Kennedy-Longfellow School Changes by Elizabeth Hudson

By Elizabeth Hudson, School Committee Member and  MLK Parent

Many of you have heard that there is a vote this evening to make significant changes to the Kennedy-Longfellow School (one of our elementary schools). Specifically, the vote is to re-assign current students to other schools, such that the building can be repaired, and so that the school day programming can be re-worked. We’ve received many questions / and I’ve tried to touch on them all below. It’s a long email – but it’s an important topic.

See below for:

• Impetus - why are we talking about this (at all)?
• Timing – why are we talking about this now? What can we expect to happen next?
• School assignment – to which schools will current students go? Will parents have a choice? Are other schools staffed to support high needs populations?
• Impact on schools accepting additional students – is there space? Will class size increase? Are they staffed to support these incoming students?
• Budget – is this an excuse to cut positions?
• Building – will it remain a school building? If it’s being rehabbed – what’s the plan and from where will the dollars come?  
• How will people be supported during the transition?
• Will City-run afterschool programs at the same building be impacted?
• How do we measure success?

 
I’ve also attached two files – with standardized test data (yes, I know they’re not everything), and with definitions of many of the terms you have heard / will have heard soon (e.g., “high needs student”). You can find data on our other schools here.
 
ANSWERS

• Impetus - why are we doing this (at all)?
  • Why are the Cambridge Public Schools considering the closure of the Kennedy-Longfellow School?
  • The Cambridge Public Schools has 12 elementary schools in the district and families enroll in schools via the district’s “controlled choice policy” (lottery in which parents rank order their school preferences and the District attempts to get as many families as possible one of their top three choices – while also ensuring that schools are balanced by socio-economic status, amongst other factors).  This choice element means that the level of demand for schools amongst families has a significant impact on how many students enroll in each school. For more than a decade, the Kennedy-Longfellow has been in very low demand compared to all other CPS schools. (For context, in the last lottery, it was chosen first by zero families, and it was a second or third choice by only twelve families – out of almost a thousand families.)
  • The low demand has resulted in the school being significantly under-enrolled. The building is the largest elementary facility we have, but enrollment is <7% of our elementary school population, despite its location in East Cambridge, which is the densest in terms of elementary school aged kids living in the area. And the student population is unstable; i.e., there are unusually high numbers of students are moving in and out of the school during the school year. This happens because – as the least chosen school, it has the preponderance of the empty ‘available’ seats; so when families come in mid-year, they are assigned to KLO. But many families, once arrived, subsequently place themselves on waitlists for other schools – and then move out when seats elsewhere become available; e.g., because another family moves out of district. For context, churn (mid-year moves in or out) is at 35% (of the total school population). Attrition (moves out of the school over the summer) is at 16%.
  • In addition, the students who arrive mid-year tend to have higher needs – so, we have a small, unstable, student population in which we also have a high density of need for additional support (academic, and otherwise). As a result, the student body at Kennedy Longfellow does not proportionately represent the Cambridge community; there are a disproportionately high number of students qualifying under state-identified “high needs” categories (which includes, but is not limited to, low family income). Put concretely, more than 80% of the student body is classified as “high needs” and more than half are low income (district wide, 52% of students are high needs; and 35% percent of families quality as low income). More than 20% of students are unhoused. All in one school.
  • Serving all of these students, when there’s this much concentration, is an incredibly important – and difficult – task. This is a problem the district has encountered BEFORE – and as such, it has a policy – first established in 1980 and updated last in 2013 -that specifically governs student populations (policy document here). The purpose was to ensure that we didn’t create segregated, high poverty schools – where students in need of extra support were all clustered together.
    1. First, it cites “… a growing body of research showing that concentrating high numbers of students living in poverty within individual schools has a negative impact on student achievement.”
