Report says Pilot school students top peers

by Tracy Jan, Globe Staff
January 18, 2006

Students who attend experimental schools within the Boston public school system, on average, are performing better on state tests and other measures than their peers in regular city schools, according to a new report.

The students in the city's pilot schools are more likely to attend class regularly, stay out of trouble and go to college, according to the report, which will be released today by the Roxbury-based Center for Collaborative Education. The center, a nonprofit that supports pilot schools and other education projects, studied 2004 data on 15 of the city's 19 pilot schools and hopes the report will resurrect the city's decadelong movement to create more of the experimental schools. Pilot school expansion stalled in 2003 after the teachers union president vetoed a proposal to convert an Allston elementary school into a pilot school. In addition to governance issues, the union maintains that pilot schools should pay teachers more for working longer days, and that the system should do a better job of replicating successful teaching methods.

The school system and the district are negotiating the future of pilot schools, an issue both sides say they want to resolve before a new superintendent arrives in July. The Center for Collaborative Education report "lends additional urgency to resolving this issue," said Paul Grogan, president of The Boston Foundation, which has given $700,000 in grants to pilot schools and which is hosting a forum today on the report.

Elizabeth Reilinger, chairwoman of the Boston School Committee, said the report shows that pilot schools are a good model for educating students, but she cautioned against drawing conclusions about the overall effectiveness of pilot schools based on one year's worth of data.

The district, in an agreement with the teachers union, created pilot schools in 1995 to compete with charter schools, which are public schools run independently. Pilot schools have more control over school budgets, staffing and curriculum than other Boston public schools. In exchange, teachers give up some of their union benefits, including overtime pay.

Richard Stutman, president of the Boston Teachers Union, said he supports creating pilot schools, and expects the district and the union will come to an agreement.

According to the report, pilot school students scored in the highest levels of the 2004 10th grade English MCAS, at twice the rate of students in regular Boston public schools, excluding the city's three exam schools. And 79 percent of pilot school students go on to a university or technical college, compared with 67 percent of other Boston graduates.

Tracy Jan can be reached at tjan@globe.com.