The Boston School Committee Wednesday night approved changes to the admission policy for the city’s three competitive exam schools that supporters say were needed to simplify the regulations and make them more fair.
But critics said the changes risk rolling back progress on making the schools more diverse and representative of the district.
The changes, which will apply to Boston Latin School, Boston Latin Academy, and the John D. O’Bryant School of Math and Science, will eliminate bonus points for applicants coming from high-poverty schools, and reduce points for students who are homeless, live in public housing, or are in state custody. A fifth of seats at each school would be open to any qualifying student, regardless of socioeconomic considerations.
In a 4-2 vote during the School Committee’s meeting in Roxbury Wednesday night, the policy changes were backed by Jeri Robinson, the board chairperson, along with members Rachel Skerritt, Quoc Tran, and Michael O’Neill, the vice chairperson.
“I do believe this is a compromise that allows us to keep the goals that we had in place, which was to have greater socioeconomic diversity and greater representation from all the neighborhoods in our city,” said O’Neill shortly before the vote.
Committee members Rafaela Polanco Garcia and Stephen Alkins voted against the measure. As they did, a group of audience members applauded.
Alkins said the new policy will guarantee that students with perfect scores and grades, regardless of their background, “would be able to claim admission” to their top choice school.
“The simulations that have been presented compromise the admissions to our most representative populations within the district,” Alkins said. “And that goes against the original ethos of the policy for me.”
The changes also come less than five years after the School Committee approved the current policy, which was implemented in 2021 and has increased diversity in the three exam schools.
Under the current policy, students are grouped together in four socioeconomic tiers to avoid having poor families competing with richer ones for exam school seats.
Students’ scores are a combination of grades, placement exam performance, and points dependent on where students live and go to school. Students need a B average to be eligible and can apply in grades 7 and 9.
Superintendent Mary Skipper, who recommended the changes in September, has said the district remains committed to creating an equitable, transparent policy that ensures all students have an opportunity for an exam school seat.
Skipper has said that the previous policy could mean some students with high composite scores could miss out on an exam school seat because the school-based points make it mathematically impossible to receive an invitation.
“Our recommendation is meant to keep what’s working about the current policy and fix what’s not working well,” Skipper said shortly before the vote.
Earlier in the meeting, several opponents of the policy change urged the committee to delay a vote, and seek out more community input before making a decision.
Vernee Wilkinson, a member of the local family organization School Facts Boston, criticized city and school leaders for not engaging families enough on the policy changes before taking a vote.
“Wake up to this call for equity. Delay your vote. Do not vote for the proposed policy,” Wilkinson said.
Jillie Santos, a staff member at Citizens for Juvenile Justice, which is a part of the Coalition for Equity in Exam Schools, warned the policy change will decrease invitations to low-income students.
“The decision you make tonight will make opportunity gaps worse if you vote these recommendations through,” Santos said.
Diversity at the exam schools has improved since 2021, according to district data. At Boston Latin School, white student enrollment fell from 45 percent in 2019-2020 to 32 percent last year, data show.
The proportion of Black student enrollment at BLS nearly doubled in that period, from 8 percent to 15 percent. Latino students rose from 13 percent to 17 percent, and Asian American students increased from 29 percent to 31 percent, that data showed.
Demand is high for the exam schools, which educate students in grades 7 through 12.
The city has nearly three dozen high schools, but the exam schools have among the best outcomes. Boston Latin School reports about 94 percent of students attend a university, while BPS as a whole reports roughly half of students go on to a four-year college.
The state classifies 45 of Boston’s schools as underperforming, while an achievement gap persists between Black and Latino students compared with their white and Asian peers.
Skerritt, who is a former Boston Latin School headmaster and served on the panel that developed the 2021 policy, said the district needs to address student achievement at the lower grade levels.
She cited state data showing less than 1,000 BPS sixth-graders meet or exceed state standards in English language arts and math.
“What does this mean? It means that we do not have the number of students in the entirety of Boston Public Schools performing at grade level in ELA and math to fill the total available seventh-grade seats across the three exam schools,” Skerritt said. “This is what needs our attention and urgently.”
Robinson said the district has 32 high schools, and not every student is going to be the right fit for every program.
The district needs to work hard to make sure students are ready to be successful within the program that makes sense for them, she said.
“People love the exam schools because they bring prestige, and they have resources,” Robinson said. “But they’re not right for every student, we know that.”
Clarification: This story has been updated to clarify Jillie Santos’s relationship to the Coalition for Equity in Exam Schools
John Hilliard can be reached at john.hilliard@globe.com or on Signal at john_hilliard.70. Follow him on Bluesky at iamjohnhilliard.bsky.social.