On Brookline

I’ve wondered why the Brookline School Committee is so hell bent to lengthen the school day by 20 minutes, and to finance it through a Brookline override. Now I know. A longer day means better MCAS scores.

In a study published by the Massachusetts Department of Education [see article], schools that have increased the day perform better on the standardized test. And better test scores means better job prospects for top administrators. And a nice selling point for realtors marketing million dollar condos.

Oh sure, this is the town that led a shouting campaign against the MCAS (and did nothing about it) years back. But as most parents can tell you, the academic thrust in Brookline is to prepare for the test. (At the elementary school my sons attended they no longer conduct the Friday awards ceremony or the annual two-day arts festival.)

It’s all about the scores. Might as well school them in Kentucky.

Update: The mantra is that additional programs have been lost to MCAS preparation and taking. So why are we doing it? There may be students who need help with standardized tests, but I’d like to believe that the vast majority of students in Brookline can meet the graduation requirement with minimal prep.

Ah, but achieving the lower threshold would be a blemish on the reputation of the school system. So, we need $1.8 million in new taxes to inflate Brookline’s MCAS scores.

How else to explain it?

Update (2): Oh, and when the Proverriders tell you that Brookline’s middle schools come in last among Massachusetts schools in time spent on instruction, bear in mind that that claim is based on a survey of only 23 other school districts among the Commonwealth’s 351 towns and cities. Boy, that’s some rigorous analysis. They must have been trained by the town’s Advisory Committee.