Not enough people know that this is a thing: one for the map people

You may or may not already be familiar with the Leventhal Map and Education Center (which resides at but is not part of the the Boston Public Library).

They have this Atlascope where they've uploaded maps of Massachusetts and then--here's the fun part--they LAYER then, so you can find places over time!

They recently updated Worcester with a 1911 one, which joins the 1886 layer they already had, which I had to take a photo of part of Tatnuck Square:

 ...because that's Abby Kelley Foster owning the property after Stephen's death. 

It is a big day in Worcester news

 ...as Worcester-born and -raised Frances Perkins is scheduled to have a national monument, a still-unusual honor for a woman!

 President Joe Biden will sign a proclamation Monday establishing a national monument honoring the late FDR-era Labor Secretary Frances Perkins, the first woman appointed to serve in a presidential Cabinet and a driving force behind the New Deal, according to the White House.

Biden is expected to visit the Labor Department on Monday to formally make the announcement and sign the proclamation that will establish the monument in Newcastle, Maine, the White House said.

Perkins is of course also a Worcester Public Schools graduate, as she graduated from Classicial High School before attending Mount Holyoke College.  

Some things to read this weekend

 

Looking for something to read? 

By my count, I'm overdue on at least two blog posts--fingers crossed for this weekend!--but in the meantime, here are some things I recommend reading:

• This Vox piece on how school funding can be part of the repair for segregation, which even includes some parts about federal funding perhaps being used to push. 
  
  
• This piece from Erica Green in yesterday's New York Times on a program through the National Education Equity Lab that gets students into Harvard's Extension School courses and has shown that they have every ability to do the work. It has now expanded to other universities. The results are not only in terms of what it has shown about the students, but has shown the schools: 
  
  “We have not traditionally taken students from certain communities and certain high schools,” Mr. Quinlan said, “and that’s generations of work that we need to overcome.”
  
  
• A plea from a New York City teacher that we stop calling this a "lost generation" that speaks to some of the gains she has seen in her students this remote year.
  
  
• This piece from a rural North Carolina teacher where they're running their school on shifts that reflect the local textile mill. 
  
  
• I have talked a lot about the 1918 pandemic in Worcester and how it has been part of what I have reflected on this year, so it was neat to see more of that in this Telegram & Gazette piece this week. 
  
  
• Sarah Hosseini in The Atlantic asked the very reasonable question of why we have ever sent sick kids to school. 
  
  
• And from a not really education related perspective, this piece in The New Republic on our not-exactly-progressive Massachusetts was today's must read. 

On Abby Kelley Foster Charter and the poster removal

...reported over here, two thoughts:

• while we've certainly seen plenty of examples of this being an issue with charter schools, let's be cautious about an assumption this doesn't happen in district schools.
• if you think that the school's namesake's position on Black Lives Matter and the disproportionate death of young black men by police officers wouldn't be that of Colin Kaeperneck, you don't know much about Abby Kelley Foster. 

Go where you are least wanted, for there you are most needed. -motto of Abby Kelley Foster

Sarah Ellis Wilson, Worcester teacher (and why Worcester wasn't part Morgan v. Hennigan)

image from First Fruits of Freedom: The Migration of Former Slaves and Their Search for Equality
in Worcester, Massachusetts. 1862-1900

From First Fruits of Freedom: The Migration of Former Slaves and Their Search for Equality in Worcester, Massachusetts. 1862-1900 by Janette Thomas Greenwood:

Graduating from Classical High School in Worcester, the city's premier public high school, Sarah Ella Willis [whose parents, who had been enslaved, migrated to Worcester from Virginia after the Civil War] entered Worcester Normal School and graduated in 1894. She subsequently became a beloved teacher in the city's public schools and taught first grade for forty-nine years at the Belmont Street Elementary School. One of first African-Americans hired in the Worcester school system, Wilson was a pioneer, mentor, and role model to countless children, regardless of race or ethnicity.

I had heard of Ms. Willis in passing before, but I did not realize how close her family was to slavery, nor that she herself had attended Classical High. This is history we should know better.



