Friends of Vocational Technical & Agricultural Education,
We are most pleased to share this piece from the Worcester Telegram & Gazette.
David
At Worcester panel discussion, skeptics bash vocational school admissions change
Critics of planned changed in admission policy.
Jesse Collings Worcester Telegram & Gazette
WORCESTER — A chance to halt changes to the vocational school admissions process is being discussed at the State House, a response that some vocational advocates have been seeking since changes were announced earlier this year.
In May, the Massachusetts Board of Elementary and Secondary Education voted to change the statewide admittance policy for vocational schools. Starting with students entering ninth grade during the 2026-2027 school year, any vocational school that has more applicants than available seats will use a lottery system to determine which students gain entry to the school.
In addition, districts can now choose on whether they want to use a blind lottery — a basic lottery where all applicants have the same odds of getting in, or a weighted lottery in which applicants can increase their chances of being admitted based on their middle school attendance figures and discipline records.
"While we continue to increase the number of seats in career technical education schools, we know that there are still more applicants than openings at many of the schools," Gov. Maura T. Healey said in May, when the policy was approved. "Today’s vote will help give all eighth graders more knowledge of their options and a better chance at being admitted to these schools.”
The bill, sponsored by state Rep. Frank Moran, D-Lawrence, and Rep. Adam Scanlon, D-North Attleborough, is currently being reviewed in the House of Representatives. It calls for a moratorium on any changes to the vocational school admissions policies including the decision voted on by the state Board of Education in May.
Tuesday, June 24, the Worcester Regional Chamber of Commerce held a panel featuring various professionals related to vocational education in the state, calling for support of Moran’s bill and an end to the state’s plans to institute a lottery system for vocational schools.
Worcester Regional Chamber of Commerce President Timothy P. Murray, who has been a vocal advocate against the implementation of a lottery process, praised the state’s vocational school system while slamming the state’s plans to turn the entire admissions system into a lottery.
He said: "It is frustrating we are at this point, where we have a model that is a national model, where we have led in this area, we have the resources and now with the administration and now the Board of Education and the Healey/Driscoll administration have voted to ration what we’ve got. It creates winners and losers in our communities and penalizes students who show up every day to school, have good grades and have good attendance. Their fate, educationally, is dictated by a bouncing bingo ball in a lottery."
Brockton High School Principal Kevin McCasskill said that being selective of students entering a vocational program is a necessary part of developing strong students to enter the workforce.
"You are creating healthy competition very early because later on in life (students) are going to be competing, not just in their own neighborhood, but globally for positions," McCasskill told the panel at the chamber office. "If we can start raising the standards of our middle schools, start raising the awareness of our parents, that creates a healthy base for future employees in all these sectors that are clamoring for employees. When that decision was made, I think it was just watering down what we’ve built."
In Worcester, students are admitted to vocational programs through a weighted lottery system already, an implementation the district put in three years ago. As such, the change at the state level would have a minimal impact at Worcester Public Schools.
The issue is of bigger concern at regional vocational schools elsewhere in Worcester County.
Bay Path Regional Vocational Technical High School in Charlton currently uses a selective process for how it admits students. At Bay Path, each of the 10 member towns have a number of seats based on the number of school-aged children in those towns. Students who then apply to Bay Path are evaluated and given a score based on academic performance, attendance, discipline records and a recommendation from their middle school guidance counselors.
Kyle Brenner, Bay Path’s superintendent, said: "We consider all of those factors, but it is not difficult for a student to attain full points in each category. If a student is passing all their classes, they get full points for academic performance. If they did not have a long-term out-of-school suspension, they get full points for discipline."
Students are then selected to Bay Path based on their score. If there are more applicants with the same score from a member town than their are available seats, a lottery is then used, which, Brenner said, does happen with some regularity.
For Brenner, the issue with the state-instituted lottery system comes from the limits it puts on what can be used if a district wants to create a weighed lottery system. Brenner said that student discipline records can only come into play if a student has a charged felony and that attendance records have to be extreme in order to be a factor in the weighed lottery.
"Attendance is a major issue for vocational schools because many of our programs require students to have a large number of shop hours for them to earn their certificate by the time they graduate," Brenner said. "To earn a cosmetology certificate, you need to have a lot of hours —students who are chronically absent cannot earn that certificate."
On the flip side, Brenner said it was also unclear if districts would be able to maintain a level of discretion based on individual circumstances. During the current process, Brenner said that Bay Path is able to evaluate each student based on their specific circumstances, something that he does not know will be available under a state-mandated lottery system.
"Each student has their own unique background," Brenner said. "For instance, we just this past year had a student who had a lot of absences from school, but we knew that student had been in foster care, had been given a bad placement and was going through a lot of turmoil at home. We can evaluate that student’s specific circumstance and waive their absences if there is a situation like that going on.
"Brenner said. "Under the proposed new rules, we don’t know if we’d be able to do that. This whole plan seems to really just be watering down the quality of the admissions process."