Advanced classes see dip in diversity

Advanced classes like Maureen Costa's at Hennigan Elementary School, where students learn physics as early as fourth grade, have been the best ticket into Boston Latin and the city's other elite exam schools for years.

But inside the accelerated classes at the Hennigan and other public schools in the city, the pipeline to exam schools is starting to look a lot less like Boston's public schools. Black and Hispanic students fill 44 percent of the 968 seats in the accelerated classes in the school district, though they make up more than three-quarters of Boston's students overall. White and Asian students now occupy 55 percent of the seats, though they are only 23 percent of the district.

In particular, the number of black students, now at 239, in the classes has dropped by half since 1999, when the city stopped using racial quotas to assign students to the classes.

The low enrollment of the school system's largest racial and ethnic groups in the classes renews debate about whether all children, particularly black students, are getting equal opportunities in the city's schools, an issue that has long rocked Boston.

''It's not a true picture of what the city is," said Costa, who presides over a majority white and Asian fourth-grade accelerated class in a school that is 85 percent black and Hispanic. ''You can't tell me that all black children aren't capable of achieving like white children. I wouldn't buy that."

Prior to 1999, black students filled about half of the seats in the advanced classes. Now, all students are admitted to the classes based only on their score on a national standardized test. School district leaders feared lawsuits if they kept racial quotas for the program; a 1998 federal court ruling banned racial quotas in exam school admissions. Since then, black and Hispanic enrollment at Boston Latin, the most competitive exam school, has declined.

In an interview last week, Boston School Committee chairwoman Elizabeth Reilinger said she was unaware that the proportion of black students had dropped so dramatically in the advanced classes. She said she wants the school system to scrutinize the advanced-work program as a whole.

''The fact is, it merits review," she said. ''I certainly plan on asking for us to take a hard look at it in the spring."

The accelerated classes for students in grades 4 to 6, known as advanced work, began decades ago to prepare public school students to compete for spots at the exam schools with Boston residents who had gone to private schools. The city's public schools are now responsible for slightly more than half of the students entering Boston Latin, while the rest come from private or charter schools.

A Globe review of enrollment figures indicates that, by far, public school students who take advanced classes have an edge over students in regular classes in the competition for exam school spots. About 86 percent of advanced-work sixth-grade students won a spot in the exam schools this year based on entrance exam scores, compared with 34 percent of public school students who were in regular classes. About 60 percent of private school students were accepted.

When the school system stopped reserving seats in the advanced classes for black students, Superintendent Thomas W. Payzant said he would try to maintain the number of black students in the program. District officials said they have not stopped their efforts to make the classes available to all students.

''We don't want to be segregating kids more and more . . . into the top group and low group," said Chris Coxon, deputy superintendent for teaching and learning. He said the goal is to offer challenging classes in all schools.

Payzant was unavailable for comment.

Peggy Wiesenberg of the citywide parents council, said the district should consider using race as a factor in admitting students to the advanced classes. Other school districts, such as Lynn, have successfully fought to use race as an element in balancing schools.

But Michael C. McLaughlin, the lawyer who succeeded in getting the racial quotas removed from Boston Latin, said the district should focus instead on improving student achievement. McLaughlin, whose daughter was one of the plaintiffs who alleged she was not awarded a spot despite high test scores, said both black and white Boston residents have fled to charter schools and private schools.

''The problem I have with the whole system is that these kinds of quotas just continue to camouflage the lack of performance in the Boston Public Schools," he said.

In advanced-work classes, students take notes and do research reports as early as the fourth grade. Fifth-graders take sixth-grade math.

During a recent lesson in physics in Costa's class at Hennigan, fourth-graders built their own race cars to figure out how to make them move using elastic bands. A group of girls figured out that shifting the weight on the car helped it move in a straight line. A group of boys puzzled over the design of their car.

''It's been lurching backward and popping wheelies," said one 10-year-old. ''We're trying to cope with that problem."

Last year, a task force of educators and community leaders urged the district to expand advanced-work classes to all middle and elementary schools, instead of to only about two dozen elementary and middle schools. The district did not put the program in every school and continued to focus on outreach through fliers, parent meetings, and a summer program at Boston Latin.

Parents and community members say the district should do more to recruit students for the advanced classes.

James Hardy Williams, a parent and teacher at Boston Latin Academy, said the district probably failed to stop the decline because no one complained about it.

''You know the squeaky wheel?" he said. ''There was no squeaky wheel there."

Teachers and parents say the system means that black and Latino students will remain underrepresented at the city's top schools.

Since 1998, black and Hispanic enrollment at Boston Latin has plunged to just 16 percent of students.

A decade ago, Boston Latin was a third black and Hispanic, in keeping with a quota system that reserved 35 percent of the seats for blacks and Hispanics. Boston Latin Academy is also majority white and Asian. Only John D. O'Bryant School of Mathematics and Science reflects the district.

Teachers and principals say that school officials should consider additional measures, such as grades, and allow them to recommend students for the advanced classes instead of relying on a test.

Rachel Skerritt, 27, who is black, went through advanced-work classes in Boston Public Schools, got into Boston Latin, and graduated from the University of Pennsylvania.

Now a published author and an English teacher at Boston Latin, Skerritt sees only a handful of black students in her classes.

''If I hadn't been in advanced work I definitely wouldn't have gotten into Latin," she said. ''I feel like my whole educational career was made when I was 7."