Worcester Public Schools take up rezoning

I have put off writing anything regarding about this until we had, really, anything to talk about. As a result of this past week's Governance and Operations meeting, we now have a report from Dillinger Research and Applied Data, with preliminary recommendations. I thought that MassLive did a decent job outlining the big points of what is in it (that link is via Yahoo! so is not paywalled); the T&G also did five takeaways. 

The rezoning work is being updated on this WPS page, and this map (which I urge you not to try to examine on a teeny phone screen!) is what they're looking at right now. That also allows you to give feedback.

And while I am sharing useful information up front here, the rest of what they're planning this fall for meetings is this: 

Here are some initial thoughts from me (as usual, speaking solely as myself).

Hearing on the proposed charter school

Hey, so before I start this not-at-all liveblog of the charter school hearing, which will absolutely not cover everything, and which is mostly drawing from my Twitter feed (scroll UP), but also other sources, please note:

YOU CAN STILL SUBMIT TESTIMONY THROUGH JANUARY 4!
It goes to charterschools@mass.doe.edu

And as always, the following is my summary, my work, my commentary, and does not claim to be otherwise. 

As MassLive notes in their coverage: "Of the 13 people that spoke in favor of the charter school, 11 were board members, trustees, teachers or staff at Old Sturbridge Academy or Old Sturbridge Village."

Comments before the Worcester Finance and Operations on FY18 budget

I spoke from notes on Tuesday night, so this isn't word for word; some of what I said made it into the T&G. Again, the presentation from Tuesday is here. 

Please note that I speak tonight only as a parent with three children in the Worcester Public Schools, 'though my perspective is informed by my work at the state level.
I think it's important first to note that Worcester is an outlier this year in having a budget that is growing as it is. While other districts are seeing staff cuts of double and triple digits, Worcester is adding double digits of teachers. The growth in the budget largely due to increased enrollment, which is also unusual. Most districts in Massachusetts have declining enrollment. We should celebrate that, but it also should make us even more active as a district in our advocacy for a revision in the state formula.

I can't help but notice that this is the second year in a row in which the central administration is growing, after several years in which it declined. I don't begrudge the growth--as the budget cites on page 396, Worcester's administration is smaller than most, and, by my calculation, in FY16 was funded at 62% of foundation--but I am concerned about the choice made in where those additions come. Early planning stages of the state's Every Student Succeeds Act planning emphasized social-emotional learning heavily, and thus many districts shifted resources in response. The final plan, however, de-emphasizes this as part of the accountability standards. This is not to suggest that social-emotional learning isn't important, but I question if a cabinet-level administrative position is the best way to do that. A budget that adds, as far as I can tell, no (or few) guidance counselors, adjustment counselors, or psychologists is not most effectively meeting the needs of students. Additions are desperately needed.

As a parent of two secondary students, I find the significant additions of secondary teachers reassuring. Additions not only in core subjects but also in the arts are heartening. I note, however, that the only addition to the Burncoat Magnet program is a single dance teacher 7-12. With the addition of the Hanover Academy to Burncoat, there already is concern in the arts magnet that they will be negatively impacted; no one has reassured them otherwise. A successful program of three decades deserves better treatment than this. Likewise, though the dual language program moves to seventh grade this year, Burncoat Middle has no additional ELL or language teachers. Those parents--and I stress, only the sixth grade parents, as no one has spoken with parents in any other grade; communication on this has been non-existent--were told that the school could only schedule those students to move as a pack. This means those students would see no differentiation of levels, thus leaving those who might otherwise head to AP or Calculus classes unable to do so. Having worked in a secondary school, I know that this is a  matter of wanting to rather than being able to. I would urge the committee to take an interest in this matter and add the sections that might be necessary to give these kids access to all they are able to do.

I note that both the instructional materials account and the building maintenance account are flat funded. Likewise, though the capital repairs list is interesting, and I appreciate the City Manager's reported interest, the capital fund thus far is flat funded. While it is gratifying and important that the city continues to make investments in new buildings and windows, if we don't spend money on regular repairs to the existing buildings, we will need those new buildings that much more often. I would urge the School Committee to be outspoken in their advocacy for additional capital funding to better meet the needs of the district.

