Word: bps
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 2000-2009
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...member of the Cambridge Public School Committee said that Harvard was not doing enough to help close the achievement gap in Cambridge schools, Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino announced that Harvard and four other Boston universities were teaming up to provide at least $5 million to Boston Public Schools (BPS) to reduce racial testing disparities. The unprecedented collaboration, “Step UP (University Partnership)”—which also includes Boston College, Boston University, Northeastern University, and Tufts University—will aid 10 Boston public schools over the next five years, Menino announced last Thursday...
...current plan, which has been proposed in light of legal challenges that forced BPS to cease using race as a factor in their student assignment plan, seeks a return to “neighborhood schools”—assigning students to the schools closest to their homes rather than forcing students to travel to other parts of the city to achieve racial balances. Given that most of Boston’s neighborhoods are far more diverse than they were in the 1970s, this system could potentially reflect the city’s diversity more accurately. It would also...
...last week’s Boston City Council meeting, the opening salvos were shot in what will prove to be a long, protracted but ultimately valuable debate about race and education in Boston Public Schools (BPS). Boston’s famously contentious busing program was a watershed when first instituted in 1974. The court order, issued by Judge Arthur W. Garrity, to racially integrate Boston’s public school system opened a rift along racial lines, the vestiges of which have haunted the city since; images of South Boston residents hurling bricks at school buses have remained etched...
Today, the best way to move past these memories is to tackle them head on. Boston’s demographics have changed so drastically since the 1970s that busing is now inadequate to ensure diversity; BPS currently spends more than $24 million on desegregation busing in a system that is 85 percent minority. It is impossible for BPS to reflect Boston’s true diversity with so few of the city’s white majority (54 percent) remaining in the system—a symptom of the “white flight” that has persisted since...
...especially given his strong ties with the minority communities in Boston—should guide the council toward this new solution. Clearly, the plan must be crafted with significant input from parents and community groups. It must account for the potential influx of students returning to the BPS from private or parochial institutions if residents have more confidence and ownership in neighborhood schools. Such a dramatic increase in enrollment could put a strain on a system already reeling from budget cuts and teacher shortages. The plan must also ensure that schools in highly minority areas do not suffer from...