News
Clarifying "Automatic Enrollment": Letter to the Newton Beacon Editor
Thank you for your coverage of the Newton School Committee council races this year, as in https://www.newtonbeacon.org/school-committee-candidates-talk-multi-level-classrooms-and-more/.
I would like to add some important context and nuance around my commentary on the practice of automatic enrollments. This discussion came in the context of providing alternative means to multi-leveling for closing achievement gaps and resolving racial disproportionalities in access to higher level courses.
Research shows that setting appropriately high expectations of learners and switching to automatic enrollment in advanced classes for objectively qualified students can help improve all students’ outcomes—and equity.
This approach allows for opting-out if necessary, but it is better than opt-in or more discretionary systems. It uses a common objective standard (e.g., performance on end of year tests) to ensure readiness for higher level coursework while helping to reduce human bias that research shows can influence decisions on who gets to access advanced courses.
Additionally, automatic enrollment can help students realize their full potential and overcome lack of role models, encouragement, or access to parental advocacy. Exploring such policies can help Newton close achievement gaps while simultaneously ensuring appropriate rigor and productive challenge for all students.
School Committee candidates talk multi-level classrooms and more [CORRECTIONS in text below]
Last month, four candidates—Jenna Miara, Mali Brodt, Bruce Hedison and Jim Murphy— jointly announced their campaigns for Newton’s School Committee in this year’s local election.
On Tuesday night, they sat down with Progressive Newton at the First Unitarian Universalist Society in Newton to talk about their visions for the Newton Public Schools. Fellow candidate Victor Lee, who showed up to watch the discussion, was invited to participate. And Newton South freshman Ana Ciric was there to give a student’s perspective on things.
Absent was Jason Bhardwaj, who’s running to fill the Ward 3 seat on the School Committee, with current seat occupant Anping Shen unable to run due to term limits.
The only competitive race represented was for Ward 8. Murphy and Lee are both running for that seat, with Barry Greenstein not seeking reelection. [Barry Greenstein has endorsed Victor Lee.]
Leveling up (or not)
A lot of the conversation focused on the students’ individual journeys through NPS and how those journeys are set: through tracking and multi-level classroom instruction.
Tracking refers to separating students by skill level and academic ability, typically for all or most of their classes. Multi-level classroom teaching, which has been controversial in Newton, involves having students from various skill level groups in the same classroom.
Ciric said the multi-level learning system (which mixes advanced college prep and honors students) leads to honors students having to do more work.
“It doesn’t really help with targeted support,” Ciric said. “Targeted support would work a lot better if you had separate level classrooms.”
Indeed, the issue has been a hot one for NPS families, with teachers insisting it’s not working and some students saying they feel left behind.
“The research shows that, when it comes to mixed levels, it’s a mixed story,” Lee said, noting that some evidence suggests multi-level teaching in English language arts (ELA) could work better than other subjects, like math, but those cases involved specific professional development for teachers.
And while some students find the work too rigorous, others find it not challenging enough.
How would Lee work through this?
“You do need to have some degree of leveling again, especially if there are gross disparities between where kids are,” Lee said.
And leveling, Lee said, is not the same as tracking, and he’d like to talk with the superintendent about automatic enrollment for students into designated skill levels, based on past level placement and assessment.
“For all kids who meet the proficiency level, instead of them saying, ‘Oh, we’re going to give you options to decide whether or not you’re going to go to the next advanced class, we’re going to automatically enroll you in there,’” Lee explained. “We expect you to be able to perform at that high achievement level, because you already demonstrated that’s the case.” [CORRECTION: Lee explained that this is an alternative approach to multilevel classrooms to ensuring access to higher level coursework for historically underserved communities. He also clarified that students would have the option to opt-out if they wanted to, but the research shows this is more effective than opt-in approaches.]
