Winship Elementary Accredited in Early Childhood Education

Two schools in the Boston Public Schools system have recently been accredited in early childhood education by the National Association for the Education of Young Children, including the Winship Elementary School in Brighton.

Winship joins the Baldwin Early Learning Center -- which gained accreditation in 2007 -- as the second public school in Allston-Brighton to receive this distinction. The North Zone, which contains Allston-Brighton, also boasts a third school with the accreditation -- the East Boston Early Education Center.

Said BPS Superintendent Dr. Carol Johnson:

“NAEYC is the gold standard by which all early childhood education programs are judged, and we are pleased to see so many BPS schools undertaking this rigorous process to strengthen and improve teaching and learning for our youngest students."

Mayor Thomas Menino has set a goal to provide universal pre-kindergarten in the Boston Public Schools. The accreditation process evaluates the curriculum, assessment, and environment of the school against national standards.

Via All About BPS.

Mayoral Candidate Flaherty Sends Children to School a Day Early

In an email message sent out Wednesday morning (September 9th), Councilor-At-Large Michael Flaherty, who is also running for Mayor of Boston this year, talked about sending his three kids off to their first day of school today:

As my wife, Laurene, and I prepared our kids - Michael, Jack and Ella - for their first day of school this morning, we had to balance the excitement and anxiety that all children experience when beginning a new school year. As a parent of three children in the Boston Public Schools (BPS)...

Does anyone want to break the news to him that the Boston Public Schools open for grades 1-12 starting tomorrow (September 10th), not today? I hope he didn't just drop off the kids at the school and drive away...

Community Forums on Boston School Reorganization Plan

The Boston School Committee and Carol Johnson, Superintendent of Boston Public Schools, will be holding a series of community forums and School Committee meetings in order to present and discuss the reorganization plan which will close five elementary schools across the school district, as well as merge other schools and add several pilot schools.

The proposed reorganization plan will directly impact Allston-Brighton by closing two schools -- Hamilton Elementary and Garfield Elementary -- while merging some of their students into the Edison School, which will expand from offering grades 6-8 to being a K-8 school. Mary Lyon School, which is currently K-8, is proposed to expand to go through 12th grade by expanding into the Garfield school's buildings down the street. Mary Lyon would become a pilot school (at least the high school part of it).

Allston-Brighton is part of the North Zone in the Boston Public Schools. A North Zone Community Forum will be held on Tuesday:

North Zone Community Forum
Tuesday, October 7th, 6:00 pm
Orchard Gardens K-8 School
906 Albany Street, Roxbury

Two other community forums will be held elsewhere in the city on October 14th and 16th.

The Boston School Committee will be meeting on the issue on October 15th and 29th, with the expectation that they will be voting on the plan during the October 29th meeting:

Boston School Committee Meetings
Wednesdays October 15th and 29th, 6:00 pm
Edward Winter Chamber
26 Court Street, Boston [downtown]

The October 1st meeting of the school committee, in which Superintendent Johnson announced the reorganization plan, can be viewed online (requires RealPlayer).

Image of Boston School Committee and Superintendent Carol Johnson from BPS website.

Brighton School Closures and Reorganizations Announced

Carol Johnson, Superintendent of the Boston Public Schools, tonight announced a proposal for school closings and reorganizations affecting four schools in Brighton, according to boston.com .

As I anticipated earlier today, Garfield Elementary School (grades K-5) is slated for closure so that the building can be converted to a new, pilot high school (grades 9-12) affiliated with the Mary Lyon School (currently K-8) down the street.

The Hamilton Elementary School (grades K-5) will merge into the building currently housing the Edison Middle School (currently grades 6-8), in order to create a new Edison School that is K-8. The Hamilton school's buildings will presumably be left unused by BPS.

These moves seem to indicate that Allston-Brighton will be seeing a reduction in available seats for elementary school (I'm guessing at a loss of 200 K-5 seats) and middle school (another guess at a loss of 200 students in grades 6-8), but an increase in seats for high school due to the new Mary Lyon upper grades school. Hamilton Elementary currently has approximately 175 students, Garfield Elementary has nearly 200, and Edison Middle has over 500.