Finally, though it is found in two locations in the budget, between the schools budget and the municipal contribution, the spending on police continues to rise. This year, the district will come close to spending a million dollars on policing in our schools. I think it is important to note that, and to question the wisdom of this as a priority in funding.

Likewise, I see that the safety account is budgeted at a hundred thousand dollars this year. Having been in a number of presentations on school safety, most recently last week in one by Sandy Hook Elementary, allow me to point out: you can spend as much money as you like on cameras and buzzers and equipment. If, every time I show up outside a school and push the buzzer, I am buzzed in without any question or look, the schools are no safer than if you'd spent nothing.

A bit more information and plenty of open questions on the Hanover Academy (TM)

The letters of invitation to apply to the new academy at Burncoat came out yesterday (I'll note here that I don't have a child this applies to, but I have seen the letter of invitation). Those with at least one advanced and one proficient score on the fifth grade MCAS/PARCC have received an invitation to the two meetings at 6 pm on Thursday, March 9 or Tuesday, March 14 at Burncoat Middle School, though admission will be "tiered."
The letter says that applications are available on the school's website--as yet they are not--as well as at Burncoat Middle and at elementary schools.

Here's some questions I and others have at this point:

• when and where is the public process around this academy going to be? When is the community going to get a chance to weigh in on if this is what they want to commit district resources--because district resources are involved--to?
• what is the WPS policy around naming of schools and academies? How much money does it take to achieve the same status of what lifelong educators who have buildings named after them gave to this district? 
• what precisely is the agreement with Hanover? How much influence does this company have over what will be happening in this academy? Where is that written? Who has seen it and who has signed it?
• what does this academy do to the rest of Burncoat Middle? to Burncoat High School? What are the impacts on enrollment, class sizes, course selections, other programs? Do the students in this academy have priority within the school?
• what interaction, if any, has this proposed academy had with the multi-year self-study conducted by the K-12 arts magnet? How will this impact their enrollment, course availability, recruitment, retention, transportation? 
• what impacts and what mitigations are intended for what this will do to other schools, given that students with high test scores are now being invited to two Worcester middle schools?
• how does the school committee and administration resolve an admission process based solely on test scores with the continued rhetoric around valuing more than that? How does this align with the purported importance of "parent choice" around state tests, when those who opt not to take state tests are not invited to these programs?

More as I have it. 

The skunks are back

It's March and the skunks are back out. And it's time for a few to show up at this garden party.
I posted some of this on Twitter this morning.

Let's talk about this arts academy at Burncoat. It appears, as it is to be dubbed the "Hanover Insurance Academy," that the Worcester Public Schools are indeed "open for business." We are now raffling off naming rights to, well, it's not even clear that it is to the highest bidder, as no numbers have yet been mentioned.
Our public schools are a public resource. Public goods held in common are only held in common under the public trust. They should not EVER be for sale.
There is always a "good" reason. There is always a need, an emergency, a wish...but once you've sold out, you've sold out.
And it appears we have. In fact, it appears that we aren't even going to have public governance and educator oversight of this project:

"This is about as classic private partnership that you can get," Belsito said "We meet regularly with them. We're not just the financial resources. We want to help develop programs. We want to make sure that the talent that we have at Hanover is helping to complement the great work of the educators here in this building."

emphasis added
By what right and by what training and experience does anyone at Hanover have to "develop programs" in a public school (heck, in ANY school)? Why would Hanover be meeting "regularly" with "them," and who is them? The administration? The site council? The faculty?
Are any of these meetings going to be public? Are any going to involve any elected oversight? Or has Hanover just managed to privatize itself an academy in Worcester?

But that, of course, is only the first problem.

