Vocational Education Justice Coalition Voices Deep Concerns with Proposed Admissions Regs

• Department of Elementary & Secondary Education proposes to require use of admissions lottery, but would allow schools to exclude as many as half of students from many cities based on attendance records
• DESE’s New Proposed Vocational Admissions Policy ends three barriers that discriminated against students from protected classes (Grades, Guidance Counselor Recommendations, Interviews) and eliminates ranking of applicants
• BUT It SIGNIFICANTLY RAISES THE BARRIER ATTENDANCE can play in disqualifying many students from admission
  • Statewide, over one-third of Latino, low-income, and English Learner students would be excluded from applying to vocational schools
  • In a sample of 10 Gateway Cities, 30-53% of students would be excluded from attending
• It Further Clarifies the Discipline Offenses That Exclude Students From Applying, however the criteria are still overly broad
• The Vocational Education Justice Coalition asks Governor Healey and the Board of Education to eliminate the proposed attendance criteria and more narrowly focus the discipline criteria

The Vocational Education Justice Coalition has deep concerns with the Commissioner of Education’s proposed revised regulations on vocational school admissions, to be presented to the Board of Elementary & Secondary Education (BESE) at its February 25, 2025 meeting.

While the commissioner’s proposed revised regulations would require all vocational schools and programs to offer admissions to students using a blind lottery, and remove the exclusionary criteria of grades, recommendations, and interviews, the regulations enable schools and programs to exclude students from the lottery who have accumulated 10 or more unexcused absences:  

• Statewide, almost one-quarter of all students (23.7%) would be excluded from applying to vocational schools and programs by this attendance standard.
• Black, Latino, low-income, and English Learner students, as well as students with disabilities would be disproportionately excluded from applying to vocational schools. Over one-third of all Latino, low-income, and English Learners students would be excluded from applying.
• In a sampling of 10 Gateway districts, from 30%-53% of all students would be excluded from applying to vocational schools: Brockton 30%, Chelsea 52.9%, Fall River 40.7%, Fitchburg 38.5%, Haverhill 46.6%, Lowell 35.8%, New Bedford 48.8%, Quincy 31%, Revere 44.9%, Springfield 38.1%,
• In every Gateway district sampled, low-income students and students with disabilities would be excluded in higher percentages than all students, and Latino students would be excluded in disproportionate percentages relative to White students.

Another unfairness of the standard for unexcused absences is that many parents don’t understand the need to send in notes for such absences.  Students may have to be absent because of their own illness, taking care of younger siblings when their parents are working, attending family funerals including ones taking place in their country of origin, but may still have these absences recorded as “unexcused.”.  Also, one of the purposes of vocational educational programs is to offer a pedagogy that better fits the learning styles of some students.  Often, students not now engaged by their current school’s pedagogy  are absent more, but will be more engaged in a vocational school with its combination of hands-on skills learning and challenging academics. 

The inclusion 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.

As well, the coalition believes that the authorization to exclude  any student for “conduct for which suspension or expulsion was imposed pursuant to M.G.L. c.71 §37H or §37H1/2, or for which suspension or expulsion for more than 10 days was imposed pursuant to M.G.L. c.71 §37H3/4” is overly broad.  M.G.L. c.71 §37H3/4 allows for exclusion of students for almost any type of offense when the student has been suspended for more than 10 consecutive days. Data shows that Black and Latino students tend to receive harsher suspension lengths than their White peers for the same offense. Under M.G.L. c.71 §37H, it is overly broad to exclude a student who was in possession of a controlled substance (e.g., possession of marijuana). Under §37H1/2, a student should not be excluded from admission due to a felony charge when those charges could be dropped.

The coalition believes that exclusion for disciplinary reasons should be limited to students who have been excluded from school due to possession of a dangerous weapon, assault of an education staff member, or a felony conviction.

The Commissioner’s proposal does not represent progress over BESE’s current vocational school admissions regulations that discriminate against students of color, low-income students, students with disabilities, and English Learners. It is unacceptable for revised regulations to enable almost one-quarter of all students to be excluded from consideration for admissions to vocational schools, to disproportionately exclude students from all protected classes, and to exclude students from protected classes in Gateway districts at significantly higher rates.

Federal law requires that vocational schools “must not use criteria that have the effect of disproportionately excluding persons of a particular race, color, national origin, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, or disability unless they demonstrate that such criteria have been validated as essential to participation in vocational programs; and alternative equally valid criteria that do not have such a disproportionate adverse effect are unavailable.” 

Governor Healey’s promise of fairer admissions regulations falls woefully short with this proposal. The coalition will be asking the Governor to request BESE members and commissioner to go back to the drawing table and draft a more equitable vocational school admissions proposal that does justice for all students from protected classes.

The Vocational Education Justice Coalition is made up of these 24 groups.

Community Groups—

La Colaborativa (formerly the Chelsea Collaborative)
Massachusetts Communities Action Network (MCAN)
Collaborative Parent Leadership Action Network (CPLAN)
Greater Boston Latino Network
United Interfaith Action of SE MA, Worcester Interfaith
Progressive Democrats Massachusetts
Black Educators Alliance of Massachusetts
Citizens for Public Schools
Massachusetts Advocates for Children
Massachusetts Education Justice Alliance
Pioneer Valley Project
Brockton Interfaith Community 
Worcester Interfaith
Revere Youth in Action
Massachusetts Action for Justice

Civil Rights groups—

Center for Law & Education
Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights, 
Social Justice Foundation
Metro West Legal Services

Unions–

American Federation of Teachers MA (AFTMA), 
Massachusetts Teachers Association (MTA)
North Atlantic States Regional Council of Carpenters 
Greater Boston Building Trades Council