The MetroWest Daily News
Circulation: 24,357 Sunday
By Susan Eaton and Jamie Gass/Guest columnists
Susan Eaton is research director at the Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race and Justice at Harvard Law School and Jamie Gass is director of the Center for School Reform at Pioneer Institute, a Boston-based think tank.
Posted Oct 16, 2011 @ 12:15 AM
Massachusetts’ 2010 education reform law is titled, “An Act Relative to the Achievement Gap.” If closing race- and poverty-based achievement gaps is indeed a priority, a recent report suggests the Metropolitan Council for Educational Opportunity (METCO) should be one of the programs to get additional resources.
Founded in 1966 by African-American parents and white suburban educators, METCO is one of only eight voluntary inter-district school desegregation programs in the nation. It sends more than 3,000 students from Boston and Springfield to schools in 37 suburban districts. More than three-quarters of the students are African-American or Latino. Half come from low-income families and one-quarter have special needs.
“METCO Merits More: The History and Status of METCO,” published by Pioneer Institute and the Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race and Justice at Harvard Law School, shows that between 2006 and 2010 METCO students dramatically outperformed African-Americans and Latino students in both Boston and Springfield on MCAS tests. In most cases, they outperformed overall district averages in the two cities.
Gaps between METCO student performance and state averages tended to be largest in the early years. They diminish and in many cases close as students spend more time in suburban districts.
Despite adjustment challenges and long bus rides that force them to rise early and return home late, METCO students tend to perform competitively in the college preparatory suburban high schools they attend. Their 93 percent graduation rate not only far outpaces the rates in both Boston and Springfield (61 and 55 percent in 2009, respectively), it also tops the statewide average of 82 percent.
At 2.8 percent, METCO students’ dropout rate is less than one-third of the 9.3 percent state average. METCO’s own data indicate that 90 percent of the program’s graduates pursue post-secondary education.
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