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What is Happening at the Dearborn?
BOSTON PUBLIC SCHOOLS HAS STATED:
"Despite hard work by teachers, students, parents and partners, the Dearborn is not showing enough academic progress. This is despite extra funding and a longer school day for four years as a Turnaround school. Now, the Dearborn is at significant risk of being taken over by the state. We want it to stay a Boston Public School." WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE "TAKEN OVER BY THE STATE"? First, let's stop for a minute and examine how the state determines schools that are under-performing. Massachusetts uses Levels 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 to:
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Location of Dearborn 6-12 STEM Academy School Building
(closed for potential construction) |
What Does All This Mean?
It means that Massachusetts DESE is poised to make the Dearborn 6-12 STEM Academy a Level 5 school. In order for the Dearborn to avoid state receivership, Boston Public Schools must choose an outside operator to manage the school.
District Turnaround Receivers (or, in this case, the "operators") are individuals or non-profit organizations that offer statewide education improvement services to manage and operate chronically underperforming (Level 5) districts. Boston Public Schools has released a Request for Submissions (RFS) to solicit information from individuals or non-profit organizations that may have the expertise, capacity, and interest in serving as a Level 5 receiver for the Dearborn 6-12 STEM Academy. These are the organizations who will potentially run the school from now on. |
Why is This Important?
The future of the Dearborn 6-12 STEM Academy is being determined -- in large part -- by these five steps:
- The RFS process began with a Stakeholder Group on Saturday, October 25th and was narrowed down to a "short list" of proposals by Monday, October 27th.
- This short list will be used by the Boston Public Schools Superintendent John McDonough's administration to determine which operator they feel is best qualified to manage the Dearborn. They will submit this proposal to Massachusetts DESE.
- The Massachusetts DESE will make its recommendation on the proposal and BPS will make its final decision on who the operator for the Dearborn will be starting in the 2015-2016 school year.
- Superintendent McDonough will allow the final short list of management organizations (Boston Plan for Excellence & Massachusetts Preparatory Network) to present their case to the Dearborn Stakeholder Group during the week of December 1st at the Burke High School Career Center -- located in the school library. The meeting will afford about 15 minutes Q&A time to each potential operator and will be open to the public.
- Superintendent McDonough has stated that the final Stakeholder Group meeting will "inform his thinking and final decision" on who should become the Dearborns' operator next school year. There has been no expected date for that decision announced publicly.