Concerns over recommendations

In data from the teacher recommendations for the incoming Class of 2027, six percent of Black 8th graders who will take a course in the math department were recommended for Advanced Geometry. Thirty percent were recommended for Geometry Honors and 64 percent were recommended for the college preparatory Geometry course.

In the BSC meeting on Jan. 19, Meyer said 8th grade teachers’ recommendations are a concerning factor that influenced the decision to reimagine 9th grade across the board.

“Teachers know students incredibly well, and we count on them to make good recommendations. We believe they do so in an incredibly thoughtful and well-intentioned way,” Meyer said. “And we have data that is concerning and has been concerning and thus the idea of rethinking our 9th grade courses, where we’re not asking students and teachers to decide, ‘Are you an honors student?’ in the middle of 8th grade.”

Even with teachers trying their best to recommend students, Siver said a systemic lack of communication plays a role in racial gaps in recommendations for 9th grade courses.

“The end goal of anyone’s education is to have all these set foundational skills come to fruition. If you don’t lay down the foundation or a clear map of how that can come to be, then people get lost along the way. It ties into this idea of perhaps a greater sense of organization being a necessity amongst many tiers, not here in Brookline, but across many districts,” Siver said.

Paris said shifting students’ first recommendations from 8th grade teachers to 9th grade teachers will result in more consistent course recommendations.

“I think the 8th grade teachers and counselors do a really good job of recommending students. It’s a hard task, and I think they take it very seriously and I think they’re very informed about our high school program. The issue is that there are eight different elementary schools and so, just with that fact alone, you’re going to get disparities in the way that recommendations are made,” Paris said.

Barsky-Elnour said the college preparatory level for 9th grade math was the right choice for her.

“I talked to my main class math teacher, and he said that I should do honors if I was ready to put in the work and to spend a lot of time on math, but he had recommended me for standard at the time,” Barsky-Elnour said. “I didn’t really believe that I had the means to be in an honors class. I don’t think I was quite ready to accept that I would have to put all that work, because I didn’t in my 8th grade year.”

When 8th grade teachers recommended students for 9th grade English courses for the 2022-23 school year, 63 percent of students identifying as Black or African American (17 students) were recommended for the college preparatory English course, according to a Public Schools of Brookline (PSB) Data Report, as opposed to the honors option. Twenty-four percent of white students (68 students), 27 percent of Asian students (21 students), 52 percent of Hispanic students (32 students) and 29 percent Multi-Race Non-Hispanic students (14 students) were recommended for the college-preparatory English course.

While parents can override recommendations from teachers, McCormick said 9th grade students usually stick with their 8th grade teacher recommendations.

This trend of students staying in the level they were recommended for in 8th grade continues throughout their years in high school. According to data from PSB enrollment and teacher recommendations for the Class of 2025, two percent of students recommended for a course in the social studies department overrode their recommendations.

“If you’re like a really empowered parent, and you’re like, ‘I know [how] that school works, my kid can take honors,’ you’re gonna go do that,” McCormick said. “If you’re less empowered, maybe you didn’t have a good school experience as a student, you may not question it. If you’re just busy and you just don’t have the time, you have maybe lots of kids, you work multiple jobs or your first language is not English, all of that makes it harder.”

According to Barsky-Elnour, the level of math that students are prepared to do can be limited by their middle school experience with math.

“I think [there is] a systemic level issue that builds in middle school, that teachers aren’t pushing kids of color enough as they go. So when they get to their 8th grade year, maybe they don’t have the skills for honors,” Barsky-Elnour said.