Current Superintendent Johnson and former acting Superintendent Michael Contompassis both have indicated that they wanted BPS to move towards more unified K-8 school experiences. In some cases, that can be accomplished by merging schools in a single building (as is now proposed for the Hamilton and Edison merger at the Edison site), or by creating "feeder school" arrangements (where students leaving the lower school are automatically assigned to the upper school, unless parents request a transfer).

All three schools facing closure or transfer (Hamilton, Edison, and Garfield) had new principals named earlier this summer.


Text of Superintendent Johnson's proposed reorganization plan


Image of Thomas Edison statue [right] by Richard Elzey, and image of Alexander Hamilton statue [left] by OZinOH, both provided through a Creative Commons license.

Note: an earlier version of this post, based on incorrect information from boston.com, incorrectly noted that Edison and Hamilton schools would merge on the Hamilton school site. The combined school will be housed at the Edison school site.

Will a Brighton School Be On Tonight's Closure List?

A plan to close four to six schools will be unveiled at tonight's meeting of Boston's School Committee by Carol Johnson, Superintendent of the Boston Public Schools. The closures are being proposed to respond to declining enrollment and a budget shortfall.

Will an elementary school in Brighton be on the list of closures?

Superintendent Johnson has provided no advance warning of which schools will close, but has provided the latest indication that Brighton's Mary Lyon school -- which is currently a K-8 school -- will be approved to expand with a high school to become a K-12 school, according to the Boston Globe:

Her recommendations also include some new pilot schools to give administrators more autonomy to execute innovative programs. She said the Boston Teachers Union will start its own pilot school next year, while she'll support the desire of the Harbor Middle School to expand to grade 12 and for the Mary K. Lyons K-8 School to add a high school, which would be a pilot school.

The Mary Lyon high school would be the latest addition to Boston's twenty-or-so pilot schools, those with governance autonomy in setting their budget, work rules, curriculum, assessments, and school policies. It is not surprising that BPS would look favorably at the Mary Lyon proposal, since its elementary school is one of the best performing in the city.

The problem: Mary Lyon has little available real estate to accommodate the high school expansion. It's hard to imagine adding a high school building of any size to their existing property.

My prediction for the solution: Garfield Elementary School, which is literally down the block from Mary Lyon, will be on the list of schools to close. More specifically, Garfield would be "reprogrammed" in order to convert its elementary school buildings into the high school expansion proposal for Mary Lyon.

The Garfield facilities can accommodate substantially more students -- and it has done so in past years -- than current enrollment at the school. The unused facilities at the school are a visible symptom of the declining enrollment problem in BPS, which has experienced a 7 percent decline in enrollment district-wide since 2003.

Most other elementary schools in Allston-Brighton are unlikely targets for school closure in today's announcement, at least in my mind. The Jackson-Mann K-8 school has many programs which could not easily be relocated: pre-kindergarten; Horace Mann School for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing; special needs class; and a community center. The Gardner Pilot Academy converted to pilot school status a couple of years ago and is showing signs of strong leadership and expanding community support -- although BPS turned down its proposal to expand to K-8 from K-5. Baldwin Early Learning Center is the only pilot school among the BPS's early education centers (which serve pre-kindergarten through first grade), and last year received accreditation by the National Association for the Education of Young Children. The Winship School has shown strong gains in MCAS scores recently, particularly with the school's recent focus on science education, and was recently renovated. Only the Hamilton Elementary School might be considered a candidate alongside the Garfield for closure in Allston-Brighton.

The challenge faced by the superintendent and the school committee is to justify any school closing not just on the existing realities of enrollment and budget, but also on how the modified schools in the area -- whether reprogrammed from elementary to high school, or students transferred to other surrounding schools -- will be improved in such a way to benefit the children. Will a new high school, building on the proven track record of Mary Lyon School, create a new center for learning in western Brighton that acts as a magnet for keeping families in the area? Will transferred elementary students now have access to improved science facilities, better after-school options, or expanded arts and music education opportunities? The committee and superintendent will now have a job of salesmanship, regardless of which schools they recommend for closure.

Sure, this is all speculation... and we'll know more after tonight's meeting of the Boston School Committee at the Edward Winter Chamber at 26 Court Street, Boston, at 6:00 pm.


Image of Mary Lyon from the National Women's History Museum.

Disclosure: the author is the co-chair of the Governing Board at the Baldwin ELC in Brighton, a pilot school. Any opinions expressed here represent mine alone, and not those of any other group or organization.

