On November 5, the Boston School Committee, BPS’s executive body, approved a new exam school admissions policy set to take effect in the 2026-2027 school year.
The policy will affect the three exam schools in the Boston Public Schools district: Boston Latin School, Boston Latin Academy and the John D. O’Bryant School of Mathematics and Science. This modification will open a fifth of the spots to the highest performing students across the city based on a metric that combines both grades and standardized test scores. The remaining 80 percent of seats will be distributed based on four socioeconomic tiers.
This change marks a shift from the most recent policy, which awarded bonus points to students attending high-poverty schools and those without stable housing. Under the new system, however, bonus points for attending high-poverty schools have been eliminated, and points have been reduced for students experiencing housing instability.
BLS Assistant Head of School Danikka Giarratani Moses explains, “One goal of the policy is to make the admissions process easier to understand. Under the previous system, there were concerns that some high-achieving students found it almost impossible to get a seat [at one of the BPS exam schools] just because of where they lived.”
Passed with a four to two vote, the new policy aims to offer stability and will be implemented for a minimum of three admissions cycles. The academic metric will continue to factor in students’ GPA at 70 percent and scores on the Measure of Academic Progress (MAP) Growth test at 30 percent. The policy decreases both housing points from 15 to 10 and the number of socioeconomic tiers from eight to four.
Many support how the new policy places more emphasis on academic merit, as it guarantees a certain number of spots for the top-performing students. Regarding the continuation of standardized tests like the MAP test, however, some express concerns about maintaining equity and representation. Mayor’s Youth Council member Vinh Nguyen (II) remarks, “We should also understand that not all students in BPS have the same access to all resources. Historically, a lot of students who are more privileged have access to test preparation and tutoring.”
One of the solutions BPS has implemented is the Exam School Initiative (ESI), a four-week program designed to to prepare students for Boston’s exam schools. The 2025 ESI Summer Program took place at BLS and hosted a total of 215 students.
Leo Margalit (III), who entered the School as a B-sie, remarks, “Students at all schools [and] of all demographics have a chance to grab one of these spots. So yes, the demographic of many schools, particularly BLS, [might] change a little bit. I think it’s not really a sacrifice, though, because BLS will always remain a diverse community.”
This latest policy comes after several changes to the exam school admissions process in recent years, as the BPS has repeatedly revised the system after the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite these adjustments, approaches within BLS remain the same, as the School hopes to maintain its rigorous academic nature while still preserving its cultural diversity.
Giarratani Moses concludes, “The core strength of BLS — our commitment to classical education and academic excellence — remains unchanged. We have seen tremendous resilience from our students and our faculty. […] Policies may change at the district level, but our mission to ‘lead the way’ remains the same.”