Latin School fallout

Boston's three exam schools shoulder a disproportionate share of the city's educational responsibilities

Even after several years of Superintendent Thomas Payzant's progressive stewardship, the Boston public school system remains fragile and decrepit.

To be sure, pockets of educational innovation, professional dedication, and student achievement exist. There is a consensus that the system is turning itself around. Yet even optimists wonder whether the momentum of reform is sufficient to surmount systemic lethargy and overcome the rate of decay.

Perhaps that is why the news last week that a federal appeals court had struck down the admissions policy at the Boston Latin School raised so much anxiety. In the 24 years since federal courts intervened to force the desegregation of a demonstrably racist school system, Boston Latin has striven to balance its 360-year-old tradition of excellence with the goal of offering wider educational opportunities to a wider pool of students. While some may in good conscience argue with the means employed -- and two individuals have so far won court cases against the system -- it's hard to fault the goals or the school's commitment to achieving them.

Under the policy that the three-member US appeals court overturned by a two-to-one vote, the school admits 50 percent of its students according to a race-blind formula that takes into account entrance-exam scores and grade point average. The remaining 50 percent are chosen by means of a race-sensitive formula that also takes academic performance into account.

Over the past two years, the parents of two white students who were denied admission even though they scored higher than their black and Hispanic counterparts have won separate cases that could lead to the revision of admission policies not only at Boston Latin but at the city's two other exam schools, Latin Academy and the John D. O'Bryant School of Mathematics and Science.

These decisions, if not successfully appealed to the US Supreme Court, could also change how the city assigns students citywide. (That may not be such a bad development; even those who say the current system works know that it is far from perfect.) The outcome of such an appeal is uncertain. The trend federal judiciary has increasingly questioned policies based on racial and ethnic quotas. Methods that weigh socioeconomic factors instead of race or ethnicity may be more constitutionally acceptable, but whether they can achieve the same sort of diversity remains to be seen.

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The unease raised in some quarters over the most recent Latin School case reflects the deeper unease that many feel when they contemplate the Boston school system.

As systemwide standards have declined over more than 20 years, places at Boston Latin, Latin Academy, and the O'Bryant School have became precious commodities, especially to those families who don't have the means or the inclination to send their children to private schools. It's not just that these schools offer a solid education and the chance to get into a good college, but also that the alternatives at other high schools are so dismal.

In short, the city's three exam schools shoulder a disproportionate share of the community's educational responsibilities.

As the issues raised by the Boston Latin decision unfold, we would all do well to step back and look at the problem in the broadest possible context. A recent front-page news analysis in the Boston Globe rhetorically asked: "Should the priority of the school system be to offer equal opportunity to all, or to offer a shot at maximum achievement to a relative handful of high-performing students?"

The answer is simple: the schools should be able to do both. Leveling in the name of equality is no more acceptable than restricting opportunity to a few.

It may seem unattainable today, but the mission of the Boston schools should be to afford all students the opportunity to do the best that they can do, whether they are educationally challenged, average, or academically superior.

This is a tall order. And as we've said before, rebuilding the Boston school system is something that must begin at the preschool level -- and maybe even earlier.

What do you think? Send an e-mail to letters[a]phx.com.