Wicked Local Build it and they will come, is a phrase commonly used when something is built to attract more people. This is certainly true in the case of the new Minuteman Regional Vocational Technical High School, which opened the doors of its $145 million new school in September 2019. Due to the limited capacity of the new building, which was designed for 628 students, students from non-member towns including Belmont and Watertown are not guaranteed admission.
Two out of the seven Belmont students from the class of 2025 who completed the Minuteman application process were offered admission, and one has enrolled. The number of Belmont students who applied to the Minuteman before the new school opened and before the town became a non-member has decreased. There were 20 students in the class of 2023 who applied, and 19 were offered admission for the fall of 2019.
By Joy Hosford, Ross Cristantiello and Mike Gaffney
Saugus Advertiser
Major changes could be on the way for Massachusetts vocational schools. With more students applying and advocates pushing to make admissions more equitable, the process by which a student actually gets into a vocational school could be changed drastically.
Massachusetts Elementary and Secondary Education Commissioner (DESE) Jeffrey Riley proposed changes to the admission process earlier this year, and according to State House News the proposed changes .would give schools flexibility to set their own policies that promote equitable access while restricting the use of criteria that disproportionately exclude students in protected classes.
Wicked Local
Major changes could be on the way for Massachusetts vocational schools. With more students applying and advocates pushing to make admissions more equitable, the process by which a student actually gets into a vocational school could be changed drastically.
There are several catalysts fueling the push for a change to admissions. Tech school advocates say they lack access to middle school students and students of color in underserved areas, meaning a teach school education is unfamiliar or unavailable to those populations; at the same time, enrollments are growing faster than physical plants, limiting the number of slots available to all students.
Massachusetts Trying to Expand Access to Technical Schools
The Massachusetts Board of Elementary and Secondary Education is revisiting admissions practices to vocational schools as enrollment continues to grow faster than the number of available placements.
May 13, 2021 • (TNS) This is the third in a series of stories exploring how the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted vocational-technical schools in the region.
Major changes could be on the way for Massachusetts vocational schools. With more students applying and advocates pushing to make admissions more equitable, the process by which a student actually gets into a vocational school could be changed drastically.
There are several catalysts fueling the push for a change to admissions. Tech school advocates say they lack access to middle school students and students of color in underserved areas, meaning a teach school education is unfamiliar or unavailable to those populations; at the sam