    2. And second, it asserts that “…many of the conditions accompanying poverty, particularly extreme poverty, present significant challenges for educators in developing high levels of achievement for students that are impacted by these conditions…”
  • Indeed, we can see this in the data today. This concentration of need has led to persistent and significant academic performance challenges – and those challenges result in even lower levels of demand under the choice-based school assignment system – at which point we end up in an inescapable spiral (inescapable without some change). When new parents are choosing schools for their kids, this is what they see (school here == KLO):

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• Current district policy (linked above) also specifically instructs the Superintendent to make changes, in the scenario that a school ends up in this position (below). It’s also worth nothing that
  1. “Program improvement is, and always has been, a key component of the CPS’ Controlled Choice Plan, as continual program improvement supports the school district’s core values of academic excellence and social justice for all students, by providing equal access to an array of highly attractive, excellent quality schools which offer students the benefits of learning alongside and engaged with a diverse group of students.”
  2. [To achieve this] the Superintendent of Schools will…work with administrators, teachers and school councils of schools and programs that are under chosen by either socio-economic (“SES”) category, or by both SES categories, to develop a comprehensive plan for increasing the choice rate by the underrepresented group(s). This comprehensive plan may include educational/programmatic changes or other changes, designed to achieve socio-economic balance in those schools and programs by making those schools more attractive to a greater number of parents/guardians.
• Finally, there’s precedent here: Three (at least) separate studies of controlled choice have been done in the last 15 years.  One was referenced on this list serv from 2013 chaired by Alice Turkel & Fred Fantini... One in 2010 was chaired by Richard Harding and myself (report attached since i couldn't find it on the CPS website).  Another was done by outside consultants hired by the district.  Every study has reached the same conclusion that underchosen schools should be addressed and that the goal is for schools to be roughly equally chosen. And each study noted that controlled choice is meant to be used to both keep schools balanced by SES (used to be racial balance until court decisions led to the SES) AND to use choice data to bring programmatic change to any underchosen schools. There have been past successful action taken to address underchosen schools, always with programmatic change:  King and Tobin were both the lowest chosen and lowest performing schools, and change was brought - Montessori to Tobin and Chinese Immersion to King. Now both are at the top of performance, recognized by both the state and federal departments of education.   
• How will moving students to different schools improve outcomes for students?
• The Kennedy-Longfellow School has as many talented educators and students as any other school in CPS. However, the enrollment patterns produced by the systems under which the district operates and influenced by the decline in student enrollment over a long period of time have not positioned the school for success. These trends are evident in virtually every datapoint available to us. Reassignment of students is not just about breaking up the concentration of students qualifying as high-need, it is about creating more stable learning environments that are more conducive to success for all students.
• By making this transition, is CPS defining the success of a school simply by MCAS scores?
• No. No student and no school community is defined entirely by a test score - any test score; however, the data the district has used in determining whether students are being positioned to be successful has encompassed a substantial number of objective metrics. The data associated with these metrics (universal screeners, surveys, common assessments, MCAS) are uniformly unfavorable toward keeping the school open in its current form. This is not a reflection on the quality of the educators (because we know we have great teachers), it is reflective of the systems under which the school is operating.
• Why not address the other structural components of the system before considering the transitioning out of the Kennedy-Longfellow?
• A significant percentage of the students enrolled at the Kennedy-Longfellow are “mandatorily assigned” to the school by the district, meaning families either did not choose the school or had no other choice but to choose the school because there were no available seats in other schools. If the district were to first create space at the other schools while not addressing the Kennedy-Longfellow status, based on long-standing demand data and the newly available seats, enrollments at the Kennedy-Longfellow would rapidly shrink, making the situation in which the school is already under enrolled worse. It is unfair to the (relatively small number of) students who would remain at the Kennedy-Longfellow to continue on at a school that would increasingly be even more under enrolled than it currently is now.
• Timing – why are we doing this now? What can we expect to happen next?
  • Why does this process feel abrupt?
