- Local every day in
Boston Schools Get New Student Assignment Policy
The new program will use a computer-generated list of six schools for parents to choose from based on a variety of factors.
The Boston School Committee adopted a new assignment policy that does away with a decades-old system at a landmark Wednesday night vote.
The new policy will use a computer-generated algorithm to produce a list of six schools for parents to choose from based on distance to school, capacity and MCAS test scores, according to Boston.com. Four of the six schools listed will be of “medium to high quality,” Boston.com reports.
The system will be implemented beginning September 2014.
“Tonight’s historic vote marks a new day for every child in the City of Boston,” said Mayor Thomas M. Menino. “A more predictable and equitable student assignment system that emphasizes quality and keeps our children close to home has been a long time coming for our city. Boston Public Schools have never been stronger – and now is the time to ensure our student assignment process reflects the great progress we’ve made.”
Since 1989, Boston parents had about 24 schools to choose from within three large assignment zones.
The School Committee voted 6 to 1 in favor of the new policy.
Thanks. We'll email you the next time we update this story.
Erica Lewy
11:42 am on Thursday, March 14, 2013
I'm not surprised that it took an MIT student work this out. Hopefully this means that parents will no longer be wrinkling their brows over a list of 15 schools, wondering whether they put them all in the right order. Only time will tell whether this new assignment policy makes a difference for our kids.
Karen Kast
3:04 pm on Thursday, March 14, 2013
FYI The new home-based plan will generate a list of 6 -18 (or more) schools to choose from based on address, quality of the schools closest to address and other factors. I give credit to Peng Shi for his innovation in creating the plan, but have several concerns about what will happen since a lot of the data this plan is based on is in question.
Off to write a recap of the night for my blog.