Three Brighton Seniors Are Valedictorians at BPS High Schools

Three Brighton high school seniors earned the honor of valedictorian in their graduating class at their schools.

Siu (John) Lee, Ruo Chen, and Keaboka Nyumbu have been named valedictorians of Another Course to College in Brighton, Brighton High School, and Odyssey High School (PDF link) in South Boston, respectively. All are high schools in the Boston Public Schools. Information provided by BPS Director of Public Affairs Jonathan Palumbo indicate that their countries of origin are Hong Kong, China, and Lesotho, respectively.

Lee has not decided where he will attend college next year, but the other two have: Chen will enroll in Harvard University and Nyumbu will attend Northeastern University.

There are two other secondary schools located in Allston-Brighton: Vivian Mbawuike of Mattapan and Natalie Bellevue were named valedictorians of the Boston Community Leadership Academy (PDF) in Brighton and the Horace Mann School for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing in Allston, respectively.

Of the 38 valedictorians in BPS's high schools, one (Chen) will attend Harvard University, three will attend Boston College, and two or three (decision not finalized) will attend Boston University.

The students were celebrated at a luncheon last Tuesday at the Boston Harbor Hotel attended by Mayor Thomas Menino, BPS Superintendent Dr. Carol Johnson, and Boston School Committee Chair Dr. Elizabeth Reilinger.

The BPS press release can be found here (MS Word format document) and a spreadsheet listing the students and schools can be found here (MS Excel format document). Via All About BPS blog.


Image of diploma by gadgetdude provided through a Creative Commons license.

NY Times: Brighton High School College Preparatory Program Successful

The New York Times ran a front-page story Thursday featuring the recent success of Brighton High School in not only getting more urban students to graduate, but in preparing them for -- and then getting into -- college:

Those efforts, and others across the country, reflect a growing sense of urgency among educators that the primary goal of many large high schools serving low-income and urban populations — to move students toward graduation — is no longer enough. Now, educators say, even as they struggle to lift dismal high school graduation rates, they must also prepare the students for college, or some form of post-secondary school training, with the skills to succeed...

At Brighton High in Boston, for the first time this year, John Travers, the head of counseling, and his staff visited every freshman English class to begin mapping out the steps toward college: Maintaining a high grade point average. Taking tough classes. Building a résumé...

In 2005, 74.2 percent of the graduating seniors went on to post-secondary education: of those, 56 percent went to four-year colleges, 33 percent to two-year schools and 11 percent to advanced training, Mr. Travers said. The colleges at the top of the list: Bunker Hill Community College, the University of Massachusetts at Boston and Massachusetts Bay Community College.

A couple of comments posted online by readers:

I don't understand how anyone can defend lowering expectations for some of our students. In my view, that has been the problem for far too many years. Perhaps some students will fail, but we degrade them by not holding them to the same standards of excellence that we expect of our best and our brightest.
— Ken Schwarz, New York City

College is not being presented as the only option, nor is it being propositioned as a definite. The point of early college awareness is to tell ALL students, regardless of their socioeconomic situations or neighborhoods, that if they want to go and if they work hard enough, they can go to college. It becomes a possibility. In a country where we harp on the idea that opportunity comes with hard work, we should allow everyone the possibility to have as many options or ideas for their own futures as possible. Presenting college as an option in no way negates the option of trade school or the military; it merely broadens the way students can think about their lives and what they want for themselves. I find it appalling that we should limit and stifle the conversation about higher education in order to keep our workforce in line. Education isn’t just about money; it’s about seeing the world and ourselves from new and different perspectives. All post-secondary options should be presented to students, so they can take ownership over the trajectory of their own lives.
— l.o., Massachusetts

Of course, this distinction for Brighton High School piles on top of their victory last month in the state's high school Division 4 Super Bowl, thereby completing an undefeated season, and a National Bronze Medal awarded by U.S. News and World Report. And how can we forget their contribution to the human flag to celebrate Brighton's 200th anniversary?

Via the All About BPS.

Mayor Menino Reopens School Assignment Process

In his State of the City Address this week, much of the attention has been focused on Mayor Thomas Menino's newfound effort to take on the firefighter's union in the ongoing collective bargaining negotiations.

Buried at the end of the Boston Globe article, however, was a nugget from a different topic altogether: the Mayor wants to revisit the school assignment process within the Boston Public Schools.

