Friday, November 12, 2021

Change in admissions for Worcester Tech on Monday subcommittee agenda

 Really important conversation happening in Teaching, Learning, and Student Supports on Monday at 5 pm: 


Go to page 10 of the agenda to find the presentation.

You might remember that back in June, the Board of Ed changed the regulations regarding vocational school admissions. This was due to, bluntly, ongoing civil rights concerns around equity of access and attendance at Massachusetts vocational schools. While Worcester Tech is an in-district school, the change in regulations do apply to Worcester Tech. 

The presentation does a good job of walking through where we're at and the alternatives being presented, along with projected outcomes. I'd note that demographic representation is something to which close attention is being paid at various levels.

The two part test to ANY admission requirement--in other words, doing anything other than drawing names out of a hat--is the district has to be able to demonstrate that the requirement, whatever it is, is necessary for participation in the program AND there isn't an alternative. 

I'll also note (and I'll stop with this comment): some of us want to know if students at Tech actually want to study in the programs themselves. 

It's a fully remote subcommittee meeting; you can find the link to the Zoom on the agenda. 
I have a superintendent search meeting that night, so I'll be elsewhere and catch up later. 

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