Burncoat already has, and has had for thirty years, an arts magnet. Kids can start in kindergarten at Worcester Arts Magnet, then go straight through Burncoat Middle and High School. It's a program that exists nowhere else in central Mass; I'm not even sure it has a parallel anywhere in Massachusetts. It's among the myriad of underappreciated and too-often-underfunded programs in Worcester that you can't get elsewhere.
The magnet doesn't have an admission policy aside from space (and theoretically, behavior, though that doesn't happen often). The elementary school has a lottery ('though it does take siblings first); the middle and high will take transfer students if there is room.
And magnet students are guaranteed transportation in Worcester.
Thus, kids of all sorts can and do attend the magnet. Does it represent the fully array of Worcester? No. Is it closer than it would be if they used grades or worse yet, test scores?  You bet! And ANY kids who attend Burncoat can be part of the magnet at any point in their schooling, so long as there is room in class and in their schedule.

So how is the new academyTM doing admission? The district is holding...

information sessions for parents whose students were invited to apply for a spot in the academy on March 9 at 6 p.m. and March 14 at 6 p.m. The deadline for parents to apply for their child's sport in the academy is March 31.

emphasis added
This is conjecture, but I'm going to bet here that they didn't comb the record of every child in grade six in the entire district. But there's a very easy report to run off and create a cutoff on: test scores.

And what happens if you use test scores as a proxy for "talent"? You end up with a group that is overwhelmingly middle class and white.
You end up with an academy that doesn't look much like Worcester.

What you do manage is to migrate a bunch of higher test scores to Burncoat, though, And, while Sullivan has Goddard Scholars, and WEMS has the science academy, and Forest Grove draws from the wealthier (and paler) part of town, Burncoat has an arts magnet that doesn't pull based on test scores, so it gets no advantage from its magnet on that count. But only letting kids into their special academy by test score will pull the rest of Burncoat up nicely.

And how do I know this? Because we laid it all out in the report we gave back in 2014 around creating an advanced academy of some kind in the city. Limited admission programs are always, always a problem on this. A school or district not only has to be aware of this; they have to actively plan for this NOT to happen in order to avoid it.
It appears, on the contrary, that this is the end being sought here.

Thus we will have a privatized academyTM for students with high test scores.
What's funny is there's no lack of those around. But those don't dare call themselves public.

President's budget doesn't really increase Title I

Per both Politico and EdWeek, while there is an increase in the dollar amount proposed for Title I, it's essentially just the School Improvement Grant money merging over under the 7% set-aside called for under the new federal education law (and depending on how that works out, districts could get less, rather than even the same amount).
IDEA is frozen, as well.
There's an increase for Career and Technical Ed (up $77M), an increase for preschool development (up $100M), a new "Computer Science for All" proposal ($100M), PLUS Charter School Grants get a $17 million boost over current $350 million and Magnet Schools Assistance gets an additional $18M to bring it to $115 million.
Also, this on an ESSA outcome:

The president's budget is also expected to seek $500 million for the new block grant program in the just-passed Every Student Succeeds Act, into which a number of other programs were consolidated. 

The administration wants to put a twist on that program, though. Instead of having the money go out by formula to states and then districts, as it does under ESSA, it would first go by formula to states, who would then send it out competitively. And the grants would be at least $50,000. 

Under ESSA, districts that receive less than $30,000 from the block grant don't have to abide by the rules in the law for using it. But, if the grants are as big as $50,000 districts who get them would have to spend at least 20 percent on one activity that helps improve student health and safety, and another 20 percent on at least one activity that helps students become more well-rounded. And they couldn't spend more than 15 percent of the funding on technology infrastructure.

U.S. DoE memo is here. 