This is no small issue. School assignment was at the heart of the Boston busing wars of the 1970s that lead to federal court intervention in 1974 and a mandatory busing program in 1975. It is a charged issue, because reverting to "neighborhood schools" could potentially pit neighborhoods with better-performing schools against those with worse-performing schools


Current Three-Zone Model for School Assignment

Boston Public Schools is no longer under federal court oversight over its school assignment policy. In 2000, BPS modified its assignment program so that 50% of all seats in schools would be set aside in the first round of school assignment for students living within the walk-zone, which is a one-mile radius for elementary schools and one-and-a-half mile radius for middle schools. (High schools are all city-wide.)

The other 50% would be filled by a lottery within each of three school zones: North Zone (Allston-Brighton, Back Bay, Charlestown, downtown, and East Boston), East Zone (Hyde Park, Dorchester, Mattapan, and South Boston), and West Zone (Roxbury, Jamaica Plain, Roslindale, and West Roxbury). The zones were setup in 1988 and rolled out in 1989, as BPS was phasing out court-oversight, a way that ensured overall diversity in the school population within each zone, although there is substantial variation in, for example, ethnicity and economic status across each zone.



Since 2000, BPS has not used ethnicity in the school assignment process. The U.S. District Court ruled in 2003 that these three zones are no longer being used in order to provide racial balancing among them. The three-zone structure remains, however, and contains elongated zones that cause many children to have long bus rides. Trying to make those zones more compact in order to minimize bus usage and travel times is the point of the Mayor's initiative.


Six-Zone Models Examined in 2004

Back in 2004, the city tried revisiting the school assignment policy, but failed to come to a consensus on a plan. It is likely that many of the proposals put forward in 2004 will be raised again now in 2008, so it is worthwhile to take a look back at them.

The report of the Student Assignment Task Force on September 22, 2004 said:

Although the Task Force could not reach full consensus on the appropriate number and configuration of assignment zones, a majority of the group recommends that the current three-zone structure be replaced by a six-zone elementary and three-zone middle school structure, delineating a "primary" and "secondary" zone of school choices for every family.

The problems the task force found in the six-zone models, however, was more fundamental. There is an invisible vertical (actually north-northeast to south-southwest) line bisecting the city, where the schools on the western side outperform those on the eastern side in nearly all of the quality indicators they inspected. Three better performing zones result on the east, and three worse-performing schools on the west, in those six zone models. That invisible line is one key factor that led to the elongated structure of the three zones in the current model.

The task force preferred the idea where there were secondary zones matched to the first, with some choice allowed across those boundaries. It seems like the only way that equity could be achieved would be to pair primary and secondary zones that cross the vertical invisible line: Zones 1 and 3 are paired, 2 and 4, and 5 and 6:



In the six-zone model, Allston-Brighton has a "primary" zone 2 along with Fenway/Kenmore and Jamaica Plain; A-B's zone 2 is then paired up as having a "secondary" zone 4 consisting of Roxbury and South Dorchester.

These primary-secondary zone pairings create combined zone structures that look to me as every bit as unwieldly as the three-zone structure. Parents near Brighton Center may still have lots of schools to choose from, but their most distant options are now in South Dorchester instead of Charlestown or East Boston -- basically, just as far away. You might save a few bucks overall on gasoline for the buses, but it will only a few bucks because there will still be some very significant bus rides. The Globe story quotes the Mayor as wanting to cut up to $10 million from the $40 million (current) to $60 million (in five years) expenditures on busing.

The Mayor will find a hard time re-jiggering zones like these without creating newer, smaller zones that show increased disparity among them in the school performance indicators.


Walk Zone Preference and Neighborhood Schools

Modifying the walk zone preference percentage could very well be a another approach to school assignment reform also explored by the Mayor in his new initiative.

The School Committee has tweaked walk zone preference repeatedly over the last two decades. The 1990 K-12 rollout of the three-zone model increased walk zone preference from 50 to 75%. Variations of the walk zone preference were allowed to vary somewhat from school to school in 1996 based on changes to the waiting list policy, which resulted in some schools having 100% of students from the walk zone, i.e., a fully "neighborhood school" for those cases. The walk zone preference was reduced back to 50% in 2000, which is its present structure.

