Good morning. We hope your week went well and that this week will be even better! We wish our Jewish colleagues a happy Rosh Hashanah.
Last week, for a reason that we believe was a third party problem, our Tuesday eBulletin was sent out twice at 4 AM. No big deal, but it was unintentional.
Thursday, October 6 Walk In
On Thursday, October 6, join educators, students, parents and community allies as we mobilize in over 200 cities to stand up for public education. This is an important time to bring awareness to the No On 2 Campaign to Save Our Public Schools, fully fund BPS and create the schools all of our students deserve. In June we had over 100 schools participate. We’d like to see 100% of our schools participate October 6! Reps, please be sure to sign up your school.
Please help our public schools. Wear a button, place a sign, send a postcard, make a phone call. Tell 10 friends and relatives to vote No on 2. See the section below for more ideas and opportunities. Thank you. See our latest ad! And check out this awesome new Q2 video (password: charter).
There were a lot of schools — BLS, BLA, and the Clap — that were downgraded on the state’s evaluation system for what can only be termed a trivial reason. Keep this in mind when looking at the other downgrades as well at Brighton High, Excel High, and the Mattahunt: The state’s rating system is flawed.
At the same time, we do celebrate upgrades even if we don’t have much confidence in the system the state uses to evaluate.
The following schools were upgraded to Level 1: Boston Arts Academy, Boston International and Newcomers Academy (BINcA), Bradley Elementary, Fenway High, Harvard/Kent Elementary, Umana Academy, McKay K-8, Mildred Avenue K-8, Mozart Elementary, New Mission High, Otis Elementary, and Quincy Elementary. Read the School Department’s press release.
To understand how the state’s flawed evaluation system works, see an incisive article by Jack Schneider from Holy Cross in last week’s Commonwealth Magazine: “What makes a Level 1 school?”
Here’s an excerpt:
In short, determining the performance levels of elementary and secondary schools is something that the state should get right. The current formula, however, is seriously flawed. As it stands, the state punishes diverse schools, incentivizes test preparation, and ignores a wide range of factors that are essential to a high quality education. Consequently, the division of schools into levels – a troubling practice that pits schools against each other – can fail to map onto reality…
Levels, like looks, can be deceiving…
Continue reading on the Commonwealth website.