Arts Magnet Program: Report of the Superintendent

You can find the report here
Arts Magnet program reviewed: assets and challenges, vision that was developed, highlight some recommendations
Four challenges:

• scarcity of resources
• need for facilities improvements
• lack of recognition for arts magnets

Vision middle school with 10 weeks of arts modalities; then move in to twnety weeks of 2 arts

high school integrated in a more formal way in an expanded way

"that their students not be limited by one art form"

more creativity and more control of what happens to middle school students

expand arts curriculum to learn media arts

develop reliable and convenient funding sources

offer alternative and options to middle school students

improved communication 

next steps to create a specific subcommittee to create an action plan

charge those subcommittees 

FY16 budget increase for arts magnet

Monfredo: exactly what we were talking about subcommittee last week

informing parents about the great programs that go on in our schools

thanks to SOFA "have been relentless in supporting the arts"

Biancheria: when we talk about pathways, this is the example

motivation 

gives kids a chance to try things outside of school

O'Connell: some years back there was a sense that arts were more enrichment

dramatic change and evolution 

continue to stress, continue to develop

Foley: found that the best part of the report was the quotes

quirky kids at Worcester Arts Magnet

opportunity for students who want to explore the arts to explore that pathway in an environment that's supportive of it

Ramirez: getting Lesley to do the recommendation: "that's awesome"

Great value 

and then I talked for awhile...
I asked about if the middle school process was changed (right now, kids pick a speciality on entering middle school)...essentially, they're talking about it
I asked if we were talking about the magnet program reflecting the district...response was about getting the word out to parents (and an observation of the change in the dance program in particular, which looks a lot more like the district)
I floated that we should perhaps should consider someone with some authority around scheduling being in charge of the arts magnet program
And I recommended to the administration the specific (and many) mentions of the need for facilities in their recommendations to us

Music Magnet Spring Recital

The citywide Music Magnet program housed at Burncoat High is holding their spring recital:

Monday, March 30

7 pm

First Unitarian Church

90 Main Street

admission is $3

Worcester preschool and kindergarten registration now open!

If you have someone in your house who will be five by December 31, 2015, they can be registered for kindergarten now at the Parent Information Center (508-799-3194) at 768 Main Street. Please bring proof of the child's date of birth, proof of the child's immunization and test for lead, and proof of residency (a utility bill will do it). Kindergarten in Worcester is full day. Visitors to kindergartens are welcome:

• South Quadrant - Week of February 3, 2014
• North Quardrant - Week of February 10, 2014
• Doherty Quadrant - Week of February 10, 2014
• Burncoat Quadrant - Week of February 27, 2014

(if you don't know what quadrant you're in, the list is here) 

Remember that Worcester has school choice on a space available basis. We run magnet programs (in particular) at Jacob Hiatt and Worcester Arts, and a bilingual (Spanish/English) program at Roosevelt and Chandler Magnet. I'd recommend visiting!

WPS is also now accepting applications for preschool at the Parent Information Center for children who will be four by December 31, 2015. Preschool is half-day and is offered at: 

• Belmont Street Community School
• Canterbury Magnet Computer-Based School
• Chandler Magnet School
• City View Discovery School
• Clark Street Developmental Learning School
• Columbus Park Preparatory Academy
• Elm Park Community School
• Francis J. McGrath Elementary School
• Gates Lane School of International Studies
• Goddard School of Science & Technology
• Grafton Street School
• Jacob Hiatt Magnet School
• Lincoln Street School
• Norrback Avenue School
• Quinsigamond School
• Roosevelt School
• South High Community School
• Vernon Hill School
• West Tatnuck School
• Woodland Academy
• Worcester Arts Magnet School
• Worcester Technical High School

Generally, visitors to preschool are welcome; just call the school to set it up.

Fine Arts Magnet Extravaganza TONIGHT!

The students of the performing arts programs in the Burncoat Quadrant are presenting

FAME: Fine Arts Magnet Extravaganza

TONIGHT! 