Back in October 2007, I posed a written question to the City Councilor-At-Large candidates regarding school choice:

Some people have proposed that the BPS return to “neighborhood” or “community” schools. Do you support such a proposal? How would such a move impact the achievement gap?

The answers, even pared down to those who won election, varied significantly. Councilor John Connolly gave clear support for the neighborhood school model. Councilor Sam Yoon gave his support for it only if "every school aged child in every neighborhood has access to a quality school", which he also said is a criterion not currently satisfied. Councilor Michael Flaherty appreciated the idea of community schools but considered it "unrealistic and socially reckless to go to 100% neighborhood schools overnight."

Snow Emergency; Boston Public Schools Closed Monday

City Declares Snow Emergency - Sunday 1/13/2008


Mayor Thomas M. Menino today declared a snow emergency in anticipation of forecasted heavy snowfall tonight. The snow emergency and parking ban will go into effect at midnight tonight. Putting public safety as the top priority, Mayor Menino reminded residents of the following:

# Move cars from main arterials during snow emergencies. A listing of main arterials can be found at: www.cityofboston.gov/snow/parking.asp

# Do not park cars within 20 feet of an intersection. Parking too close to an intersection can restrict emergency vehicle access.


# Do not throw snow back into the street. "Throwbacks" force the city to remove snow from the same street twice.

# Shovel out fire hydrants close to your home.


# Property owners are reminded to shovel snow from sidewalks that abut homes and businesses.


# Do not double park.

# Keep wheelchair ramps clear.


# Check on elderly and neighbors and others in need.


During declared snow emergencies, discounted parking is available at several parking lots and garages to cars that display Boston resident parking stickers. A list of locations is available at www.cityofboston.gov/snow.

Residents with storm-related questions or concerns should call the City of Boston Storm Center at (617) 635-3050.


Boston Public Schools

Closed for Monday, January 14, 2008

Gardner Extended Services School Renamed the Gardner Pilot Academy

At Wednesday's meeting of the Boston School Committee, they approved a name change for Allston's Thomas Gardner Extended Services School.

The school is now named the Gardner Pilot Academy.

The school completed its transition to a pilot school earlier this year.


Other News in Pilot Schools

The current Boston Teachers Union contract allows for an additional seven Boston Public Schools to become pilot schools. Boston Foundation President Paul Grogan thinks that there has been a four-year delay in pushing for new pilot schools, and threatened to send some money to state-chartered schools -- unless Boston keeps pushing for more pilot schools -- according to the Boston Globe.

The hang-up? Despite the fact that pilot school teachers remain in their collective bargaining unit, keep the same pay and benefits, and continue to accrue seniority just as they would in a standard BPS school, the BTU appears to be fighting against new pilot schools. The Globe writes that "while voicing its support for the schools, the teachers union has continued to push for a variation that would allow educators to retain their union rights." Those rights have to do with hours and workplace conditions, not pay.

New School Superintendent Carol Johnson seems to be renewing the push for more pilot schools by setting up an informational session at the BTU offices on January 4.

Three High Schools in Brighton Receive National Bronze Medals

U. S. News and World Report announces it's list of the top 100 public high schools in the country, giving each a gold medal.  Not surprisingly, Boston Latin School comes in 19th place.  Media and Technology Charter High School took 99th place.

Here in Brighton, three schools were among the 1,086 awarded bronze medals:  Another Course to College and Boston Community Leadership Academy, both pilot schools occupying part of the former Taft Middle School's building, and Brighton High School across the street.

Via the Boston Public School's "All About BPS" blog.

Halloween Taser Incident at Jackson Mann School

The Daily Free Press, the student newspaper of Boston University, conveyed a police report on an incident of a student with a taser at an elementary school in Allston.  Sgt. Bill Fogarty of the Community Service Office of the Boston Police Department District D-14 Station confirmed that the incident occurred in the Jackson Mann School, 40 Armington, Street, Allston.

The report in The Daily Free Press reads:

"Don't tase me, bro"

Just after noon Oct. 31, police responded to a call for assistance from the Boston Fire Department at an elementary school in Allston.

When police arrived, the BFD and school administrators told them a student had set a fire in the cafeteria. The student told police he had been eating lunch with friends when a bottle of rubber cement caught fire at their table.

Upon investigation, police determined the student had been playing with an electroshock weapon and had ignited the rubber cement. The student claimed he did not have a taser.