I read Greenwood's book in hopes of discovering why it was that, while Springfield was included in the Morgan v. Hennigan decision (the Boston bussing decision), Worcester was not. Worcester's Black population is and has been much smaller than that of Springfield's or Boston's, but I haven't known enough Worcester history past the beginning of the Civil War to know why Worcester's population of free Blacks (here since the early days of settlement) didn't grow as it did elsewhere. There was growth in the Black population during and after the Civil War as those freed in some cases came north to places familiar through occupation of northern forces or through missionary teachers. It then seems to have halted.

And Greenwood covers this:

After an influx of migrants to Worcester between 1880 and 1890, Worcester's black population languished in the first half of the twentieth century, never exceeding 2 percent of the overall population until 1980. Even the Great Migration, which brought millions of southern blacks to northern cities when the wartime shortages of white labor gave them access to industrial jobs, bypassed Worcester. Ella L. Vindal, who conducted a sociological study of Worcester's black community in the 1920's, noted that it was "not a migrant" community, as was typical in many northern cities during and after the Great Migration...Even as the state's black population grew by nearly 20 percent between 1910 and 1920--increasing at a rate even faster than the overall population--Worcester saw barely any increase at all, growing by only 0.7 percent.  Meanwhile, Springfield's black population increased by 80 percent, Brockton's increased by 50 percent, and Boston's increased by 20.3 percent. It is likely that the city had earned a reputation as an inhospitable place, which would not have been surprising given its negative attitude towards black labor...The city that once attracted fugitive and emancipated slaves alike because of its reputation for "benevolent sympathizers" now had a reputation for its paucity of kindness.

 emphasis added

"Resolved that Massachusetts wears no chains and spurns all bribes"

Storytime!

My most recent review of this is taken from A History of Worcester, Massachusetts (on Google books here; start on page 1448), though it is in all of Worcester's histories of the time.

Worcester often touts itself as the home of the first national women's rights convention, and so its place in suffrage is a bit known. What has somewhat gotten lost is its importance in the fight over the abolition of slavery.
In 1850, the Fugitive Slave Law passed Congress as part of the Compromise of 1850 (the question of what to do with Kansas). This required those in free states to assist in the apprehension and return to slavery of those escaping it. Those not doing so could be jailed and fined. As home to many of the Free Soil party (those who wanted new states to come in as non-slaveholding), Worcester was loud in its offense.
In his inaugural address of the following year, Worcester Mayor Peter Bacon said the following in reference to the Fugitive Slave law:

If it be asked whether it is intended that the police shall, in its official capacity, aid in its enforcement, I answer No.

...and went on say that any officer so doing, he would recommend be removed from office.
Within three years this would be tested in a most public way.
The capture and return to slavery of Anthony Burns in Boston roused the city to indignation in May of 1854. Bells in the churches tolled and the flag on the Common was reversed and raised to half mast.
When it was learned that Asa Butman, the U.S. marshal who had apprehended Burns, was in Worcester in September, the Worcester Spy released the following:

LOOK OUT FOR KIDNAPPERS!

BUTMAN, THE KIDNAPPER OF THOMAS SIMS AND ANTHONY BURNS IS IN TOWN ACCOMPANIED BY ANOTHER OFFICER!!  

When the crowd of volunteers watching his movements grew, surrounding his hotel, and Butman was seen with a pistol in hand, someone swore out a complaint, he was arrested for carrying a dangerous weapon. Upon his giving bail, Butman was so concerned by the crowd that he voluntarily put himself back into custody. A number of abolitionist saw to it that he reached the train station safely; when it was found that he had missed the train, he was put in a carriage with a vow that he would not return to the city.
So far as anyone knows, he never did.

McDuffy redux? (or Legal Action? What Legal Action?)

In response to this section of last night's joint meeting in Worcester--

King: potential legal action...any action as yet?
Foley: "districts across the state that are asking the same questions" #FBRC

— Tracy Novick (@TracyNovick) April 25, 2016

--I got some questions today on just what was meant by "legal action."

Note that I am going to elide a whole lot of history here to get to the basic outlines.

