Boston Public Schools Suspends Advance Classes Due To Lack Of Diversity

MIKI Yoshihito via (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/) Flickr

Boston Public Schools have suspended advanced classes for 4th – 6th grade as a result of these classes not being diverse enough.

These advanced classes were for students that preformed well on a special test given to students. 453 students received invitations to the program, 143 students applied to the program and 116 were enrolled in the advanced classes.

Boston Public Schools are 80% Black and Hispanic while the program has 70% White or Asian students.

From GBH News: 

Superintendent Brenda Cassellius recommended the one-year hiatus for the program, known as Advanced Work Classes, saying the district would not proceed with the program for new students next year.

“There’s been a lot of inequities that have been brought to the light in the pandemic that we have to address,” Cassellius told GBH News. “There’s a lot of work we have to do in the district to be antiracist and have policies where all of our students have a fair shot at an equitable and excellent education.”

Following publication of this story, Cassellius told GBH News that equity concerns about the advance work program were not the motivation for suspension of the test this year. She said the test suspension was only a consequence of the pandemic making it impossible to administer the test.

Many online are railing the Advance classes program as racist while many are railing what is being called a politicization of the education system by activists.

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