  • Questions around the performance, demand and future of the Kennedy-Longfellow have been circulated in Cambridge for well over a decade. For the last 12 years the school has been sharing space with an under-construction upper school. With that chapter concluding as the Vassal Lane Upper School vacates its occupancy of the second and third floors of the building in June of 2025, with the demand, enrollment and performance data now having represented outliers in the district for so long, and with the long-term facilities condition assessment having rated the building as most in need of capital investment of all non-new CPS facilities, the 2025 – 2026 school year marks the most rational point in time to make a transition. Finalizing the plan to make this transition by January is necessary to prepare for the upcoming new school year both with regard to responsibly enrolling students in other schools and for obtaining capital funds for improvement to the facility for when it reopens as another school.
  • Why is the decision to reassign all students from the Kennedy-Longfellow being made now (versus waiting a couple months for additional discussion)?
  • The Cambridge Public Schools annual student assignment process begins in January, and it is important to be sure current Kennedy Longfellow school families have strong choices for enrollment in other CPS schools for the start of 2025 - 2026 school year. In addition, finalizing plans for this transition now enables the district and the City of Cambridge to plan for a not-insignificant capital investment into the facility located at 158 Spring Street in FY 26. When the building reopens with a new school identity for the 2025 - 2026 school year, it will have benefitted from upgraded infrastructure to allow for a more suitable educational environment.
• School assignment – to which schools will current students go? Will parents have a choice?
  • How will students be reassigned to new schools for the 2025 - 2026?
  • CPS and Kennedy-Longfellow staff seek to meet with each individual family to identify their preferences and choices for the next school year. CPS will make available to all families the opportunity to enroll in a specific school with specific supports established for children reassigned from the Kennedy-Longfellow. Families choosing to enroll in these initial choices will have the opportunity to enroll in elementary schools opening additional space in the child’s grade level. The purpose of creating this opportunity first is to ensure there are opportunities for Kennedy-Longfellow students to enroll as cohorts of students and to ensure a degree of continuity for both students and families who have met through the Kennedy-Longfellow community. If a family chooses not to enroll in one of these opportunities, families will have the opportunity to choose among all other open seats in the district via a special lottery.
  • In what specific schools will additional space be created for former Kennedy-Longfellow students in the 2025 - 2026 school year?
  • Depending on the grade level of a student, there will be space created for current Kennedy-Longfellow students at either the Martin Luther King (MLK) or King Open Schools. Both of these schools currently have under-utilized space, which will allow the district to open additional classrooms at specific grade levels. This will permit current Kennedy-Longfellow students to enroll as cohorts with their grade-level classmates where they will be integrated and welcomed as full members of their new school communities. CPS will also provide specific concentrated supports at these schools to ensure a smooth transition.
  • If a family would prefer to consider other schools across CPS, is that an option?
  • Yes. After it is determined which families have opted to enroll their children in the cohorts being created at MLK and King Open, all remaining families will have the opportunity to participate in a special lottery of all available seats across CPS so as to avoid the transfer process and any wait list barriers.
  • Will the students who move as part of a grade level cohort exist in their own silo within their new school communities?
  • No. It imperative that students are fully integrated into their new building communities and CPS will provide the resources necessary to make sure that happens.
  • What will happen to the stand-alone, non-matriculating Sheltered English Immersion (SEI) program currently located at the Kennedy Longfellow?
  • CPS will continue to operate two stand alone SEI programs, one at the Graham & Parks, and - for the 2025-2026 school year - at the Tobin Montessori School. In September 2025, the Tobin will be moving into a brand new shared facility with the Darby Vassall Lane Upper School, which houses all upper-school SEI students. This will minimize the number of building-to-building transitions affecting students who are enrolled in the program. While the district will undertake a community engagement process before determining which CPS school community will serve as the successor school for the building located at 158 Spring Street starting in the fall of 2026, one significant consideration will be whether the SEI program returning to that building makes sense from an instructional synergy perspective. Given the size of the facility, it is highly likely that the program’s return to the building will be a significant strategic priority.
