Reforming Boston's Schools

By Georgia Harbison

A local group urges a radical restructuring of the system

Over the past four months in Boston, 27 volunteers have gathered as often as three times a week to debate, wrangle, let off steam and, sometimes, even agree. Their meetings, some lasting as long as six hours, have had a single aim: to hammer out a program aimed at rescuing Boston's battered public school system. The result of the labors of the Educational Planning Group (E.P.G.), a beanpot of school officials, local lawyers, politicians, housewives and neighborhood leaders of various ethnic and racial persuasions, will be issued this month. Says E.P.G. Counsel Hassan Minor, a former M.I.T. professor of public policy: "This effort is the last chance to get the schools together or they will be irretrievably lost."

Since 1974, when Federal Court Judge W. Arthur Garrity Jr. ordered the beginning of Boston public school desegregation with the busing of thousands of black and white students, the school system has been in turmoil. From virtually no busing at all, the city was soon busing 60% of its students. As a result, the middle class fled to parochial schools or the suburbs. Since 1970 the schools' white population has shifted from a 64% majority to a 30% minority.

The system faces enormous problems: 30% of Boston's high school students cannot read; the dropout rate is a staggering 47%; in twelve years enrollment dropped 40%, from 96,000 to 58,000. Says Boston School Superintendent Robert ("Bud") Spillane, who has held his job only 18 months: "There is no question that the school system has been abandoned."

The E.P.G. report, it is hoped, will work toward changing all this. Central to its success is the support of the black community, particularly key Black Leader John D. O'Bryant, a former school committee president. Among E.P.G.'s dozen recommendations:

> Reduce the number of school districts from nine to as few as four to provide a greater number of schools to choose among while abiding by desegregation rules. Says the E.P.G.'s Minor: "The sense of continuity is very important. If you live in one of these new districts, you can be pretty well assured that you can stay there from elementary through high school."

> Set up "comprehensive district secondary schools" that would offer the kind of specialized courses that are now available at magnet schools, as well as a traditional curriculum, vocational training and honors programs. Each district would have at least one of these schools. The magnet schools would be absorbed by the new comprehensive schools.

> Establish special science and technology schools on the middle level and two new secondary schools: one for the visual and performing arts, the other for an international school, which would offer a half-dozen foreign languages.

> Strengthen teacher-evaluation procedures. Now teachers are rated either satisfactory or unsatisfactory. E.P.G. wants to introduce a rating of excellent, although it makes no recommendations about merit raises.

> Hold principals accountable for educational results by giving them control over their budgets and their teachers.

E.P.G. was set up at the suggestion of School Superintendent Spillane and former School Committee President Jean Sullivan McKeigue; its work was coordinated by a group of civic leaders called the Corporation for Boston. E.P.G. members hope some of their recommendations will be put into practice by this fall. "You have to make some tough choices," says Spillane. "You have to kick some people around and say you mean business." Many credit Spillane, known as the "Velvet Hammer" or "Six Shooter," with elbowing the omnipowerful Judge Garrity aside so schools could again take charge of themselves. Garrity, who has issued some 400 school rulings, last December began phasing out his day-to-day control of the Boston school system. For a two-year transitional period the state board of education will monitor the court's desegregation orders.

Meanwhile, Spillane, an acerbic, no-nonsense father of four, two of whom attend a Roxbury public school, has proved a tough and accomplished administrator. Boston's seventh superintendent in a decade, he started off with both guns smoking. A former New York State deputy commissioner of education, Spillane faced down a teachers' strike by announcing he would fire anyone who walked off the job. He then laid off more than 700 teachers without incident. In the decade before Spillane's arrival, the school budget had nearly tripled; within a year, he had trimmed the budget, cutting its $31 million deficit to $3 million. He established automatic expulsion for students carrying dangerous weapons; since last year violence has dropped an impressive 70%. He is working toward ending the political patronage and corruption that have riddled the system for years and has also launched a campaign to raise curriculum standards and introduce systematic testing.

Understandably, some teachers call Spillane a hatchet man. Still, as one principal puts it, "Although he isn't always the easiest person to get along with, I get a sense there are better days ahead." Though there have been rumors that Spillane is being considered as a successor to outgoing New York City Chancellor of Schools Frank Macchiarola, Boston's superintendent says he will remain in place. Says Spillane: "My job is here. Boston is the ultimate challenge. We've all been part of a losing team for too long. Now we know there is nothing like getting to the Super Bowl." -- By Georgia Harbison. Reported by Joelle Attinger/Boston

With reporting by Joelle Attinger This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so viewer discretion is required.