Citizen building: What’s the best way to help students soar in a democracy?
When Cathy Ware’s son was in the third grade, he struggled to stay engaged and was frequently disruptive.
But when he tested into Boston’s gifted and talented program, known as Advanced Work Class, in the fourth grade, his behavior problems vanished. No longer bored, he loved school.
As Ms. Ware sees it, the decades-old program is a lifesaver that ought to be expanded, so more students can benefit from its challenging curricula.
“Kids who need to go farther, faster, that’s a special need, just like a kid who is having trouble reading,” she says.
But Edith Bazile, an education activist and former Boston Public Schools teacher, says AWC, which disproportionately enrolls white and Asian children, should be dismantled. She’s pushing district leaders to invest, instead, in Excellence for All, a newer competitor meant to bring rigorous coursework to whole classrooms of students, without entry test requirements.
In Ms. Bazile’s view, Advanced Work Class is blatantly inequitable, and the parents and teachers fighting to preserve it are “hoarding resources, instead of thinking about how to expand opportunity for everyone.”
The fight over the future of the two programs is at once an intensely local dispute, and part of a broader national debate about meritocracy and access to public education. That debate, which