Historically, schools in Massachusetts have largely been funded (as schools across the US) by local property taxes. Thus the taxes on property within a town were the source of revenue for schools within that town. That has the result, of course, of towns that have more property wealth having more money available to them to spend on schools, and of schools in different (and sometimes adjoining) towns having schools that look very different.
As a result, there were a series of cases* filed by districts against the Commonwealth of Massachusetts over the 1970's and 80's. These gained some urgency once Proposition 2 1/2, which limited the growth of local taxation to no more than 2 1/2% per year without an override, passed in the state, as that limited the amount that towns could increase their funding of schools (among other services) every year.
Why sue the state?
John Adams!
Yes, (the perpetually quoted by me) Chapter V, Section II of the Massachusetts Constitution explicitly makes education the "duty of legislatures and magistrates" in the state. Magistrates are the town officials; the legislatures meet, as they always have, on Beacon Hill. And Beacon Hill wasn't doing as much as they could to ensure that kids across Massachusetts were getting a good education.
The cases were consolidated into McDuffy v. the Secretary of the Executive Office of Education, and the Supreme Judicial Court decision was handed down in June 1993. Essentially, the districts won: the state was told to make sure that kids across the state were getting an appropriate education:

...the provisions of Part II, c. 5, Section 2, of the Massachusetts Constitution impose an enforceable duty on the magistrates and Legislatures of this Commonwealth to provide education in the public schools for the children there enrolled, whether they be rich or poor and without regard to the fiscal capacity of the community or district in which such children live. It shall be declared also that the constitutional duty is not being currently fulfilled by the Commonwealth. 

The decision is dated June 15; on June 18, the 1993 Education Reform Act was signed into law. While most know it for it (ultimately) being the reason we have the MCAS exam, it also set parameters for the creation of statewide standards of education, and it created the foundation formula that funds K-12 education in Massachusetts.
The foundation formula is progressive in two ways: it allows higher amounts of funding for greater student need, and it requires the state to provide for greater amounts of the funding needed in less wealthy districts.
The state implemented the foundation formula on a seven year rollout, but a number of districts felt that progress wasn't being made quickly enough and that the results weren't bearing out what was required, so another round of lawsuits were filed, which resulted in Hancock v. the Commissioner of Education in 2005. The results of this case were much more mixed, as the SJC found:

The Governor, the Legislature, and the department are well aware that the process of education reform can and must be improved...The amply supported findings of the judge reflect much that remains to be corrected before all children in our Commonwealth are educated. The Legislature may well choose to rely on these findings as it continues to consider efforts to improve public education. Her findings are also a testament to the many educators, teachers, parents, business and community leaders who insist that, until that goal is reached, they will continue to demand improvement and will seek the help of our elected officials to ensure that meaningful reform is ongoing.

"The presumption exists that the Commonwealth will honor its obligations." Bromfield v. Treasurer & Receiver Gen., 390 Mass. 665 , 669 (1983). I am confident that the Commonwealth's commitment to educating its children remains strong, and that the Governor and the Legislature will continue to work expeditiously "to provide a high quality public education to every child." G. L. c. 69, s 1.

The Hancock decision did, however, leave the door open for the districts to come back if, as time went along, the state was not keeping up its end of the bargain.
And that brings us rather neatly to the Foundation Budget Review Commission, which found precisely that. That's why, as I've heard him say multiple times now, Mr. Allen told the joint committee last night:

"we're cutting from a benchmark that's already inadequate" #FBRC #MAEdu @worcesterpublic

— Tracy Novick (@TracyNovick) April 25, 2016

...and the FY16 benchmark is, for Worcester, over $90 million underfunded by the standards of the Foundation Budget Review Commission.
Thus, if the state doesn't come through on action, there is an argument for re-opening Hancock...a McDuffy redux.
And the state handed us the strongest evidence themselves last November, when they issued the Foundation Budget Review Commission's report.


*including Jordan Levy and others v. the Governor, filed by Worcester's mayor Jordan Levy

Vernon Hill School

Part of my periodic series of inside looks at WPS. As always, if you click the photo, it'll make it bigger.

I was over at Vernon Hill Elementary today, ahead of the impending blizzard. If you're a Worcester resident of any duration, you probably know this building, built in 1931, as Providence Street Junior High:

, 

The front entrance brings you straight through the lobby and hallway into the auditorium, where the stage is backed with a mural of the school:

(That's the new math materials in all those boxes!)

