State Mandates New Admissions Criteria For Tech Schools - Sanborn: Looser Standards Could Spell Safety Problem

PLEASANT LAKE – A state initiative designed to give all Massachusetts kids an equal chance at accessing a vocational education could have unintended consequences, Cape Tech Superintendent Bob Sanborn warns. Lowering admissions standards could mean that students are less ready to enter the workforce or more likely to get hurt while learning their trade, he said.

 In May, the state’s Board of Elementary and Secondary Education voted to change admissions processes for career technical education schools, with the goal of eliminating bias that they say has disproportionately excluded low-income or non-white students from taking part. The new policy takes effect next year for the 2026-2027 school year. Sanborn said the decision caps a “bruising” five- to seven-year debate between tech school educators and state officials.

 Public schools are required to provide equal educational access to all students, but when there are more applicants than classroom seats, as is often the case with charter schools, a lottery system is employed. In the past, technical and vocational schools were allowed to take into account an applicant’s grades, attendance and disciplinary history when considering them for admission, but critics found that those filters often excluded children from disadvantaged groups.

 “First of all, we were granted these selective criteria for admissions for reasons that were intelligent,” Sanborn said. But when the data supported doing so, tech schools changed their admissions policies, often de-emphasizing grades in favor of an applicant’s performance in an interview with school officials. While the interviews serve to help the school judge a student’s interest in a vocational education, they were deemed to be a source of potential bias. Cape Tech had about 370 applicants last year for around 185 seats, and the number was similar this year. A waiting list of around 150 students has become normal, Sanborn said.

 The new policy requires a lottery for applicants, but technically allows districts to weigh three factors — attendance, interest level and discipline — to give some students a higher chance of admission, akin to adding more ping pong balls with an applicant’s number to the lottery drum. But Sanborn said low standards for those three factors effectively mean that almost all applicants will get them.

 “In the end, it’s like a blind lottery,” he said. To get the “extra ball” for interest level, a student merely has to attend an open house, an in-person or online tour, or complete an online video module. To get extra credit for a disciplinary record, an applicant must only have to show that there were no extremely egregious violations of disciplinary policy for incidents during school hours. And to get the credit for attendance, students had to have 27 or fewer absences in a 270-day period.

 “Basically, everybody’s getting these weights,” Sanborn said. “That’s significant. Kids who had poor attendance, had poor grades, maybe had some severe discipline — or even had some discipline and thought that would impact them not getting in here — now they don’t have to worry about that,” he said.

 The consequences of loosening those standards could be noteworthy, the superintendent argued. In the case of attendance, “you know, if you’re out 10 percent of the time for an employer, you’ve got a problem. You’re fired,” he said. Also, discipline and attendance both bear on an applicant’s likelihood to know or follow the safety rules for a given shop, many of which involve power tools that could be lethal if misused. While all public schools are challenged with enforcing discipline, “not all schools have, you know, jigsaws,” Sanborn said. 

 Among those who have publicly supported the new policy is the state attorney general, the ACLU of Massachusetts and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, as well as New Bedford Mayor Jon Mitchell. 

 “The challenges some middle school students face through no fault of their own should not disqualify them from the careers of their choosing,” Mitchell said. “The Board of Elementary and Secondary Education and the Healey-Driscoll Administration see it the same way, and they now have removed some of the most unfair and daunting admissions barriers to students who could benefit from a vocational education.”

 Also approved by the state board is a policy change designed to ensure that middle school students are made fully aware of vocational education opportunities. Sending school districts need to draft and adopt an access plan that not only allows students to visit tech schools but allows tech school officials to visit those middle schools to teach kids about the benefits of a vocational education.

 “That’s a totally new ballgame,” Sanborn said. Many area school officials are likely unaware of that new requirement, he said. 

 Sanborn said the most popular shops offered by Cape Tech continue to be those related to construction, but most others also have waiting lists.

 “The demand is off the charts for pretty much all of our programs,” he said. The increased demand represents a resurgence in vocational education, with “more parents realizing that it is an opportunity for a great career for a lot of students, without the burden of college debt” and with a better chance of employment after graduation. While test scores have now been de-emphasized, Cape Tech also has MCAS scores that are comparable with the non-vocational districts in the area, Sanborn said.

 “The data has really been trending upwards. You know, throw this [new admissions policy] into the mix, and it kind of makes you wonder.”