Worcester Technical High School

7 PM

Tickets are $12 at the door

Joint Committee meeting on transportation part II (local now)

WPS administration:
Allen: One thing to keep in mind is our current contracts are up at the end of this current school year
bid out sometime in December, contracts back by January/February

Worcester School Committee meets this Thursday!

two more meetings this year!
The Worcester School Committee has its regularly scheduled meeting at 7 pm on Thursday at City Hall. You can find...hmmm, no, you can't. Let me get back to you on that. UPDATE: agenda is here. 
You might remember that we had a super-short meeting last time, and many items were held, as both Mr. Foley and Mr. O'Connell were not there. Those have all carried over to this meeting.
We have several recognitions, including the Quinsigamond Land Task Force for cafeteria tables, Worcester Tech for the PRIME Manufacturing award, Team BEMANY for the solar decathlon, the Alden Foundation for their funding of field trips, and Mr. Allen for the Professional Eagle award.
We're getting the Finance and Operations report back from November 12.
We have some retirements and appointments.
We have more than one PARCC item: one on delaying implementation until student accommodations are done, and another recognizing it as an unfunded mandate. To that end, incidentally, you might take a look at this letter that Commissioner Chester sent out to superintendents (no, not to School Committees) regarding the state's authority regarding field testing. As this will be coming up on Thursday, no comment from me on this.
We're inviting members of the Model United Nations team at South to come make a presentation to us about possible expansion.
We're setting some dates and doing some recognitions, including one for the great work of the teachers and students involved in the "Night at the Oscars" program (which is now up online...I'll post it in a bit!).
Mr. O'Connell is concerned about cursive.
We have an item coming in regarding bumping teaching assistant principals to full assistant principals.
Miss Biancheria is asking for an update on the finances around our recent enrollment increases.
She is also asking for an update on 504 plans.
We will also have an executive session (as per usual) at six. 

By the way: you'll see that the agenda has a somewhat irregular profile when it comes to co-sponsorship. About halfway through the time since the last agenda, we started using the system the Attorney General has required in order for us to be in compliance with the Open Meeting Law. Thus the later items are sponsored only by a single member; all co-sponsorship must be done from the floor during the meeting.

Policy handbook is being considered on Thursday

Among the items on Thursday's agenda is the Worcester Public Schools Student handbook, which is the policy manual for students. The proposed changes can be found in the Governance and Employees Issues agenda from last week. I'd look at those changes along with the edited handbook. 

First of all, if you have any thoughts on what is or isn't in the policy handbook, now is the time to let us know. We do a review of this once a year in the spring for the following year, so if you have a thought on what should be in or out, please get in touch.

Beyond that, there are some specific changes that might be of interest:

• First of all, the entire opening piece on page 3 regarding majority and minority students is proposed, by the administration, to be deleted. That would mean that the Worcester Public Schools would no longer have a desegration/deisolation policy. I see from the minutes of the subcommittee meeting that my colleague Brian O'Connell has raised concerns about this, which I share. If you do, too, I'd suggest getting in touch with us and/or being there on Thursday. 
• Second, the school transfer for both magnet and out of district students could now be rescinded "whenever the Quadrant Manager determines that the district school would more likely better support student outcomes than the magnet/out of district school." (that's in the proposed changes). That was not previously the policy.
• It is proposed, in line with DESE policy, that "gender identity" be added to the nondiscrimination statements throughout.
• There are some changes in the languages around testing (I'm planning to propose some changes from the floor on this as well).
• It is proposed that we delete the entire section on excessive tardies and demerits leading to suspensions. 
• We're adding a section on head injuries, per state law.
• We're changing the course graduation requirements to bring us into line with MassCore (four years of math and two of the same foreign language are the changes).
• There's also a change in the calculation of class rank.

Again, this will be decided on THURSDAY. Please get in touch with concerns or thoughts!

Comments before the Council

...are here. And in full after the jump.

Burncoat High Music Magnet graduate appointed to the New York Philharmonic!

Congratulations to Max Zeugner, a graduate of the music magnet program at Burncoat Middle and High Schools and Elm Park Community School, on his appointment to the double bass section of the New York Philharmonic Orchestra! From performing arts liaison Lisa Leach:

Max began studying guitar and electric bass with Joe D’Angelo at the Joy of Music Program and Burncoat Middle School. Upon his arrival at Burncoat High School, teachers Carol Castonguay and Deborah Cole encouraged Max to study the double bass. Max participated in lessons, ensembles, and master classes during his time at Burncoat and began working with several professional chamber groups, including the Apple Hill Center for Chamber Music. 
Since then, Max has studied with the world’s best instructors, including Edwin Barker. He has performed locally and internationally, most recently with the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra in Manchester, England and the Worcester Chamber Music Society. His parents, Alice Valentine and John Zeugner wish to commend the staff of Burncoat High School and the Music Magnet Program in particular for the outstanding preparation and education all three of their children received.

