Boston Public Schools have shut down their advanced programs and are focusing on an “antiracist curriculum” because officials were “disturbed” that there were too many white and Asian students in the classes.
The program was for students in 4th-6th grade who were high performing and needed more of a challenge.
According to a report from GBH News, Superintendent Brenda Cassellius believes that the district needs to focus on being “antiracist” instead of giving kids appropriately paced education.
“There’s been a lot of inequities that have been brought to the light in the pandemic that we have to address,” Cassellius told GBH News. “There’s a lot of work we have to do in the district to be antiracist and have policies where all of our students have a fair shot at an equitable and excellent education.”
The problem, GBH reports, is that “a district analysis of the program found that more than 70 percent of students enrolled in the program were white and Asian, even though nearly 80 percent of all Boston public school students are Hispanic and Black.”
“This is just not acceptable,” School Committee member Lorna Rivera said at a recent school committee meeting. “I’ve never heard these statistics before, and I’m very very disturbed by them.”
Students were placed in the classes based on a test called the Terra Nova that they take in third grade.
