People and issues we should not ignore.
Watertown schools: the high cost of failure
According to the Massachusetts Department of Education Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) reports, the Watertown Public Schools have been in the 99th percentile in cost per pupil while ranking in the bottom 34th percentile in MCAS performance. Among schools in greater Boston, only Weston and Cambridge spent more per pupil than Watertown. The view of Watertown at a more granular level raises specific concerns – especially at the high school level. For example, Watertown High School has ranked below our local Minuteman Vocational school in Science MCAS performance. Given that 49.8% of the students at Minuteman had been diagnosed with learning disabilities, that is an impressive accomplishment for one school, but a mysterious failure for Watertown. Similarly, Revere High School, where 66% of the students spoke another language before English, also topped Watertown in Science. More surprisingly, despite more challenging student backgrounds, both Minuteman and Revere were also competitive with Watertown in English MCAS scores.
The Other Watertown
Our lost generation
From 2013 to 2016, Watertown had five directors at both the system-wide and high school levels in Special Education. That chaotic leadership situation created a chain reaction that impacted staff and children throughout the system. The poor performance profile in standardized testing likely is related to the failure to educate all of Watertown’s children. The served student population in Watertown special education comes disproportionately from economically disadvantaged, immigrant, and ethnic minority families.
Richard Harding, Cambridge NAACP, Dhimitri Dorceus, and A. David Pierre of Watertown
https://youtu.be/KI4zwjz77GI
Watertown reported to DESE that it had 501 staffers (including teachers). Of that total, one was listed as Hispanic, three were listed as African-American, four were listed as Asian, and one was listed as “multi-race, non-Hispanic”. In every case, the Watertown staffing number was a tiny fraction of the state hiring average for diversity in staffing. However, the disparities relative to the composition of the student populations were more stunning. Watertown had 100 students listed as African-American, 219 Asian, and 138 multi-race. There were 392 Hispanic/Latino/Latina students*. To reference one dramatic contrast: Arlington has 38 Latina staffers serving 365 Latina kids and Watertown has 1 serving 392.
*Note that a large percentage of the students Watertown calls “Hispanic” have cultural and language affinities that are Portuguese/Brazilian/Cape Verdean rooted. Supreme Court Justice Sotomayer used Latina at her swearing-in because it implies both a Latin American (not necessarily Hispanic or male) identity and is inclusive of women. Source: "Is Hispanic the same thing as Latina?", Christopher Beam, Slate, May 2009.