BBA Joins ADL Amicus Brief in Support of Equity in Access to Boston’s Prestigious Exam Schools

The Boston Bar Association (BBA) has signed onto an amicus brief by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) in support of the Boston Public Schools’ one-year policy for admission to its three exam-based high schools. Several other groups with an interest in ameliorating long-standing educational disparities also joined the brief, which argues that the school system has a compelling interest in advancing diversity of all kinds at the exam schools. The underlying litigation was filed in the U.S. District Court in Massachusetts this past February on behalf of several families of potential applicants who they claim would be adversely affected by the switch to this interim policy.

Boston’s School Committee has been criticized over admission policies for the highly-selective schools that have led to the acceptance of students who are significantly less diverse—on racial/ethnic, geographic, and socioeconomic measures—than its enrollment as a whole. This year, the district chose to drop the exam component because of the pandemic, settling instead on a temporary approach that still focuses on grades, setting aside 20% of seats to be filled solely on that basis, but also seeks to ensure greater diversity by using geography as well to help fill the remaining 80% — drawing the top students from each ZIP code, in numbers commensurate with the student population in each area.

The ADL’s brief, prepared by attorneys with Cooley LLP‘s Boston and Washington, DC, offices, argues that the policy—which is in place to govern admissions for the 2021-22 school year only —advances the exam schools’ mandate “to foster and maintain a diverse student body so that students have access to the myriad, well-established educational benefits of diversity,” and that it ultimately helps the City of Boston compete in a global marketplace where “having more diverse, well-credentialed graduates is an essential competitive advantage.”

“The Exam Schools are a crucial part of the pipeline by which promising and diverse students in Boston enter the local talent pool,” the brief states. “Students from underrepresented communities around the City are missing out on significant opportunities and advantages,” noting, for example, that “a student from West Roxbury was approximately five times more likely than a student from East Boston to gain admission.” By addressing such on-going disparities head-on, the one-year policy will help level the playing field.

“The BBA has long taken an interest in promoting equity and equal opportunity for students in New England’s largest school district and beyond,” said BBA President Martin F. Murphy, “from publishing a 1975 report that explained court-ordered desegregation to the public, to filing a series of amicus briefs over the past 20 years in defense of the principle that society is best served when the benefits of access to a quality education are shared equally, and when students are best prepared for success by learning in a diverse environment. We are proud to join the ADL and others in this brief.”

The other amici joining the brief include Amplify Latinx, the Black Economic Council of Massachusetts, the Boston Celtics, the Boston Red Sox, Jewish Alliance for Law and Social Action, King Boston, the Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Coalition, the Massachusetts LGBT Chamber of Commerce, the Mental Health Legal Advisors Committee, the New Commonwealth Racial Equity and Social Justice Fund, and Boston-based cybersecurity firm Rapid7. In addition, a number of civil-rights groups, represented by Lawyers for Civil Rights, Sidley Austin LLP, and Greater Boston Legal Services, successfully moved to join as intervenors in the case, to offer the court a broader perspective on the issues presented.

A hearing in the case—Boston Parent Coalition for Academic Excellence Corp. v. The School Committee of the City of Boston et al.—will be held before District Judge G. William Young, streamed live at 10am on Tuesday.

Amicus Curiae means, literally, friend of the court. Since 1975, the BBA has filed amicus briefs on matters related to the practice of law or the administration of justice. The 2020-2021 BBA Amicus Committee is co-chaired by Neil Austin of Foley Hoag LLP and Maria Durant of Hogan Lovells.