Congratulations, Max! We're proud of you!

Magnet schools

where do we have magnet schools, what are their programs, which ones are functioning
how are we balancing them

also some of our innovation schools maybe are revitalizing magnets (or could?)
This one is my item, and is connected to the previous one

Biancheria asks for a definition of a community school, a magnet school, and an innovation school

Millions or Mrs. Irvine

Excellent article in today's New York Times on Burlington, Vermont's decision to remove a popular, effective principal in order to qualify for federal turnaround money:

Ms. Irvine’s most recent job evaluation began, “Joyce has successfully completed a phenomenal year.” Jeanne Collins, Burlington’s school superintendent, calls Ms. Irvine “a leader among her colleagues” and “a very good principal.” ...

While doing her regular job, Ms. Irvine also developed a new arts curriculum. She got a grant for a staff trip to the Kennedy Center in Washington for arts training. She rented vans so teachers could visit arts magnets in nearby states. She created partnerships with local theater groups and artists. In English class, to learn characterization, children now write a one-person play and perform it at Burlington’s Very Merry Theater.

A sign of her effectiveness: an influx of new students, so that half the early grades will consist of middle-class pupils this fall.

Ms. Irvine predicts that in two years, when these new “magnet” students are old enough to take the state tests, scores will jump, not because the school is necessarily better, but because the tests are geared to the middle class.

Well worth reading the entire article, particularly for the fifth grader, a recent immigrant, was certain that the passage on Neil Armstrong was fiction: “He said, ‘Oh, Mrs. Irvine, man don’t go on the moon, man don’t go on the back of eagles, this is not true.’ ”

Read the whole issue

It looks like the next issue of The Nation is very, very relevant to what's calling itself "ed reform" recently. The cover story gives an excellent summary of where we've been and where the Obama administration is taking us:

Before his election President Obama carved out what many regarded as a more progressive and enlightened position on education reform. Recognizing that No Child Left Behind (NCLB) had become widely unpopular because of its overemphasis on standardized tests, he declared, "Don't tell us that the only way to teach a child is to spend too much of the year preparing him to fill out a few bubbles in a standardized test." He pledged to lead the nation in a different direction.

We are still waiting for a change of course. Since the election, the president and his secretary of education, Arne Duncan, have adopted policies that, to the chagrin of many of their supporters, have had far more in common with the previous administration than expected.

You can also read an article by the woman many of us hoped would have Duncan's position, Linda Darling-Hammond, comparing the United States to other countries and assessing what it actually would take the pull ourselves up:

Rather than establishing a framework for dramatically improving the knowledge, skills and equitable distribution of teachers, as high-achieving nations have done, Race to the Top encourages states to expand alternative routes to certification and to reduce coursework for prospective teachers, despite findings that hiring teachers from low-coursework alternatives reduces student achievement. Further, Race to the Top largely misses the critical investments needed to prepare and distribute excellent teachers and school leaders. Pay bonuses alone cannot succeed in recruiting and retaining teachers without efforts to create competitive, equitable salaries and working conditions. Removing low-performing teachers cannot improve teaching or student outcomes without strategies to ensure a stable supply of highly effective teachers who stay in their communities.

There's also an article on the too-oft-ignored magnet programs, which have been, for forty years, successfully working with all kids. You can also read about community schools (something ELSE Worcester has been doing), and real innovation. Oh, and Diane Ravich is in there, too.

School choice: report for tonight

Bob Vartanian (who runs the Parent Information Center) is talking tonight about school choice tonight.
School choice: outside of Worcester can be taken to attend kindergarten only. McGrath Elementary takes those students, historically. This year, children attended other kindergartens, depending on what sending community they were coming from.
Worcester children choosing to attend those schools get to pick first (if it's outside their neighborhood).

