Idea to eliminate entrance exams opposed
A group of parents and alumni plan to rally on the front steps of Boston Latin School on Sunday to protest a proposal to eliminate in the 2021-2022 school year the test students have to pass to get into the city’s three prestigious public exam schools.
“This was a very big surprise when it was announced on Oct. 8, and now the school committee could decide on it this Wednesday,” said Bruce McKinnon, member of BLS’s class of 1974. “These schools are considered some of the finest in the nation.”
A working group will hold an information session from 5 to 6:30 p.m. Monday about the group’s recommendation to the school committee on the criteria and process for admission to Boston Latin School, Boston Latin Academy and the John D. O’Bryant School of Mathematics and Science.
Currently, about 2,000 to 3,000 students take an exam for a total of 1,000 seats each year at the three schools, and admission is based 50% on the test results and 50% on students’ grade point average.
A district spokesman did not return a phone call or an email about the proposal to change that for the next school year.
But a report by three of the working group’s nine members this week says that its goals are to “ensure that students will be enrolled through a clear and fair process for admission in the 21-22 school year that takes into account the circumstances of the COVID19 global pandemic that disproportionately affected families in the city of Boston” and to “work towards an admissions process that will support student enrollment at each of the exam schools such that it better reflects the socioeconomic, racial and geographic diversity of all students (K-12) in the city of Boston.”