Councillors seek hearing on exam school admissions

City Councillors Andrea Campbell (District 4 - Dorchester) and Kim Janey (District 7 -Roxbury) want to look at ways to increase black and Latino enrollment at the city’s three exam schools - including possibly replacing scores from the Independent School Entrance Exam (ISEE) now used to help determine entrance with results from MCAS tests.

Campbell, a graduate of Boston Latin School, and Janey say the ISEE is fundamentally unfair to minority students because it includes topics not taught in Boston grades before kids take the test for seventh-grade enrollment, including algebra, which means kids whose parents pay for expensive prep classes are better prepared. BPS offers free prep classes, but has had problems enrolling black and Latino students in them.

In their formal request for a hearing on the issue, which the council will consider this week, the two councillors said that while BPS as a whole is 75 percent black and Latino, only 40 percent of the three exam schools are – a rate that drops to 20 percent at Boston Latin.

In addition to ISEE, the councillors say they also want to look at grading differences between BPS and local private schools, which might also hurt minority applicants for the exam schools.


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