Here's what the room looks like from the front: 

 

Back out in the entryway, there are two murals. 

It says: "The intrepid Diggory Sargent. 

The mural on this wall shows the Indian attack upon the Diggory Sargent House-hold and the subsequen removal of his wife and children to Canada. This school now stands up what was once Diggory Sargent's land.

The attack on the Sargent family happened in the winter of 1703/04 during the second attempted English settlement of Worcester. Sargent had served as an English soldier durin King Philip's War and is said to have refused to leave Worcester even during the conflicts on the edge of English settlement. He was killed in the attack; his wife was killed shortly thereafter. The children were among those carried to Canada; some later returned in Massachusetts.

"The peaceful Indians of Packachoag on the opposite wall.
The more peaceful activities of the Indians are depicted.
John Eliot, Captain Daniel Gookin,  and Sagamore John are here shown in the of Nipmuck Indians atop Packachoag Hill where Holy Cross College now stands."

Eliot, known as "missionary to the Indians," who translated the Bible into Algonquian, shown with Daniel Gookin, Worcester County Sheriff, who was among those charged with founding Worcester, and Sagamore John (Horowaninit of Packachoag, who lead the Nipmucks in the area during early times of English settlement). 

"These mural paintings were made possible through the generosity of the Saint Wulfstan Society, the efforts of the Worcester Public School Art League, and the gifts of the graduating classes 1937B, 1938A and B, 1939A and B, and 1940A and B of the Providence Street Junior High School. Both murals were painted by Will S. Taylor, who attended the Worcester Public Schools before becoming on of the country's outstanding mural artists and a student of the lives and customs of the North American Indians."

Worcester School Committee meets Thursday, August 21 at 4 pm!

Last summer meeting this year! You can find the agenda here.
First up is the first round of the usual summer retirements, resignations, leaves, transfers, and hires.
We have the results of the annual teacher survey, which is coming in as the report of the Superintendent.
We have a report on the average class size at the secondary level (along with the number of teachers carrying more than 125 students).
As I mentioned earlier, we have several proposed changes to the student disciplinary policy, in response to state changes in regulation. Ms. Biancheria also has sought an answer to what change this makes in School Committee involvement in discipline.
Mr. Foley is publicizing the events of September 6, honoring the 1774 events in Worcester.
Worcester Tech is being given $5000 for their robotics team, for School Committe to receive.
Mr. Monfredo is looking for summer school test results.
He's also asking for an update on the Comprehensive Community Responsibility Framework.
Mr. O'Connell recognizes the 2014 Master Mechanic Award, going to Worcester Tech this fall.
We have the innovation plans for:

• Chandler Magnet
• Goddard Scholars
• Goddard School
• University Park Campus
• Woodland Academy

They are up for three year approval by the School Committee.

Ms. Biancheria would like a report on A.P. classes.

She'd also like information on  internships.

Mr. O'Connell is asking about computer coding classes being offered.

We're also being asked to approve a prior year payment totalling $1988.32. 

We will have an executive session AFTER the meeting, to get an update on negotiations with our nurses.

What are you doing September 7?

Why not come help celebrate Worcester (and Worcester County)'s early role in the revolt against the British Crown?

Nearly eight months before the American War of Independence began with the battles of Lexington and Concord, 4,622 militiamen from 37 towns of Worcester County marched down Main Street in Worcester, shut down the Crown-controlled county courthouse and, for the first time ever in the American colonies, effectively overthrew British authority. The date was September 6, 1774 — nine months before Lexington and Concord. Not a shot was fired.

It was Worcester County's militiamen that set the stage. Revolts followed in every single county in Massachusetts outside Boston in the fall of 1774 as a result. It was these revolts that truly ended British rule in the colony and opened the door for citizens to form their own government. The following spring, when General Gage wanted to retaliate against Worcester, his spies warned him not to attack there, where arms and powder were stored and where patriots were too strong. He decided to go after Concord instead.

