Learning to love
Summer is over for Boston public school kids this week, and all over the city, thousands of parents are actually excited about the schools their kids are going back to.
Not so long ago, that would have been unimaginable. With just a few exceptions, the city's schools, gutted by busing battles, funding woes, and lousy standards, were abysmal.
But it's a surprising and too-well-kept secret that a growing number of the city's schools are inspiring cultish devotion among parents who just a few years ago might have shunned them.
A few schools have been long-adored: the Patrick Lyndon in West Roxbury, the Richard J. Murphy in Dorchester, the exam schools, among others. But over the last five years, the batch of schools at the top of the assignment lottery charts has grown dramatically.
"When I tell them I send my kids to Boston public schools, friends of mine are surprised," says Will Keyser, a consultant at Hill Holiday, whose son goes to the John D. Philbrick school in Roslindale. "They're spending tens of thousands of dollars to send kids to environments I can't imagine are going to produce a more informed child."
Keyser's son, who enters the first grade on Thursday, has learned art and dance and Mandarin, surrounded by children from more than 20 countries. The parent council is fervent and diverse, the teachers enthusiastic.
What's going on in this school and a bunch of others isn't just about money, though renovated cafeterias and nicer playgrounds certainly have helped.
It's also about former superintendent Thomas Payzant's insistence on stricter academic standards and more accountable teachers.
It's about middle-class parents who once gave the school system a wide berth trickling back, and schools finding ways to get all kinds of parents more involved.
It's about marketing. For a few years these schools were clearly improving, but nobody knew about it. Y/BPS, a four-year-old collaboration between the YMCA and the city's schools, now spreads the word in community centers, playgrounds, and living rooms.
The F. Lyman Winship school, a science-centered elementary school in Brighton, has its own marketing strategy: Four times a week, the school hosts playgroups for 3-year-olds, bringing parents into regular contact with the place long before lottery time. The Phineas Bates school in Roslindale is selling itself, too, deploying devoted parents like Jennifer Burg, who has two children there, to spread the word.
"I fell in love with teachers," Burg said. "They were just so dynamic and passionate."
It's also about stellar leadership. Roxbury's Nathan Hale school has Sandy Mitchell-Woods, an indefatigable principal who introduced mandatory uniforms, and single-sex classrooms for fifth-graders, and partnerships with corporations and community groups. This year, like last, the Hale will offer Suzuki violin classes for parents and children.
"We've ignited this school," says Mitchell-Woods.
There are plenty of others. Perhaps 30 of the city's 144 schools are now in hot demand.
"This is not just a pocket," says Laurie Sherman, a mayoral adviser on education and one of the creators of Y/BPS. "There is a whole movement going on here."
Lest we get carried away with shiny, start-of-the-school-year optimism here, a couple of reality checks. The love is still mostly for elementary schools, and a relatively small percentage of them. Even the happy parents admit they don't know whether they'll keep their kids in city schools when it is time for middle and high school. And often test scores don't yet mirror parents' glowing reviews.
But let's also remember how far we've come since the system's darkest days: The school year is beginning and many of the city's parents feel really good about public schools.
Talk about a fresh start.
Yvonne Abraham is a Globe columnist. She can be reached at abraham@globe.com