  • Will there be opportunities for students leaving the Kennedy-Longfellow to enroll in schools with prerequisites for admission, i.e. language immersion programs?
  • Enrollment in dual language immersion programs at the Amigos, MLK and King Open Schools will continue to require the grade level appropriate level of proficiency in the relevant language; however, through the district’s ongoing commitment to creating more space in schools (in order to reduce churn and be more reflective to demand under the school choice program), where it is appropriate for former Kennedy-Longfellow students to be enrolled in these schools, they will be.
  • The three schools with language immersion programs are three schools in which CPS is committed to create sustainable increases in seat availability, and so even if seats are not immediately available to all Kennedy-Longfellow students, this transition is expected to ultimately increase accessibility to these programs.
  • Will anything change during the current, 2024 - 2025, school year?
  • The Kennedy-Longfellow will continue to operate as a PK - 5 elementary school for the remainder of the current school year. The only difference will be that the district staff will meet with families to identify family preferences to enroll in a new school for the 2025 - 2026 school year.
  • Will transitioning out the Kennedy-Longfellow alone eliminate the over-concentration of students identified as high-need students?
  • While moving away from the current iteration of the Kennedy-Longfellow will advance the goal of equitably allocating students across CPS, it is true that this action alone will not resolve the district’s challenge of proportional balancing of student needs in each school; however, the Kennedy -Longfellow transition is an important first step towards a systemic approach to creating greater and more equitable balancing across CPS. Through the more strategic use of space within CPS schools and the concentration of preschool classrooms in fewer locations, CPS will be able to maintain small, close-knit school communities while opening space in several high-performing schools. By doing so, CPS can end the practice of continually enrolling a disproportionate number of students identifying as high-need in the same school, and create better learning environments for all students. The reassignment of Kennedy-Longfellow students, then, is one of several steps CPS is taking to address these issues, but it is a necessary first step.
  • What if a school in which a former Kennedy-Longfellow student enrolls turns out not to be a good fit?
  • CPS will support students throughout the transition process and through the 2025 - 2026 school year to help students fully acclimate to their new school communities. If by January of 2026, the family of a former Kennedy-Longfellow student determines that the school in which they enrolled is not an optimal fit, or if additional seats at other schools have become available (which the district is determined to do through the concentration of preschool classrooms and the better utilization of space in all schools), former Kennedy-Longfellow students will then have the opportunity to enroll and enjoy the same type of prioritization into another elementary school for the start of the 2026 - 2027 school year.
  • Given the elementary to upper school feeder patterns on which the Cambridge Public Schools matriculation practices rely, if a high concentration of former Kennedy-Longfellow students enroll at the King Open, will that cause an overcrowding population at the Cambridge Street Upper School?
  • No, because while former Kennedy-Longfellow students enrolled at King Open will have a prioritization to transfer to the Cambridge Street Upper School, as of now, former Kennedy-Longfellow students will continue to be scheduled to eventually matriculate to the Putnam Avenue School upon entering sixth grade. This will not be an issue for the concentration of students who enroll at the MLK School, nor for any students who enroll at the Morse School, as those schools are already scheduled to matriculate to the Putnam Avenue Upper School, just like the current Kennedy-Longfellow.
  • How will this affect families who have identified the Kennedy-Longfellow anywhere on their list for enrollment in preschool?
  • Similar to families of students currently enrolled at the Kennedy-Longfellow, families of students seeking to enroll at the Kennedy-Longfellow through the Office of Early Childhood preschool registration process will be contacted in January to identify their priorities and determine which school communities are most likely to meet their needs.
• Impact on schools accepting additional students – is there space? Will class size increase? Are they staffed to support these incoming students?
  • Are there enough empty seats in other schools for them to absorb all of the K-Lo students?
  • Yes. Enrollment projections and facility capacity reports show a sufficient number of seats across the district.
