Mayor Bill de Blasio and Chancellor Richard Carranza announced major changes to the way students will be admitted to middle and high schools this year. Michael Appleton/Mayoral photography office
This story was originally published by Chalkbeat, a nonprofit news organization covering public education. Sign up for their newsletters here: ckbe.at/newsletters
The coronavirus pandemic will force major changes in the ways students are admitted to New York City’s competitive middle and high schools this year, the education department announced on Friday.
Middle schools will not use test scores or other academic “screens” to select students, auditions for performing arts schools are going virtual, and the controversial Specialized High School Admissions Test will be administered in middle schools across the city, rather than at just a handful of campuses.
The city will also eliminate a district-based admissions preference that has allowed some of the city’s wealthiest ZIP codes to carve out a set of its own elite high schools.
New York City is home to one of the most segregated school systems in the country, a status driven partly by its admissions practices. For years, integration advocates have been pushing the city to revamp the competitive and stressful process for the city’s 10- and 13-year-olds, which often favors more affluent families that have the time and savvy to navigate it.
De Blasio has proved reluctant to pursue citywide reform until, late into his final term, the pandemic forced his hand. An overhaul became inevitable in the wake of the health crisis as the main data points used to screen — last year’s fourth and seventh grade state tests, grades, and attendance — were put on pause or dramatically changed.
Some of the changes now going into effect could set the city on a path towards more diverse schools. In addition to the new admissions policies, the city is opening applications for grants for five more districts to pursue integration plans on their own — bringing the total to 10 districts.
One of the most explosive admissions debates remains unresolved, however. A decision has still not been made about applying to the city’s gifted & talented programs for elementary schools. Entry to these coveted programs hinges on a standardized test given to preschoolers, administered one-on-one by a proctor. It could prove difficult to administer safely in the midst of rising coronavirus cases across the city. Moving the process online would raise equity issues, since thousands of students lack access to devices or reliable internet.
Now that schools and families know how the process will work, the city must communicate the changes widely and clearly, said Karuna Patel, deputy director of the Feerick Center, which has advised the education department on ways to make the admissions system more fair. Otherwise, families who have traditionally struggled to make sense of the process could be at a disadvantage.
“You can imagine the flow of information, if it’s not coming through DOE well, it’s really going to exacerbate the problems we’re talking about. Who does best in a system where information is king?” she said. “They really need to be thoughtful about how to implement this.”
Sweeping changes for middle schools
The most sweeping changes will affect middle schools.
All middle schools will pause their use of academic screens for one year, the education department said. Around 40 percent of middle schools currently accept students based on their academic records. Schools that don’t have enough seats for all applicants will base admissions on a lottery.
There is precedent for such a move: Brooklyn’s District 15 recently eliminated screening at its middle schools in favor of a lottery. The aim was to create more diverse schools, and early data show progress towards that goal. But Brooklyn’s plan includes something that the city’s does not: a priority geared towards admitting students who represent the district’s racial and economic diversity.
It’s possible that a citywide lottery for middle schools does not change school demographics significantly. Without an explicit focus on admitting a diverse group of students, admissions systems based purely on choice often fall short of integration goals. District 1 on the Lower East Side had such a system, and its schools were deeply segregated. Parents recently lobbied to add admissions priorities to the lottery to encourage more diversity.
The education department said that district priorities will remain in place, which give students an admissions preference based on where they live, in order to allow younger students to attend schools closer to home. Schools like those in District 15, which give other preferences that aren’t based on academic records, will be allowed to keep those intact.
The elimination of middle school screens will only be for one year. With Mayor Bill de Blasio term-limited, that could turn school integration and admissions policy into an issue on the campaign trail to replace him. At both the middle- and high school-level, selective admissions practices have been credited with drawing white and more affluent families into the public school system, and many parents who have managed to navigate the system well have fought to preserve it.
Middle school applications will open the week of Jan. 11, and close the week of Feb. 8th.
High schools to continue screening
High schools will still be allowed to screen students, relying on academic records from before the health crisis struck. But the most notable change is the immediate elimination of district admissions priorities. New York City’s high school application process was designed to open access to students regardless of their ZIP codes. But some schools across the city give priority to those students living within their own district. Nowhere is it more controversial — and fiercely guarded — than Manhattan’s District 2.
Spanning TriBeCa to the Upper East Side, the district is one of the whitest and most affluent, and students who live there have been given admissions preference at a handful of coveted high schools. Those schools are especially segregated, with almost quadruple the enrollment of white students compared to the citywide average. Recently, principals at four schools that offer District 2 priority called on the city to eliminate it, in the hopes of enrolling a more diverse student body.
For next year’s admission cycle, the city plans to do away with any other geographic priorities, including admissions preferences given to students within the school’s borough.
The changes may not amount to much when it comes to school integration since schools can still screen students. New York City has a higher share of “screened” schools than anywhere else in the country, meaning many of the most sought-after programs admit students based on their academic records. Getting accepted to these schools is often a competitive and complicated process, and screened programs tend to enroll fewer Black, Latino, and low-income students.
