Testimony on Barriers to Vocational-Technical School Admissions
MAC Executive Director Kevin Murray testified on Tuesday, January 26, 2021 before the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education in Malden. Kevin serves as a member of the Vocational Justice Education Coalition, and testified on the issue of access to the state’s vocational-technical schools for Black and Latinx students, English learners, and students with disabilities. Click here for a recording of his testimony (begins at 29:24).
On behalf of Massachusetts Advocates for Children and the Vocational Education Justice Coalition (VEJC)
Good morning!
A young man sits in a wood shop and works on carpentry
MAC has worked for over a half-century to address the barriers to educational and life opportunity for Massachusetts children and youth. We are here today because we believe that the admissions policies of the Commonwealth’s vocational-technical schools have become one such barrier.
You are by now aware of the Vocational Education Justice Coalition’s contention that voc-tech schools exclude many Black and Latinx students, other English learners, and students with disabilities, among others who could really benefit from the education offered at these schools. MAC fully supports this analysis, which we consider to be based on irrefutable evidence.
No single factor has created this situation, but the evolution of the admissions policies at these schools has been a major cause of these patterns of exclusion. Consideration of factors such as grades, performance on standardized tests, performance in an interview and school discipline record have turned these schools into another form of selective admissions schools. Over time, these admissions standards have had an exclusionary effect that bears many of the hallmarks of discriminatory practice. VEJC has proposed changes to admissions policies that would reverse these effects.
The Department may disagree with the specifics of the VEJC position but it has not disputed the view that current admissions policies are contributing to unacceptable patterns of enrollment at least some of these schools. The Commissioner has engaged with several of the schools in an attempt to encourage voluntary changes to admissions policy, so far without result.
For MAC, the passage of time lends real urgency to the need for changes along the lines proposed by VEJC. We understand that the COVID pandemic has forced the Department to address other pressing priorities, but the evident worsening of educational inequities in this period makes changes like those proposed by VEJC even more important. Such changes could be a very meaningful component of a statewide plan for an equitable recovery from this pandemic.
These proposals are not perfect, as they might still allow the exclusion of some students with developmental disabilities for whom voc-tech education could represent a unique opportunity to become self-sufficient adults, contributing to society. We, nonetheless, support the VEJC recommendations as a critical step forward and we urge the Board to approve the proposed changes to go into effect as soon as possible. After years of discussion of these issues, the time to act is now!
Watch the Testimony:
Kevin’s testimony begins at 29:24
MAC Executive Director Kevin Murray testifies before the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education in Malden on behalf of MAC and the Vocational Education Justice Coalition. Kevin’s testimony begins at 29:24.