Ep 12: What is it like to be a student, or a principal, in an open enrollment school?

In the new year, students in Boston’s grades 6 and 8 will begin to choose schools for the 2021 school year. About 25% will gain entry into one of the exam schools while 75% of students will choose an open enrollment or admission-based school. 

In this podcast, we will talk with Gene Roundtree, current headmaster at Snowden International School, an open enrollment high school in the Copley/Back Bay area. We talk to Gene about his efforts at Snowden to create more opportunities for students and grow the International Baccalaureate college preparatory curriculum to help prepare all of his students for life beyond high school. Gene also looks back at his experiences at Madison Park Vocational Technical High School, and we briefly discuss its future.

Moreover, Gene shares the importance of providing a high quality education at all of BPS’s high schools and the challenges often faced by students who don’t attend an exam or application-based school.