Further questioning determined the student had stashed the taser in the men's bathroom when the school was evacuated.

The school principal spoke with the parents of the students involved and will determine disciplinary measures.

Boston Globe Endorses Ciommo and Connolly for City Council

The Boston Globe offered two endorsements today for Boston City Council:  Mark Ciommo for the Allston-Brighton District 9 seat and John Connolly for one of the Councilor-At-Large seats.  They endorsed no other candidate for the Councilor-At-Large seats, even though voters may vote for up to four and four will be elected.

The Globe had previously endorsed Tim Schofield for the Allston-Brighton seat before the September 25th preliminary election.  When Schofield took third place, missing the final, he endorsed Ciommo -- a path the Globe has now followed.  The Globe's previous endorsement of Schofield appears to have been made without interviewing the six candidates, according to a number of them; the Globe has done a more thorough job this time by interviewing both Ciommo and Greg Glennon, according to Ciommo campaign worker Michael McLaughlin.

In their endorsement, the Globe noted that:

Ciommo's roots are deep in the neighborhood and his civic accomplishments are long...

Ciommo won't be pushed around, but he knows when it is time to draw the line and when it is time to negotiate with Harvard for community benefits and traffic mitigation. Even in Brighton, where Ciommo opposes the construction of a new [Boston College] dorm on land formerly owned by the Archdiocese of Boston, he suggests an alternative site.

The alternative site the Globe was most likely referring to is the counter-proposal for BC to build densely on their Main Campus (e.g., on the MODS location).

The Globe endorsed Connolly for Councilor-At-Large, calling him "a challenger with impressive energy and experience."  They primarily cited his experience as a former school teacher -- before he left the profession to pursue a law degree -- saying that he "understands and articulates the interplay of public safety, good schools, and stable neighborhoods."


In endorsing Connolly but not other candidates, the Boston Globe might appear to have avoided the sticky problem of endorsing candidates with opposing views.  But in their endorsement of both Connolly and Ciommo they had a bit of the issues clash.  Connolly favors a return to neighborhood schools, but Ciommo favors only a modest change to the walk-zone assignment process (e.g., from 50 to 60%; see "public schools" audio link).  Ciommo supports creating a city planning department, but Connolly opposes it.  

There are also some issues on which the two agree.  Connolly does join Ciommo in opposing Boston College's proposal to build undergraduate dorms on the former Seminary land, and both want BC to house all their undergraduates on their Main Campus.  Both Connolly and Ciommo (audio link on "gambling, taxes") support casino gambling in general, but want neighborhood input (or a referendum) before a casino comes to East Boston.


Harry Mattison on the Allston Brighton Community Blog compares the Globe's current non-endorsements of Councilors Felix Arroyo, Michael Flaherty, Stephen Murphy, and Sam Yoon with their past endorsements of each and every one of them (some in 2003, others in 2005).  Mattison asks, "Does The Globe feel that strongly positive about John Connolly or that negative about the other candidates?"  The Globe is pushing an odd position in their current endorsement of only Connolly for Councilor-At-Large.  They didn't use the term "bullet vote," but it sure sounds like that's what they're implying.

School Superintendent Michael Contompasis Moves On

Michael Contompasis retired as the Superintendent of the Boston Public Schools last Friday; he was recently replaced by Dr. Carol Johnson, former Superintendent of the Memphis and Minneapolis school systems.

Many in our community probably have memories of Contompasis in his long-time role as Headmaster of Boston Latin School.  Contompasis's friends and colleagues have setup a website (using a blog) that people can post (via comments at the bottom) stories and memories of his many years of service in the school district.

Is he really retiring?  No, according to the BPS public affairs blog.  "On Friday, Mayor Thomas M. Menino appointed Mike as Director of Intergovernmental Relations and External Affairs for the City of Boston."  Part of his new job's description will be to coordinate between the City of Boston and other governments (i.e., state and federal), but another part will be as "liaison between the [Menino] Administration and the Boston City Council."  I guess the Mayor's Office and the City Council might sometimes seem as two different governments...

BPS Countdown to Kindergarten Event in Oak Square: Thursday 8/30 at 5:30 pm

On Thursday, August 30, Presentation School Foundation, WGBH, and Boston Connects are pleased to be co-sponsoring the Allston-Brighton Countdown to Kindergarten event beginning at 5:30 p.m. in the Faneuil Branch Library in Oak Square, Brighton.

