FINDING SOLUTIONS to the problem of declining minority enrollment at theprestigious Boston Latin School is not a brain-teaser. If provided with methodical enrichment programs over a significant time period, motivated minority students from the city's poorer neighborhoods can compete with anyone.
Almost a decade has passed since the end of the affirmative action policy that reserved 35 percent of the seats at Boston Latin School for incoming seventh-graders who were minorities, even if they scored significantly lower than theirwhite or Asian counterparts on the entrance examination. Fears that minority enrollment would decline were quickly realized. By 1999, black and Hispanic students constituted only 16 percent of the incoming class. This year that percentage rose to almost 19 percent. It's a decent gain, but not enough when 75 percent of Boston's overall student population is black or Hispanic. With budgets tight, a significant increase in minority enrollment calls for a special effort by the Boston Latin School Association, a high-powered group of alumni who attribute much of their current success in a wide range of professions to their early training at the academically demanding public school. The association recently completed a successful $30 million capital campaign. Donors can be counted on to raise $2 million a year. While much of that largesse is reserved for scholarships and in-school enhancements, more could be directed to programs that increase minority enrollment at the school.
One good use of funds would be to expand the Steppingstone Foundation, a nonprofit group that identifies talented minority youngsters in the city's public schools and tutors them for admission to private and public exam schools. Steppingstone boasts an extraordinary 89 percent placement rate, according to Jenny Foster, the group's outreach coordinator. Students are required to spend 14 months in after-school and Saturday enrichment classes before sitting for the entrance exam. Steppingstone serves 150 youngsters a year, but Foster says the group could identify more good candidates.
Latin alumni have stepped up admirably in recent years to fund three-week summer tutorials for roughly 300 sixth-graders seeking admission to an exam school. But more is needed. Latin's headmaster, Cornelia Kelley, also wants to offer test preparation sessions at Latin on Saturdays throughout the year for fifth-graders from the city's public schools.
Motivated students from modest backgrounds are out there. If they look, many Latin School alumni will recognize earlier versions of themselves.
