Brookline METCO students see their average science GPA drop from 3.3 to 1.9 when they move from eighth grade to ninth grade, a gap that program Director Malcolm Cawthorne says the district can no longer ignore.

Cawthorne shared the data Sunday, Aug. 2, during a panel discussion at the Coolidge Corner Theatre following a screening of the James Baldwin documentary "I Am Not Your Negro," Brookline.News reported. The event, organized by Brookline for Racial Justice & Equity with co-sponsors Brookline for the Culture and the town's Office of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Community Relations, drew a community audience for a conversation about race, education and integration.

The GPA figures come from METCO's own tracking of student academic outcomes in the Public Schools of Brookline, where the program currently enrolls 303 Boston students across K-12, including 88 at Brookline High School.

Cawthorne said he is not interested in assigning blame but wants to use data to catch struggling students before problems compound.

Joining Cawthorne on the panel was Kandice Sumner, who was named METCO's president and CEO in September 2025 after a national search. A Boston native, Sumner attended Weston Public Schools through METCO before graduating from Spelman College. She offered a blunt assessment of the program she now leads, calling it a wonderful but insufficient fix for deeper systemic inequities.

Sumner said placing students in the same building does not equal integration. Cawthorne agreed, saying true integration requires students to build relationships through academics, extracurriculars and shared experiences.

"If you just check out and go home…you have to ask yourself, is that true integration?" Cawthorne told the audience.

Brookline is a charter member of METCO, the voluntary desegregation program founded in 1966 during the Civil Rights Movement. The program marks its 60th anniversary this year. A 2023 PSB budget presentation found that only 43% of METCO students in grades 6–12 reported strong school belonging, compared with 64% of white students.

The program's 14 Brookline staff members, from adjustment counselors to a social worker, are funded entirely by the state METCO grant. Massachusetts appropriated $29.9 million for METCO statewide in fiscal year 2026.

Raul Fernandez, executive director of Brookline for Racial Justice & Equity, moderated the Aug. 2 panel and said he hopes the Baldwin screening becomes an annual tradition.

No formal district response or follow-up action has been announced in connection with the achievement data Cawthorne presented.