Education, panelists included:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Kimberly Rice<\/strong> &#8211; Assistant Superintendent of Operations, Boston Public Schools<\/li>\n<li><strong>James Racanelli<\/strong> &#8211; Director of Operations Management, Boston Public Schools<\/li>\n<li><strong>Nancy Hill &#8211; <\/strong>Professor of Education, Harvard Graduate School of Education<\/li>\n<li><strong>Kelley Fong<\/strong> &#8211; PhD candidate in Sociology &amp; Social Policy, Harvard University<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The main topic of discussion revolved around equity and recognizing that most parents in the BPS system seem to prioritize choice over school quality, partly due to families and policymakers across Boston defining the many different ways of quality. Does quality mean high test scores, a playground, a library, class size, distance from home, or the presence of a school nurse? Assistant Superintendent Rice explained that for Boston parents, \u201c[school] choice is emotional,\u201d which influenced the decision to change the BPS Assignment Plan to create more choice and equity for BPS students and their families. \u201cThe change in student assignment has 0% to do with improving the schools,\u201d continued Rice. \u201cBoth parents and the BPS administration don\u2019t want the system to define the quality of schools our kids have access to.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Another theme was equality and the racial and ethnic makeup of public schools in Boston. Dean Coleman asked the panelists to consider the historical implications of school choice in the city. \u201cLiterature says that integration drives school improvement,\u201d said Coleman, \u201cbut we\u2019re in a city that makes integration almost impossible, based on the racial and ethnic makeup of BPS students. How do we tackle this?\u201d Harvard professor Nancy Hill stressed the importance of understanding Boston\u2019s most vulnerable populations and creating strong networks to keep those families from getting lost in the shuffle. \u201cIt goes back to inequalities in school choice,\u201d said Harvard Ph.D. candidate Kelley Fong. \u201cThe racial history of Boston and the current population of BPS challenges us to think about these policies as we experience them.\u201d James Racanelli from BPS echoed their concerns. \u201cAs we refine what we mean by equitable access to schools, we can better serve those at-risk populations\u2014immigrant families, non-native English speakers, low-income families, etc.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The initial assessment of the 2014 Boston Public Schools Assignment Plan was positive as BPS worked to provide more choices and resources to parents and children in Boston. All panelists agreed that more time and analysis will be required to fully understand the impact of the new plan and determine future steps for increasing the options available to Boston families as they navigate the BPS system.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Patricia Cahill On February 4, 2016, The Initiative on Cities held a panel discussion that brought together Boston Public Schools (BPS) and Boston University community members to discuss the newest BPS Assignment Plan that was rolled out in 2014. This new plan reorganized Boston schools into tiers and normalized the distribution of \u201cquality\u201d schools [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10654,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1,16],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/ioc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4306"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/ioc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/ioc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/ioc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10654"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/ioc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4306"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/ioc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4306\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20467,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/ioc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4306\/revisions\/20467"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/ioc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4306"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/ioc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4306"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/ioc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4306"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}