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Boston School Committee approves changes to exam school admissions

After months of heated public discourse and deliberation, the Boston School Committee approved the latest round of changes to exam school admissions. “There is no perfect policy, but we think these changes will lead to a system that is overall clearer and more stable,” said BPS Superintendent Mary Skipper, introducing the proposal for a vote at Wednesday night’s school committee meeting. “Our goal remains the same, to create an equitable, predictable and stable policy that students and families can easily navigate and understand.” After five years straight of tweaking and re-tweaking the exam school admissions policy, BPS officials began to seek a more long-term solution over the summer and put forth a proposal in September. The newly approved policy will go into effect immediately for the 2026-27 admission cycle, and officials are aiming to keep it in place for at least three years to “have more consistent trend data.” The proposal was approved Wednesday night with four in favor, members Rachel Skerritt, Quoc Tran, Jeri Robinson, and Michael O’Neill. Members Stephen Alkins and Rafaela Polanco Garcia voted against it, and member Brandon Cardet-Hernandez was absent. The changes, which have had critics from all sides, edit the policy in several ways. The policy uses a geographic-based socioeconomic tier structure and bonus points in the goal of promoting equity and diversity in Boston’s elite exam schools, Boston Latin School, Boston Latin Academy and the O’Bryant school. First, the new policy removes school-based points, which awarded 10 additional points to students with higher percentages of economically disadvantaged students. The removal was “because they are hard to explain and difficult to justify,” Skipper said. Second, housing-based points decrease from 15 bonus points to 10. Housing points are awarded to students experiencing homelessness, living in public housing, or in the care of the Massachusetts Department of Children and Families. “The selection of 15 points was chosen to be higher than the number of school-based points, which was 10 at the time,” Skipper said. “Our analysis of the 25-26 admission cycle shows the actual difference in composite scores for students who qualify for housing-based points and students who do not qualify is 10 points.” Third, the policy adds a “citywide round,” meaning the first 20% of seats at each school will go to the highest composite scores solely based on the student’s GPA and test composite score. After the citywide round, Skipper said, the remaining 80% of seats would be distributed equally across socioeconomic tiers. And finally, the proposal keeps the current four socioeconomic tiers, with the seats distributed based on the number of students in each rather than the number of applicants. “It’s important the vote happened tonight to ensure families have all of the information about the process before this year’s residency verification deadline for non-BPS families happens on Nov. 21,” Skipper said. “We’ve heard consistently this timeline is important for families.” Some families have been critical of the proposed changes, arguing they would decrease the impact of the original policy in increasing diversity, while others have argued the changes continue a policy that makes it harder for certain high-performing students to gain admission to the schools. The debate continued Wednesday night, with many speakers lobbying against and some for the changes. Many School Committee members broadly agreed on the need to take action on the issue Wednesday night and move forward from the debate. Of the two school committee members who voted against the proposal, Alkins said he was in favor of keeping the policy as it was to continue to monitor the current progress. “Equity begs me to see a little bit more of the nuance, and the simulations that have been presented compromise the admissions to our most representative populations within the district,” said Alkins. “And that goes against the original ethos of the policy for me.” Polanco Garcia cited many parties who reached out to her and said “this policy aims to balance merit and equity, but its real impact will depend on the implementation of complementary supports.” Without equitable investments in K-8 schools, she continued, “existing academic gaps will continue to reproduce themselves, limiting real access for many young people.” “I do know that deep in my heart, this is at least an improvement,” said member Quoc Tran. “This new policy is at least an improvement in moving forward with equity.” Committee Chair Robinson said, though she may not like all of the options, “stopping this process now only frustrates the actual families for whom this will be a next step.”

Grace Zokovitch • November 7, 2025

Boston School Committee approves changes to exam school admissions

After months of heated public discourse and deliberation, the Boston School Committee approved the latest round of changes to exam school admissions.

“There is no perfect policy, but we think these changes will lead to a system that is overall clearer and more stable,” said BPS Superintendent Mary Skipper, introducing the proposal for a vote at Wednesday night’s school committee meeting. “Our goal remains the same, to create an equitable, predictable and stable policy that students and families can easily navigate and understand.”

After five years straight of tweaking and re-tweaking the exam school admissions policy, BPS officials began to seek a more long-term solution over the summer and put forth a proposal in September.

The newly approved policy will go into effect immediately for the 2026-27 admission cycle, and officials are aiming to keep it in place for at least three years to “have more consistent trend data.”

The proposal was approved Wednesday night with four in favor, members Rachel Skerritt, Quoc Tran, Jeri Robinson, and Michael O’Neill. Members Stephen Alkins and Rafaela Polanco Garcia voted against it, and member Brandon Cardet-Hernandez was absent.

The changes, which have had critics from all sides, edit the policy in several ways. The policy uses a geographic-based socioeconomic tier structure and bonus points in the goal of promoting equity and diversity in Boston’s elite exam schools, Boston Latin School, Boston Latin Academy and the O’Bryant school.

First, the new policy removes school-based points, which awarded 10 additional points to students with higher percentages of economically disadvantaged students. The removal was “because they are hard to explain and difficult to justify,” Skipper said.

Second, housing-based points decrease from 15 bonus points to 10. Housing points are awarded to students experiencing homelessness, living in public housing, or in the care of the Massachusetts Department of Children and Families.

“The selection of 15 points was chosen to be higher than the number of school-based points, which was 10 at the time,” Skipper said. “Our analysis of the 25-26 admission cycle shows the actual difference in composite scores for students who qualify for housing-based points and students who do not qualify is 10 points.”

Third, the policy adds a “citywide round,” meaning the first 20% of seats at each school will go to the highest composite scores solely based on the student’s GPA and test composite score. After the citywide round, Skipper said, the remaining 80% of seats would be distributed equally across socioeconomic tiers.

And finally, the proposal keeps the current four socioeconomic tiers, with the seats distributed based on the number of students in each rather than the number of applicants.

“It’s important the vote happened tonight to ensure families have all of the information about the process before this year’s residency verification deadline for non-BPS families happens on Nov. 21,” Skipper said. “We’ve heard consistently this timeline is important for families.”

Some families have been critical of the proposed changes, arguing they would decrease the impact of the original policy in increasing diversity, while others have argued the changes continue a policy that makes it harder for certain high-performing students to gain admission to the schools. The debate continued Wednesday night, with many speakers lobbying against and some for the changes.

Many School Committee members broadly agreed on the need to take action on the issue Wednesday night and move forward from the debate.

Of the two school committee members who voted against the proposal, Alkins said he was in favor of keeping the policy as it was to continue to monitor the current progress.

“Equity begs me to see a little bit more of the nuance, and the simulations that have been presented compromise the admissions to our most representative populations within the district,” said Alkins. “And that goes against the original ethos of the policy for me.”

Polanco Garcia cited many parties who reached out to her and said “this policy aims to balance merit and equity, but its real impact will depend on the implementation of complementary supports.”

Without equitable investments in K-8 schools, she continued, “existing academic gaps will continue to reproduce themselves, limiting real access for many young people.”

“I do know that deep in my heart, this is at least an improvement,” said member Quoc Tran. “This new policy is at least an improvement in moving forward with equity.”

Committee Chair Robinson said, though she may not like all of the options, “stopping this process now only frustrates the actual families for whom this will be a next step.”

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