Inter-choice: kids within the city that want to go to a school other than their neighborhood school. (This no longer can be suggested/determined by race per the Supreme Court decision.) So long as there is space avaliable, Worcester children may attend the school of their choice. Quadrant managers make these decisions; appeals go to Bob.
133 children from outside of Worcester started the year; 32 have since left. 101 children are attending WPS past kindergarten (kids that have moved outside the city and chosen to stay in school in the city).
Children must stay within the quadrant that they started school in (if you move to Holden while attending Nelson Place, you can stay in the city, but have to attend Forest Grove, for example).
Nine children are ch.74 kids, attending Tech from outside the city.
Nine children from outside the city are registered for kindergarten for next year.

He's suggesting to the admin that we take kids on a space avaliable basis for kids in older grades. Bob estimates that he gets 15 or more requests from kids outside the city wanting to come here.

685 kids registered for kindergarten this year that were 4 year olds.
Question on how many kids who enter at 4 are asked to repeat kindergarten? Most, Bob says from past experience, succeed.
How do you go about researching school choice? Where do you start?
Previously we did put children in schools based on race; we no longer do that. Children in a school out of their neighborhood have chosen to be there. Most of our kids are racially imbalanced now. "We're moving children from any school to any school based on space."
There's an application for voluntary grade level, K-12.
Decisions are made sometime in May. Repealed decisions may be appealed during the summer.
"It's up to the principal looking at their table of organization"
37% of the 14,000 elementary kids go to a school other than their neighborhood schools.
Six magnet schools, only two don't have a neighborhood they draw from: Jacob Hiatt and Tatnuck Magnet (Worcester Arts Magnet is a lottery, as is Jacob Hiatt.).
Siblings aren't separated, either.
400-600 calls about preschools, for which we are not yet taking applications for next year.

High school choices are done partly based on student behavior. There's been some talk about registering everyone downtown.

What is the process of informing people about these programs?
Open houses at high schools and middle schools--parent comments that this isn't covered during the open houses.
Monfredo says that we should treat it as a private school: "We want you to go here."
Home quadrant students get to choose first (for example, for arts programs)
"We move a lot of kids in grades 7-12...what they won't do is move a kid in 11th grade."
"not a central way for any parent who doesn't have information to know that..."
Bob says it's the principals.
"There's not a portal for parents" to get this information.
Request from admin a report on communicating to parents for middle and high school choices.
Question on magnet schools, as well...how do kids get in there? how do we know about those?
Mention about special ed students...narrowing of options for kids in particular programs
Monfredo says he'll file the motion at School Committee as well.

Three people doing registration, no greeter...see over 12,000 people a year.
You know, maybe we could get volunteers to do that part?
Online, changed year to year, in parent guide...

Doing more of what we're already doing?

A new study out by Columbia University is draws a conclusion that Worcester ought to be looking closely at as we "Race to the Top": it seems that magnet school programs and other programs that mix students with others out of their neighborhoods have a greater rate of success than those that create charter and other programs in their neighborhoods. EdWeek's summary:

After examining the nation's eight remaining desegregation programs that enable disadvantaged students to cross school district boundary lines to attend more-affluent, suburban public schools, the researchers conclude that the programs are "far more successful than recent choice and accountability policies at closing the achievement gap and offering meaningful school choices."

It's a fascinating conclusion that runs counter to most of the methods and strategies at work in public education right now to close the achievement gap. The authors acknowledge that the programs--in Boston, East Palo Alto, Calif., Hartford, Conn., Indianapolis, Milwaukee, Minneapolis, Rochester, N.Y., and St. Louis--are "out of sync" with current practice. Except for the program in Minneapolis, all have been in place for at least two decades, and all the programs stem from court rulings and legislation meant to create equitable educational opportunities for disadvantaged students.

Worcester's magnets were originally constructed as a desegregation effort; they don't have the scope of Boston's METCO program, but they do a similar thing.