The city is taking steps to make the process more transparent and streamlined: High schools will be required to post their long-shrouded admissions rubrics publicly, and the education department, instead of schools themselves, will be responsible for ranking where applicants fall on acceptance lists.
High school applications will open the week of Jan. 18. The deadline will be the week of Feb. 22.
The SHSAT will go on
Students will take the entrance exam for specialized high schools — widely regarded as the Ivy League of public high schools — at their own middle schools. Registration for the exam begins on Dec. 21 and closes on Jan. 15. The test will be administered starting the week of Jan. 27.
Eighth graders who opted to attend school in person this year will take the test alongside their “cohorts,” the group of children in their classes, to account for social distancing and limit possible exposure to the coronavirus and cut down on the need to travel to take the test. Most New York City students, however, have chosen to learn exclusively from home. It was not immediately clear whether accommodations will be made for those students.
One of the city’s most heated admissions debates has long centered on the specialized high schools like Stuyvesant and Brooklyn Tech, which admit students based solely on the results of a single test.
De Blasio launched a campaign to eliminate the test, which is required by state law. He faced a wave of protest and a lawsuit. Pushback has been particularly fierce among Asian parents, whose children make up a majority of enrollment in the specialized schools.
But many blame the exam for excluding other students of color. The schools enroll only about 10% Black and Hispanic students, who together make up almost 70% of enrollment citywide. Integration advocates have lobbied the legislature to do away with the exam, and argued that the ongoing pandemic makes it unsafe to administer in person.
The city could likely do away with the exam at five of the eight schools that require it (a ninth specialized high school for performing arts requires auditions), though mayor de Blasio has disputed that.
Auditions pivot to online
Students trying out for performing and visual arts programs — including the famed LaGuardia High School of Music and Art and the Performing Arts in Manhattan and Queens’ Frank Sinatra School of the Arts — will submit their applications virtually. Students will record themselves singing, dancing, or performing monologues, or take pictures of their work.
Some schools posted about the new online process on their websites, but the education department said at the time that the information shared prematurely and hadn’t been finalized. It’s unclear whether middle schools will also pivot to remote auditions, or whether the change only applies to high schools.
Chalkbeat is a nonprofit news site covering educational change in public schools.
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2 Comments
This is a slippery slope we are starting with middle-schoolers, a slippery slope that uses the pandemic to advance a false narrative of “diversity” at the expense of merit =ibased opportunities for all. One of the main reasons that the most desired schools are “top-notch” is because they do not water down their standards. Instead they admit students based on merit and accomplishment, students who can best utilize their resources. Parents who want the best options for their children should want to maintain that merit system, not destroy it. This meritless no-merit admission scheme will simply result in more students spending more wasted hours traveling to schools halfway around the city, when the real need is to improve the education that they receive locally. Removing merit competition from the equation will not prepare students for the real world. Instead it will cripple them. Of course EVERY parent wants the best for their children. But parents should realize that their children will be subjected to all sorts of legitimate testing and selection throughout their lives, and not just in school. This is not discrimination, it is reality. Parents need to prepare their children for the real world, for the harsh world, if they want them to compete and succeed in life. The false ideal of enforced “diversity” is the very opposite of the wisdom embodied by those who urged us not to judge a person by the color of their skin, but on the content of their character.The very word “segregation” i, as applied to our publci schools is used by some to imply a malevolent force, a Bull Conner standing at the school house door, deliberately separating children by color. Nothing can be further from the truth when admission is merit based. Of course everyone can’t make the grade. If everyone were given a free pass to do so, it would be a meaningless, cruel and worthless scam. It would just be another fake Trump University. Just step right up, step right up, and get your diplomas! ….Diplomas that are not worth the paper they’re printed on. Should we likewise “diversify” the NBA with white players in proportion to their segment of the population? And while we’re at it, shall we also do away with testing these potential NBA players for their qualifications, and give everyone the “equal opportunity” to play? You don’t make schools better by tearing down non-discriminatory standards and tests to create a false “diversity”. Instead you need to solve social problems by targeting of Federal, State and City resources to help these communities and schools, so that their children can better compete on a more level playing field. To do otherwise is shortsighted, cruel and foolish. It only hurts out children, no matter their race or ethnicity. And it’s far from an elitist public school scenario, since any wealthier NYC parents instead use private and religious school alternatives. And in the specialized high schools the majority of students are Asian with most coming from struggling immigrant families. Competition based on merit is the proven American Way, and provides true fairness for all. Let’s not abandon it. Divisive words are easy. Destroying testing is easy. Lowering standards is easy. Cheap & divisive rhetoric is easy. But achieving actual progress and improvements in our public schools is hard. It’s time , for the Chancellor and politicians in the City & State to start doing exactly that and truly earn their salaries. Instead of lowering the admission standards of top-rated schools (and using this deadly pandemic as an excuse) we need to raise the capabilities of the test-takers. Our goal should be to lift everyone up, instead of watering down standards to the lowest common denominator. For if we do that we will never prepare our students for the real world, for work, and for life. And we’ll ultimately fail these students. Raise up the students, instead of lowering the standards, whether in middle school or later.
Progressives can’t stand that there are families who exercise discipline and rigor when it comes to their child’s academic success….their solution? Make it mediocre for everyone.