No one is sure why this story has been untold for so long, but Worcester Revolution of 1774 is out to change that. Across downtown Worcester where the event happened 240 years ago, the American Antiquarian Society, First Congregational Church, Institute Park, North Main Street, Rural Cemetery, Salisbury Mansion, The Oaks, and Tuckerman Hall will be filled with stories, dramatic presentations, children's activities, period craftsmen, colonial militia, interpreters, historical documents, and a reenactment of the Worcester Revolution itself.

They could use help, too!

The Mystery of the Blueprints

...or how there was more than one Classical High.

Earlier this week, I was in the Facilities office, where they keep the blueprints of all of our schools, and I was asked if I could help clear up a mystery. In the file for the Durkin Administration Building, there were pages and pages of blueprints, and it was clear on going through them that they were of at least two different buildings. What was the story?

I pulled the following together from the research I did last year for the Exam/IB Committee report introduction; the introduction does a Worcester Public School history in a few pages (if you didn't read it, it's online here). All of this information is pulled together from several days of research in the library of the Worcester Historical Museum, which is a marvelous place. Any errors--and I'd be interested if you find any!--are of course mine.

By 1871, the coeducational* Worcester Classical and English High on Walnut Street was running out of space. A new building, designed by H.R. Richardson and built by Norcross Brothers, with a portico and a central clock tower, was built on the property at Walnut Street, Maple Terrace, and Maple Street. Known either by its full name or simply as Worcester High School, this was the public secondary school for Worcester for two decades.
By 1892, due to the growth of secondary ed and new ideas about education, the district decided to split the Classical and English programs into separate schools. A new building, English High School, was built on Irving Street of Greenfield brick with brownstone trim; it cost $100,000 to build and had a 35 foot tall flagpole on the roof of the tower.
The property on Walnut Street thus became know simply as Classical High School.
In 1911, North and South High schools opened at their original locations. As they were running the same program as Classical, there were not as many students enrolled in that program.
So, in 1914, due to changes in enrollment, Classical High moved to Irving Street, where it would stay until it closed in 1966.The English program somewhat merged and evolved; it was a new High School of Commerce that opened in the Walnut Street building, and it would be known as Commerce until it closed in the mid-1960’s, as well.
During the course of the early 1900’s, additions were put onto both buildings. The Walnut Street building had at least two additions: one small wing, and the entire building that still stands on Walnut Street (and says “COMMERCE”) today. The Irving Street building had north and south wings that came down in the 1938 hurricane.
The Walnut Street building--Commerce--was sold to Paul Revere Life Insurance in 1966 and the original building was torn down for their new office building.
The 1892 building on Irving Street today is the Durkin Administration Building. 
____________________________
*Secondary education went co-ed in Worcester in 1847 and was highly controversial. Fodder for another post!

Valentine winners!

Congratulations to the winners of the Worcester Historical Museum's annual Valentine contest!

HISTORIC  (any design in the style of valentines made in Worcester from the late 1840s to 1942)

Grade 3                       Caroline Villa                        St. Stephen  School

Grade 4       a tie        Isabella Christie                     Venerini Academy

                                    Kianna Rodriguez                  Lincoln Street School

Grade 5       a tie        Michaela Ortiz                        Seven Hills Charter School

                                    Isabella Zambrano                City View Sch00l

Grade 6                      Lexi LaFratta                         Lake View School

CONTEMPORARY  (an original valentine using designs and non-perishable—especially green--materials of the maker’s choice)

Grade 3                       Nolan Farrell                          Worcester Arts Magnet School

Grade 4                      K.C. Minton                           Francis J. McGrath Elementary School

Grade 5                       Alena Nguyen                        Chandler Elementary School

Grade 6                      Ines Nieves                            City View School

VERSE  (an original verse by today’s valentine maker)

Grade 3                       Sean Bellin                             Midland Street School

Grade 4                      Marc Hilliard                          Belmont Street Community School                                                                                                                                                

Grade 5                       Kayre Molina                          Belmont Street Community School

Grade 6                      Rita Brederson                      Worcester Arts Magnet School

MASTERS  (students in grades 4, 5, and 6 who have won in previous years must enter in the Master’s Competition.  These entries are judged as a group—not by grade level)  

Grade 6                      Sam Levenson                       Worcester Arts Magnet School

Grade 5                       Kayla Collins                          City View School

Please join the winners at an Awards Ceremony on Tuesday, February 11^th,  4:00 p.m. at the Worcester Historical Museum.

