Scores of parents, students and education advocates urged the Boston School Committee on Oct. 29 to pause consideration of proposed revisions to exam-school admissions that, they said, would roll back gains in racial, economic and geographic diversity achieved by the 2021 policy changes.

Krista Magnuson, an organizer with the Massachusetts Education Justice Alliance, criticized the district's outreach and said the engagement process had produced "embarrassing" response rates: "We are proceeding with a change when BPS has managed to solicit feedback from less than 1% of its community," she said, citing the district's webinar and feedback-form numbers.

Speakers associated with the Coalition for Equity in Exam Schools described independent simulations that they said show a likely drop in invitations to multilingual learners, economically disadvantaged students, Black and Latine students, and students from particular sending schools under the proposed models. Rosanne Tang, who served on the exam-school admissions task force, said the coalition's analysis "concludes that if Boston's leaders push through either recommendation, exam school enrollment will regress towards pre-2021."

Several speakers urged the committee not to adopt a model that would increase the role of raw test scores or citywide top-20% picks at the expense of the tiered system, arguing that any rollback would disproportionately benefit already overrepresented groups. Alexis Rickmers, an attorney with the Center for Law and Education, reminded the committee that federal court precedent and state guidance permit policies that address systemic barriers and that the superintendent's recommended language removed an explicit equity goal.

Other commenters urged the committee to focus less attention on the three exam schools and more on improving outcomes across the district's other high schools. A handful of speakers supported the superintendent's recommendations, arguing a citywide path for top-performing students would be easier for families to understand and would keep high-performing students from leaving the district.

No committee vote on admissions policy took place at the Oct. 29 meeting.