Local racial justice group “FORJ” holds community webinar
One notable participant was Victor Lee, a School Committee candidate (Ward 8) in this upcoming November’s election. During the concluding discussion, following someone else’s comment about the stress of constant news alerts on their phone, Mr. Lee noted some nostalgia for a “simpler time” when news consumption was more controlled, and he added that the current NPS cell phone restrictions may protect students from the stress of the constant news updates “in these more dynamic times.” (Mr. Lee gave Fig City News permission to attribute his statements.)
Don’t let the Garden City wither – a call to protect Newton’s schools
Fig City News Letter to the Editor - Published April 16, 2025
On April 2nd, the School Committee correctly approved Superintendent Nolin’s recommended Level Service Plus budget proposal – a compromise plan to maintain our schools’ quality amid rising costs. Mayor Fuller’s current allocation of $293 million, however, falls up to $4.5 million short of this bare minimum budget. It is imperative that the Mayor close this funding gap with support and encouragement from Newton stakeholders, including the City Council.
When we look at recent per pupil expenditures, Newton lags neighbors like Watertown, Wellesley, Dedham, and Brookline. Historically, Newton has refused to settle for mediocrity, and now is no time to start.
For the 2025-2026 school year, Newton must strategically leverage part of the Education Stabilization Fund and a portion of its Free Cash reserves to bridge the existing budget gap. These are not long-term solutions, but they are needed now. They would provide critical temporary breathing room for a new School Committee to rethink and address the structural budget challenges.
Longer term, Newton needs innovation and a new legislative and community engagement approach to fund our schools sustainably. Partnerships with Newton businesses might help generate supplemental revenue. Advocacy for Chapter 70 funding formula modifications to reflect NPS’s significant commitment to Special Education are warranted. Deep engagement with all Newton stakeholders – including seniors and families without children in NPS – will also be essential if a Proposition 2 ½ override becomes necessary.
Education is about investing in Newton’s future. Fully funding the 2025-2026 budget allows NPS to focus on progress – not just survival. Without it, we risk forcing our schools into a cycle of cuts that will weaken the system for years to come. Now is the time for leadership that will ensure our schools have the resources to preserve and protect NPS’s reputation as a premier district we all can be proud of.
Victor Lee Enters Race for Ward 8 School Committee Seat
Lee was raised in Newton and moved away until about a ten years ago when his first daughter was born and he and his wife decided Newton was where they wanted to raise their family. They now have two daughters, and Lee is a doctoral candidate at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and a superintendent fellow with the Arlington Public Schools administration.
“I think Arlington does a really good job, quite honestly—their superintendent, their School Committee and the unions,” Lee said. “And watching what’s happened here over the last few years—the strike, the COVID operations—there’s just an opportunity to do things a little better.”
Incidentally, Ward 3 School Committee member Anping Shen, who’s prohibited from running again because of term limits, is currently the only one on the committee with a PhD in an education-related field.
Lee would bring more than a degree to the committee, though. He’s worked for the past 10 years at HMH, a K-12 educational technology company that helps shape and modernize curriculum.
“So I kind of know what makes for a really effective curriculum, what makes for a good assessment, what makes for good professional development,” Lee said. “Those are things that I’ve worked on, and I think Newton needs a refresh of the curriculum. There hasn’t been a real extensive review in decades, I think.”
Lee, who has an MBA from Wharton School of Economics, wants to focus on budget efficiencies because costs are rising and the NPS budget is in perpetual crisis.
“And I know the School Committee has some limitations in terms of what they can actually do,” he said. “I do like Mayor Fuller, I just think she’s wrong on this issue. We need to do ‘level services-plus,’ at a bare minimum.”
Does that mean Lee supports the idea of a Proposition 2 ½ tax levy override in the future to shore up the NPS budget for the coming years? Maybe. He’d like to try some cost-cutting and revenue-building ideas first before going to an override.
“I don’t think it’s necessary yet, but we need to prepare for that possibility and building a case for why people should agree to it,” he said. “I would never rule it out, but it wouldn’t be my first choice.”