The amazing Thomas Wentworth Higginson

Can I recommend that you read Mr. Southwick's column today on Worcester's Thomas Wentworth Higginson? He's most famous, probably, as the publisher who encouraged Emily Dickinson in her poetry, but he was so very much more.
As a Worcester School Committee member, I have a special fondness for this:

As a member of the Worcester School Committee he was the sole supporter of Catholic parents complaining about having their children read to from the King James Bible. For that he was dropped from the committee.

 (it was the 1800's. Worcester also fired a superintendent for seeming too fond of the Catholics.)

Happy World Smile Day!

Isaiah Thomas's star!

O'Connell: conversation with Mo Bergman
gold star was placed on the steps outside of City Hall marking the place where Isaiah Thomas first read the Declaration of Independence in the city of Worcester (in fact, in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as Thomas waylaid the rider heading to Boston from Philadelphia)
appropriate time for the restoration of that star
refer to Council

Ann B. Earle was first

Mr. Southwick has some Worcester--in fact, some state--history for us in his column today:

It is ironic that two Worcester women won political office even before they could vote. Ann B. Earle and Frances Baker were elected to the Worcester School Committee in 1868, the first Massachusetts women to be elected to anything. 

Go read how they got in: a coup in the caucus!
While Mrs. Baker did not serve, Mrs. Earle did, and she won re-election two years later, too. That makes her the first woman to serve in elected office, not only in Worcester, but, as Mr. Southwick says, in Massachusetts.
We should remember her more than we do.

Education in early Worcester history

I'm doing some research for the final report of the exam/IB school Ad-hoc committee. Today's reading: William Lincoln's 1832 History of Worcester, Chapter XV: Education. It opens as follows:

When the original committee of settlement secured the support of the worship of God, they made provision for the education of youth At their first meeting, in 1669, when the untrodden wilderness spread over the territory of Worcester, it was agreed that a lot of land should be 'appropriated for the maintenance of a school and school master, to remain for that use for ever.' In the contract with Daniel Henchman, in 1684, this determination was affirmed; and it was enjoined, 'that care be taken to provide a school master in due season.' When surveys were made after the permanent settlement, a tract of forty acres was granted for the promotion of this object.

The circumstances of the first planters long prevented the commencement of public instruction. The earliest municipal action on the subject was April 4, 1726.In pursuance of a vote of the town, 'the selectmen agreed with Mr. Jonas Rice*to be schoolmaster, and to teach such children and youth as any of the inhabitants shall send to him, to read and write, as the law directs,' until the 15th of December. On the expiration of this term, it was peremptorily voted 'that the town will not have a school.'

(emphasis mine)
Yes, that means that, after it took them 57 years to start their school, they had a single year of school and CLOSED THE SCHOOL. 
But wait! There's more! In 1728, Worcester has to come up with money "to defray the charges of a prosecution, for want of schools;" the fine is suspended, as the town promises to mend its ways, yet it again faces the grand jury "for neglect of its grammar school" in 1785 and 1788. On this and more, Lincoln opines:

It had been well and wisely ordered by the fathers of New England, that each municipal community of sufficient ability, should afford to youth the means of acquiring the languages. The salutary effect of this regulation was little appreciated, and was even regarded as oppressive, in times less enlightened than the present. In 1766, the representative was instructed to endeavor, 'that the law requiring a Latin Grammar School, be repealed, and that not more than one such school should be kept in a county;' and, in 1767, to use his exertions to relieve the people from the great burden of supporting so many schools of this description, 'whereby they are prevented from attaining such degrees of English learning as is necessary to retain the freedom of any state.'

...because teaching those kids Latin...hmph!
In 1757 and several following years, Worcester's schoolmaster? John Adams. It looks a bit as though putting education and its fiscal stability into the Constitution of the Commonwealth may have been the result of first-hand experience!





*yes, after whom Rice Square is named.That area of Grafton Hill was the Rice family homestead.