Good morning,
Thought you might find this editorial of interest.
Have a great weekend.
David
Opinion by Sentinel & Enterprise, Fitchburg, Mass.NL
Editorial: Voc-tech school admit lottery best imperfect solution
Nashoba Valley Technical High School. (Julia Malakie/Lowell Sun)
By Editorial
PUBLISHED: February 27, 2025 at 12:42 AM EST
Although the Healey administration has proposed significant changes to the way vocational-technical schools admit students after years of criticism that the system excludes applicants from certain backgrounds, some of those same advocates still believe it won’t solve “the same discriminatory selection pattern.”
Department of Education officials this week presented new regulations requiring career technical schools with waitlists to use lotteries when selecting students, instead of the current practice that allows schools to select students based on grades, attendance and discipline records.
On paper, that’s exactly what those who pushed for admission reforms sought, after previous tinkering with the selection system proved insufficient.
The education board in 2021 voted to reform the admissions process, after advocates said policies disproportionately excluded students of color and those who were learning English, had disabilities or came from low-income families. Those changes removed mandates that grades, attendance, discipline records and counselor recommendations be used as admissions criteria.
However, while the regulation changes ended the requirement that vocational-technical schools use criteria such as disciplinary records, it did not ban their use.
The reforms did soften some of the selective criteria; for example, career technical schools now can only count non-excused absences against an applicant, and only suspensions of 10 days or more count against them.
Of the 29 career technical districts in Massachusetts, 25 kept selective criteria in their admissions process after 2021. And most still require a recommendation or an interview.
It’s been known for some time that the demand for admittance into a vocational-technical school far exceeds the supply of seats, especially in Gateway Cities like Fitchburg, Lowell and Lawrence.
The newly drafted regulations would require schools to admit students by a lottery when there are more applicants than available slots.
Middle schools in districts that send students to career technical high schools would also need to make students aware of the vocational options.
After the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education receive the draft regulations, it will solicit public comment.
But critics still say that despite decoupling admissions from attendance and discipline records, those criteria could still limit which students enter the lottery pool.
Schools could exclude from the lottery those students with 10 or more unexcused absences per school year, as well as students who were suspended or expelled for more than 10 days.
The Vocational Education Justice Coalition cited attendance data from several districts and said the share of students with at least 10 unexcused absences is significantly higher in districts with large populations of students of color, warning that they would therefore be disqualified from the admissions lottery “in disproportionate percentages.”
VEJC wrote: “The insertion of 10 or more unexcused absences as a gateway for entry into the lottery negates any progress in eliminating grades, recommendations, and interviews. It is the coalition’s belief that the proposed revised regulations will result in the same discriminatory selection pattern we have seen ever since DESE began publishing admissions data.”
Healey administration officials said they crafted the regulations based on months of work and study, including several board meetings that focused on the career technical admissions process.
Healey has been pushing to place more emphasis and resources on vocational and technical education, part of what her team calls a “Reimagine High School” campaign.
Her supplemental budget bill to spend surplus surtax revenue would direct $75 million toward career technical education, which officials say would add 3,000 seats in programs over three years.
Another Healey bill funding public higher education capital improvements includes $100 million for grant programs that support high schools, colleges and other institutions with career programs and workforce training.
“Massachusetts’s career technical education programs play an important role in our state’s education system and economy. They provide students with the skills they need to succeed in today’s job market and help us meet the workforce needs of our employers,” Healey stated last week.
“Our administration has been engaging with families, educators, CTE schools, local officials and the business community to determine how we can increase access to these programs and set all of our students up for success.”
Obviously, as we have long advocated, a lottery system represents the most equitable way to select an overwhelming number of students to fill a limited number of seats.
However, no system represents a perfect solution; that’s complicated in this case by the specialized nature of a vocational-technical education.
In essence, its hands-on, learning-by-doing core curriculum requires students to faithfully attend class and eventually put what they’ve learned to the test in the workplace.
Chronic absenteeism won’t cut it in that environment.
That’s a dilemma even a blind lottery system can’t solve – at least not immediately.
That stay-in-school message must be sent and understood through middle school, especially in Gateway Cities, where student absenteeism undermines the ability to receive a technical school education.
David J. Ferreira
MAVA Communications Coordinator
DavidFerreira