Immediately following a story-time led by Vicki Burr, children and their families will visit the Oak Square Firehouse and will then proceed to the park behind the Oak Square YMCA for activities and dinner.

This event is one of several being held over the next couple weeks in neighborhoods across the city. If you know a student entering kindergarten in the Boston Public Schools system, please pass the word about the event and tell them to make sure they wear their Countdown to Kindergarten yellow t-shirt.

Students at Brighton's Another Course to College Travel to Ghana on Cultural Exchange

From the Boston Public Schools PR:

Six students from Another Course to College (ACC) recently returned from a two-week trip to Ghana, West Africa, as part of a cultural exchange program between ACC and the Achimota Secondary School, a boarding school in Ghana’s capitol city of Accra. The students, all members of the Class of 2008, spent two weeks immersed in the culture and history of Ghana, living with Ghanaian students in dormitories and attending classes at the school.

Another Course to College in Brighton is part of the Boston Public Schools -- a pilot school since 2003 -- and occupies part of the former Taft Middle School building at the intersection of Warren Street and Cambridge Street. It shares the building with another pilot school: Boston Community Leadership Academy.

Gardner School's Summer Enrichment Program

The Gardner Extended Services School, at 30 Athol Street in North Allston, has concluded its Summer Enrichment Program for 115 K2-G5 students. The program was conducted in collaboration with Harvard Business School, who provided funding for 40 of the students.

The Gardner School has been rolling out their conversion to a Pilot School within the Boston Public School system; they will officially be a pilot when school opens this September. A science teacher at the school, Dean Martin, was recently awarded an Excellence in Environmental Education award from the state.

Conservatory Lab Charter School

The Boston Globe ran a story about Brighton's Conservatory Lab Charter School, located on the St. Columbkille's property. Conservatory Lab is the only state-chartered school in Brighton, and includes elementary grades kindergarten (K2) through five. As a charter school it is required to hold a lottery for entrance when the number of applicants exceeds available spaces.

Its innovative feature is that every student, beginning in grade one, is given a violin to learn to play. All take daily music classes, two music lessons a week, perform throughout the year, and have music topics integrated into other subjects. An interesting approach to education to say the least, especially in this age of No Child Left Behind and MCAS.

Is it working? Yes and no.

[Executive Director Jonathan] Rappaport admits, though, that it has been a struggle to raise the MCAS scores of the students... Last year the school finished below the state average in a number of categories. However, it improved from the previous year, prompting the state Department of Education to say the school had achieved "adequate yearly progress" in math and English language arts. Rappaport says he expects further improvement this year.

The school's MCAS scores can be found online for 2006 and compared with Boston Public Schools and state-wide averages, as he noted. Here I'll pick out the CPI for comparison. The Composite Performance Index (0-100 with 100 being highest) is the degree to which students are progessing toward proficiency. MCAS starts with grade 3.

In grade 3 reading/math the school scores 82/65 compared with a BPS average of 66/63 and state average of 83/78. In grade 4 the school scores in ELA/Math at 76/70 compared to 62/62 for BPS and 79/73 for the state. In grade 5 the school scores in ELA/Math/Science at 70/45/52 compared to 69/57/57 for BPS and 84/70/78 for the state.

The school is therefore performing around the state average for half the indicators, and below the state average for the other half; grade 5 is below the state for all three tests. Comparison with BPS is more fair, though, because it is always a problem to compare urban with suburban or rural schools. The school is performing at or above the BPS average for all tests except for grade 5 math. A mixed bag.

As a state-chartered school, it has performance metrics to meet as part of its regular review: a five-year accountability plan (MS Word document). As the school moves forward, it will be interesting to see if this experiment in music-based education can beat its competition in Boston and Massachusetts.

Handguns -- or Not -- at Brighton's Edison Middle School

Police made two arrests at Edison Middle School in Brighton while following up on reports that a student had been seen brandishing a firearm on the way home from school two days earlier. This incident follows violence earlier in the year at neighborhood schools Brighton High and Jackson Mann.

Horace Mann School Gets a Big Gift

The Horace Mann School for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing just received a donation of technology equipment from various companies in town for the AIIM ON DEMAND Conference & Expo. The school is located within the Jackson-Mann Community Center facility in Union Square, Allston.