BPS exam – White and Asian families are pressing an appeal in federal court over Boston’s tiered admissions policy for its three exam schools, arguing that zip codes and socioeconomic “tiers” function as a proxy for race after a judge dismissed their claims.
The fight over who gets into Boston’s three exam schools is heading back to a federal appeals court.
On Monday. the Boston Parent Coalition for Academic Excellence—representing white and Asian families—filed a new appeal with the First Circuit Court of Appeals after a federal judge dismissed their case in March. The coalition argues that the city’s tiered admissions process for Boston Latin School. Boston Latin Academy. and the John D. O’Bryant School of Science and Mathematics violates equal protection because the socioeconomic “tiers” racially discriminate against white and Asian students.
At the center of the appeal is the coalition’s contention that the system’s structure doesn’t look the same. but it behaves the same. The judge who dismissed the original claims, William G. Young. wrote in March that courts had already decided that the predecessor to the current socioeconomic-based tier system—an admissions process built on zip codes—did not violate the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.
In the dismissal order, Judge Young said the “Tier System and Zip Code Plan — while different — possess the same factual pillars” as the issues the First Circuit rejected in 2023. That reasoning, the families now argue, misses how the admissions criteria play out for their children.
The new appeal. filed in federal court and backed by the Pacific Legal Foundation. argues that zip codes and socioeconomic tiers “both operate as a proxy for race.” The parents say the number of white students fell below their proportion among students who applied to exam schools. meaning they are now underrepresented.
The March dismissal. they say. rested on the wrong benchmark for determining whether a policy has a “disparate impact.” In the appeal. the coalition argues that the court rejected the benchmark that the families say reflects how the policy affects applicants. instead pointing to all of Boston’s school-age children.
The appeal quote to the First Circuit is blunt: “This Court’s precedent does not embrace the school-age population benchmark, a measure that would make it all but impossible to show that facially race-neutral admissions criteria were enacted with discriminatory intent.”
It also contends that the policy is designed to make admission harder for individual students based on race. “The Tier Plan intentionally makes it more difficult for individual students to get into their desired Exam School because of race. That is racial discrimination, regardless of how well it ‘works’ in the aggregate.”.
Boston Public Schools did not return a request for comment.
The legal battle is the latest chapter in years of controversy over how Boston allocates seats at its exam schools. A plan to limit seats by zip code was developed in 2020 and used until 2022. Under that approach, the district replaced the zip-code method with a similar structure organized around socioeconomic profiles.
For the census-based socioeconomic tier system plan implemented in 2022, the first 20 percent of seats were reserved for applicants based solely on their grade point averages. The remaining 80 percent were divided among Boston’s 29 zip codes.
Supporters of the shift pointed to changes in enrollment patterns after it took effect. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito wrote in connection with the litigation that the proportion of Black students at exam schools increased from 14 percent to 23 percent. while Latino students increased from 21 percent to 23 percent. Over the same period. Alito wrote. white students decreased from 40 percent to 31 percent and Asian students decreased from 21 percent to 18 percent.
A federal judge had upheld the zip code plan, dismissing the Boston Parent Coalition’s 2021 lawsuit and a subsequent appeal in 2023. When the socioeconomic tier plan was implemented in 2022, the same group filed the lawsuit that was dismissed in March.
In the months after the legal fight began, the Boston School Committee repeatedly adjusted the admissions framework. The judge’s March decision described changes that included reducing the number of tiers from eight to four last year and reintroducing a standardized test for 2023 admissions.
There is also another layer to the current moment: the Supreme Court weighed in indirectly on how it views similar disputes. In 2024, Justice Alito dissented from the decision to decline to review the case.
Alito criticized the First Circuit’s reasoning that white and Asian students remained “starkly over-represented” under the new policy compared to their population levels, along with the conclusion that there was no “disparate impact.”
In his dissent. Alito wrote. “This reasoning is indefensible twice over.” He continued: “We have now twice refused to correct a glaring constitutional error that threatens to perpetuate racebased affirmative action in defiance of Students for Fair Admissions. I would reject root and branch this dangerously distorted view of disparate impact.”.
The coalition’s new appeal is now asking the First Circuit to reconsider how courts evaluate racial discrimination claims when admissions rules are structured through zip codes and socioeconomic tiers.
And for the families who say their children are being filtered through a system they see as racial in effect. that question is not abstract. It is about who gets the chance to compete for seats at Boston Latin School. Boston Latin Academy. and the John D. O’Bryant School of Science and Mathematics—and whether the path to those doors is determined by neighborhood categories and tier formulas or by something courts may have underestimated before.
Boston exam schools Boston Latin School Boston Latin Academy O'Bryant School tiered admissions zip codes socioeconomic tiers equal protection First Circuit federal appeal Boston Parent Coalition for Academic Excellence Pacific Legal Foundation
Wait so they’re fighting about Boston Latin again?
This tier thing is basically a race thing, I don’t care what anyone calls it. Zip codes and “socioeconomic” tiers always end up the same. Judge just dismissed it like it’s nothing smh.
I skimmed this but isn’t it already decided? Like didn’t they try this before with some other court? Also I saw “proxy for race” and immediately my brain goes to redlining which… idk it seems obvious. But if the judge said courts already ruled, then why are we doing more appeals.
So the First Circuit is gonna decide who gets into exam schools based on zip code tiers? That sounds backwards because zip codes change but the kids don’t. I’m not even sure why it’s white and Asian families appealing when the system is supposed to be “fair” like it says. Feel like this turns into whoever screams the loudest about discrimination wins, and the kids just wait around.