BPS Superintendent Disputes Exam Schools Report

BOSTON, MA—Officials from Boston Public Schools on up to Mayor Marty Walsh are hotly disputing a report out this week, which claims BPS Superintendent Tommy Chang is "considering a proposal that would essentially prevent students enrolled in Catholic or private schools from seeking admission."

In a letter to parents and students, Chang called out the reporting from WGBH as "patently false regarding a proposal for the admissions process to the district’s three exam schools."

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There is no report, in draft form or otherwise, bearing the title WGBH reported, Chang's letter said, and, "There are no proposals to prevent any students from enrolling into the district’s three exam schools."

As Universal Hub's Adam Gaffin points out, The Boston Globe reports there has indeed been an effort to change the exam schools' admissions process—a push to increase enrollment of black and Latino students in response to continuing alleged issues of racial discrimination at Boston Latin School.

As the Globe notes, that's already a "potentially dicey question," so it's not hard to see why BPS is coming down hard on reporting it says is incorrect.

The story's author defended his journalism Wednesday, and an updated version of WGBH's story notes the school's response and alters its headline:

"Earlier today, I wrote that Chang was expected to release the plan at Wednesday’s 6 p.m. School Committee Meeting at Dudley Square’s Bruce C. Bolling Municipal Building. He didn't. Although some members of the exam-school community expected that he would," the updated copy reads. "As a matter of course, the School Committee doesn't release documents, reports, or written material before its meetings. The school department took strong exception to the above story. It denied, in fact, that the document I wrote about existed.

... An earlier version of this story had a slightly stronger headline that may have suggested the considered change was a done deal. It is not, or was not. And if Mayor Walsh's statement is any indication, the recommendations from the supposedly non-existent document I wrote about will never come to pass."

>> Photo by Alison Bauter, Patch staff