  • Will the enrollment of former Kennedy-Longfellow students into other schools result in increases to class size?
  • Generally speaking, no. CPS is concentrating more students in high-performing schools by creating additional space for new classrooms of students, not forcing excess numbers of more students into existing classrooms. By doing this, CPS is able to aim to slightly reduce class sizes in order to ensure students enrolling off-cycle have more choices as to where to enroll. In addition, reallocated resources from the Kennedy-Longfellow will be used to supplement the supports afforded to former Kennedy-Longfellow students enrolled at new schools. The contractual class size caps will remain unchanged.
• Budget – is this an excuse to cut positions?
  • What will happen to staff currently assigned to the Kennedy-Longfellow School?
  • All staff at every CPS school are employees of the Cambridge Public Schools. Given that CPS will still have the same number of total students, and given those students will have the same level and types of needs that should inform staffing levels and decisions, the vast majority of employees currently assigned to the Kennedy-Longfellow are expected to be retained. The decision to reassign students from the Kennedy-Longfellow is not being made out of budgetary necessity, but rather because it is in the best interests of current and future students. While there will be necessary reassignments of staff, it is not the expectation that this transition will result in a significant loss of positions.
  • What will happen to staff currently assigned to the Kennedy-Longfellow School?
  • All staff at every CPS school are employees of the Cambridge Public Schools. Given that CPS will still have the same number of total students, and given those students will have the same level and types of needs that should inform staffing levels and decisions, the vast majority of employees currently assigned to the Kennedy-Longfellow are expected to be retained. The decision to reassign students from the Kennedy-Longfellow is not being made out of budgetary necessity, but rather because it is in the best interests of current and future students. While there will be necessary reassignments of staff, it is not the expectation that this transition will result in a significant loss of positions.
• Building – will it remain a school building? If it’s being rehabbed – what’s the plan and from where will the dollars come?  
  • Yes, the building will remain a school building. The District has – over the past two years – conducted a systematic review of ALL facilities and their needs (minus the brand new buildings). The recordings of these meetings are available online – and I can send a pointer to them // respond and ask. With respect to budget – the Superintendent and City Manager are confident that this is doable, and I expect we’ll hear more shortly. (To be clear, we are NOT talking about building another brand-new whole building; so the amounts are more modest than you might assume.)
  • How can we be sure that the building at 158 Spring Street will continue to be a CPS school?
  • The point of transitioning out the Kennedy-Longfellow is to put more CPS students into higher performing seats across CPS. The building at 158 Spring Street is the second largest one-school facility in the district’s portfolio (second only to CRLS). It has sufficient space to serve well over 600 students. There is no means to achieve the goal of more CPS students being assigned to higher performing seats without utilizing the facility at 158 Street. The building must continue to be a CPS school and, after capital improvements to the building are made during the 2025-2026 school year, will represent a building that is much improved from its current condition for when it reopens as a school with an enrollment that utilizes the building’s relatively ample space.
• How will students and parents and staff be supported?
  • How will students from the Kennedy-Longfellow be supported during this transition?
  • CPS recognizes that this unexpected transition may be stressful to students and families, and the district intends to provide supplemental supports to these students to ease any potential burdens stemming from this transition. In addition to creating opportunities for students from the Kennedy-Longfellow to enroll in schools in cohorts to provide continuity, students transitioning from the Kennedy-Longfellow will also be prioritized with regard to after-school programming, academic tutoring and/or specific support groups established to ensure their successful acclimation into their new school communities. CPS will be well-positioned to reallocate resources previously invested into the Kennedy-Longfellow in schools accepting concentrations of Kennedy-Longfellow students to support these students and to ensure the school environments in which they find themselves for the 2025 - 2026 school year represent more optimal learning environments.
  • What types of supports will students and families receive during the school selection process?
