BPS Welcome Services
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Beginning with the admissions cycle for the 2022-23 school year, exam school invitations are distributed across eight tiers of census tracts grouped together based on socioeconomic factors.
City-wide census tracts are redrawn every 10 years. The previous 2021 exam school tiers were calculated with 2010 census tracts which counted about 181 tracts in Boston. The updated 2022 exam school tiers relies on 2020 Boston census data which has 207 tracts. In addition, census tracts can be split, combined, or involve boundary corrections, essentially redrawn every ten (10) years.
In total, there are 98 census tracts that have the same tier from 2021 to 2022, and 59 tracts that are included in 2022 that were not included in 2021 given the census data described above. Fifty (50) tracts have changed from one tier to another from 2021 to 2022; however, these shifts were mostly to one tier above or below, with only five (5) tracts shifting two (2) tiers.
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What is a tier?
A tier is a grouping of geographic areas in the city with similar socioeconomic characteristics, based on US Census Tracts. The socioeconomic characteristics include five characteristics: (1) Percent of persons below poverty; (2) Percent of households occupied by the owner; (3) Percent of families headed by a single parent; (4) Percent of households where a language other than English is spoken; and (5) Educational attainment.
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What is a census tract?
A census tract is a small geographic area within a city. Census tract boundaries are designed with the intention of being maintained over a long time so that statistical comparisons can be made from census to census. However, census tracts occasionally are split due to population growth or merged as a result of population decline.
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How are tiers calculated?
The tiers use data sourced from the American Community Survey, an annual survey conducted by the US Census Bureau. The data used are the most recent 5-year averages of the 5 characteristics outlined above published by data.census.gov. Each data point is downloaded from the US Census website and is converted to a percentile for each census tract in the city of Boston. The percentiles for each data point are then added together to create an overall score for the census tract.
Census tracts are ranked from the lowest score to highest score, and are grouped together to create tiers. The tiers are intended to be of relative equal size, based on the number of children in grades 5-8 living in each census tract.
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How does the admissions process work?
Students are assigned to one of eight tiers based on their home address and will only compete for exam school admissions with other students in their tier. Each tier will be allocated approximately the same number of seats. Invitations will be distributed in 10 rounds with 10% of available seats in each tier per round. The tier with the lowest socioeconomic score will go first in each round.
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How do I know what tier I live in?
The Tiep Map was temporarily disabled in October to conduct additional validation based on community feedback. The updated 2022 Tier Map was reactivated on Wednesday, November 9, 2022 and now available to the public. Please click this link for an interactive map where you can type in your address and determine what tier you live in.
