Massachusetts Vocational Admissions Debate Getting Heated

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As state officials move closer to considering changes to admission policies governing vocational high schools, including potentially requiring the use of a blind lottery system to award seats, the temperature of the debate is getting turned up.

The state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education has held a series of four hearings over the past month, including two this week, and a subcommittee of the board has been tasked with studying the issue further before potential changes are considered. But it’s clear that, more than seven years after questions about voc admissions began to surface, the issue is coming to a head – and one side in the debate will not be happy with the outcome.

At issue is big disparities in voc school enrollment of lower-income students, English learners, special needs students, and students of color. Under state regulations adopted in 2003, the schools had been using selective admission criteria that considered applicants’ middle school grades, attendance and discipline record, and a recommendation in awarding seats.

Vocational schools have grown markedly in popularity in recent years, and there are many more applicants each year than seats available. Nearly half of the roughly 20,000 middle school  students who applied in 2023, or about 8,500 students, did not get admitted.

Under pressure from civil rights and education advocates, the state board modified the regulations in 2021 to make use of the criteria optional. It also said excused absences can’t factor in the attendance measurement and only major discipline infractions can be considered. The new regulations also warned that schools cannot use any admissions criteria that have a disproportionate impact on the enrollment of demographic groups protected by state and federal law unless they can show they are “essential to participation” in the school’s program, and that there are not other equally effective standards that would not have such an effect.

Many schools tweaked their admission scoring rubric, but nearly all retained selective standards for accepting students. Critics said the changes the state made did not go far enough, and they called on officials to mandate the use of a lottery to award seats.

Russell Johnston, the state’s acting education commissioner, said in the recent hearings that the disparities have persisted in the years since the changes. In 2024, “across the board admittance rates were lower in nearly all the schools for specific student populations,” he said – pointing to rates for English learners, special needs students, students of color, and low-income students.

“We are having a discussion that goes beyond legal compliance,” Johnston said. “This is a question that’s really about access to public education.”

Critics say the selective criteria are locking out some of the students who would benefit most from voc schools’ focus on applied, hands-on learning – those who may have struggled academically in the traditional classroom setting during middle school or had attendance problems as a result. Given the high demand for vocational schools, leaders at these schools say it’s important to ensure that these seats go to students who are ready to take on the demands of their combined program of academic and vocational courses.

Testifying at Monday night’s hearing, Stephen Zrike, superintendent of the Salem Public Schools, said there are homeless students or those arriving from other countries who will never have a chance at gaining admission to the regional vocational school – Essex North Shore Agricultural & Technical School – under selective admission criteria.

“I don’t believe that public schools should have admission criteria that put up barriers for the most marginalized students,” he said.

At Tuesday’s state board meeting, Heidi Riccio, the superintendent of Essex North Shore, defended screening applicants based on discipline history, saying it’s a safety issue for schools. “This is essential in a vocational school that gives students weapons upon arrival,” she said, referring to the use of chainsaws and nail guns at the schools. What’s more, she said, traditional  high schools like Salem High also use discipline history in admissions.

Salem High School’s website does say serious discipline infractions could lead to a student being disqualified from pursuing a particular vocational pathway, but this isn’t an admissions standard for acceptance – it applies to student behavior while in a vocational course. In an interview on Tuesday, Zrike, now in his fifth year as Salem superintendent, said all high schools are able to access vocational courses. He called raising the policy a “red herring,” and said, in practice, that there hasn’t been a single student expelled from a voc program at Salem High during this time in the district. “Nobody is being restricted from [vocational programs] here,” he said.

“They’re trying to protect the status quo,” Zrike said of vocational schools’ effort to maintain use of selective admission criteria. “I get charged up about this because it’s so obvious to me – the inequities here.”

Patrick Tutwiler, Gov. Maura Healey’s secretary of education, who sits on the board, seemed to share that view.

“It’s hard to look at that data, as an educator, as a man of color, as a leader in this state who leads with a set of core values, principally anchored in this idea of equity,” Tutwiler said at the hearing held last Friday. “We talk a lot about this idea that our job is to create conditions for all students to realize their dreams, and when you look at slides that clearly show a lack of access for certain students, that’s hard to look at.”

“I feel a moral obligation to continue this conversation in earnest, but more importantly, to do something about it,” he added. “And I hope my colleagues on the board feel the same way.”

This article first appeared on CommonWealth Beacon and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

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