  • Starting in January, representatives from the Cambridge Public Schools will be scheduling meetings with each individual Kennedy-Longfellow family. These meetings will be intended to obtain information about each family’s preference and priorities with regard to this transition. In addition, there will be opportunities for students to make visits to each CPS elementary school, including the schools in which larger concentrations of former Kennedy-Longfellow students are expected to enroll.
  • The opportunities to visit other CPS schools will include:
  • Opportunities to interact with students of those schools in appropriate grade levels;
  • Opportunities to interact with educators from those schools;
  • Opportunities to tour the school buildings;
  • Opportunities for families to interact with staff, hear from the school leader, and to learn about the strengths of the school community and opportunities unique to that school.

How will students who have IEPs or 504 plans be affected by this transition?
While the Kennedy-Longfellow does not house any substantially separate Special Education programs, there are (as there is with any school) a number of students who have IEPs and/or 504 plans. The Office of Student Services and administrators familiar with the individualized needs of each student will be involved in the process of meeting with each family and will consult as appropriate with the educators who currently support each student. The individual needs of students will be factored into both where students enroll as well as where staffing resources are concentrated in order to meet the needs of all students. All CPS schools are staffed with educators who have the skills and training to support children who receive special education services and accommodations and we do not expect any disruption to the supports available to any child transitioning from the Kennedy-Longfellow to another CPS school.
What will the role of the Kennedy Longfellow Superintendent’s Transition Advisory Committee be?
The purpose of convening the superintendent’s advisory committee on the transition of the Kennedy-Longfellow is to ensure representatives from the Kennedy-Longfellow can contribute to discussions surrounding how best to support the students transitioning into new school communities and to actively monitor the progress of the work of reassigning students to other school communities. The advisory committee will also participate in discussions around the district’s modifications at a systems level of working toward more equitable allocation of students across CPS. Current Kennedy-Longfellow caregivers or staff members interested in joining this committee or learning more about the committee’s work or objectives may reach out to the superintendent’s office.
How will this decision be communicated to students?
The process of communicating to students the transition that will be occurring will be communicated to parents and caregivers in January of 2025 and will be done in close coordination with families. There will be age-appropriate discussions with students prior to the welcoming activities that will be facilitated at the different school communities, with the first such activities occurring at the schools in which the higher concentrations of students will be transitioning to be followed by similar activities at other schools in late January and/or February. The communication to students will be framed in a positive manner to celebrate the opportunities represented by the various schools within CPS, and again, will be done in coordination with families.
What is the specific timeline families can expect regarding this transition?
In the week of January 6, 2025 all families at the Kennedy-Longfellow will receive a specific timeline as to what to expect and when regarding the transition of students to new schools. CPS intends for all general education students to know where they will be enrolled for the 2025 -2026 by February 15, 2025 and for all staff to be reassigned by April 1, 2025. The determination around appropriate placements for students enrolled in the SEI program will require an analysis of data that will not be available until mid to late May, however accommodations to ensure choices are available for families will be made throughout the process during the second half of the school year. The work of communicating with and hearing from families will extend throughout the remainder of the 2024 - 2025 school year and beyond.

How will this affect after-school programming opportunities administered by the city’s Department of Human Services Programs that are housed at the Kennedy-Longfellow?
CPS and DHSP will continue to work closely to ensure that, to the greatest extent possible, resources that become available due to the transition of the Kennedy-Longfellow are reallocated for the express purpose of benefiting students and families of former Kennedy-Longfellow students, meaning as higher concentrations of Kennedy-Longfellow students enroll at other schools, CPS and the DHSP will endeavor to increase the after-school program capacity at those schools and, more generally, prioritize the benefits afforded former Kennedy-Longfellow students.
How will we measure success?
Success is measured by student outcomes, and because it will create conditions in which student outcomes are more likely to improve, success will be measured by whether the district is able to more equitably assign students proportionately across school communities. Emirically put, success will mean that the school is chosen as the most desired by parents at an equal rate with other elementary schools (this is measurable!).