The problem is that many black and latino families do not value education as much as some families from other ethnic groups. It is not inherent, it is historical. That needs to change - somehow. Affirmative action for mediocre students in the best schools compromises the schools, it does nothing to raise up the students.
53
Mayor DeBlasio and Chancellor Carranza say the SHSAT is to blame for the racial imbalance in New York City's elite high schools. But at Beacon, where students' grades and state test scores are the criteria for acceptance, a racial disparity exists, as well.
Those gentlemen need to rethink their assumptions and work to better educate all NYC children instead of looking to penalize those who work hard and deserve the opportunity to further excel.
38
The issue is simply, what does a school system do when one or two ethnic groups rise to the top?
12
As a graduate of the Bronx High School of Science ('74) I was able to obtain an education that made me competitive with students from private schools and well regarded suburban High Schools. The "equity" was that a kid from the Bronx who worked hard and had the ability to handle a rigorous academic program was given an opportunity to succeed regardless of economic circumstances. Is it equitable that I didn't make the basketball team because I didn't have the requisite skills?
42
Screening a larger % of students in NYC than in other large school systems
gives mrore able and
hardworking kids a chance for a beter education. Sounds like a good system to me as long as free test prep classes continue to be available at the public libraries and they are publicised.
14
I am the parent of two children who went to specialized high schools. (One of my kids is finishing up junior year.) The city should be focused on 4th and 5th grade reading and writing exams. The greatest change the city can make is to get kids to pass basic exams at this level. Once they can fix this than all schools will become more of an option. On a side note, test tutoring does not make much of a difference for the specialized high school exam. Kids need access to the practice tests. Kids also need middle schools that provide them with the info on school choices and the process of applying to them. This info has to go to parents as well. The process can be a big deal for middle school kids and if they don't have a parent to help them they will have to rely on the school. Most city schools have little budget for guidance councilors. These are the real problems, but not insurmountable.
17
The better schools will attract the better students. If the apparatchiks try to force the better students into under achieving schools, those families will leave the city for the suburbs. This outward movement will drive my property value up and the apartments in the better areas of the city down. Then, I will be able to sell high and move back to the city while buying low.
16
My child is a senior at Beacon and received a very good education but so many of her classmates, my child among them, absolutely hate the school. They have been treated like garbage for 4 years.
Beacon succeeds mostly because of whom it does not admit. The number of teachers at Beacon with the professional development to reach less than stellar students is perhaps a dozen. If you cannot keep up you are encouraged to transfer out, which is one reason the graduation rate is essentially 100%.
There are stories every year of children who are not matched with Beacon only to be quietly admitted within a matter of days. These children are always white, affluent and the offspring of parents who send thousands to the Parent Association. Would they make the same contributions if their children were in an almost as well-known but less affluent school? No.
When it is time for my 2nd child to look at high schools she will not be looking at Beacon.
10
Liberals will always complain if the end result isn't what they want. Most cities base schools on zones, so if you live in a rich neighborhood, it's likely the school you're zoned for is high caliber because of the tax resources, etc.
The testing system actually allows students from poor neighborhoods to attend good schools if they score well on a test. Welp, now those under-represented minorities aren't scoring well on those tests, so it's time to start whining again.
34
Instead of improving elementary and middle schools this Mayor will mess up with the few schools that work. Everyone will be worse off if this mayor is allowed to pursue these sloppy policies.
40
“They’re almost like a factory,” he said. “They’re churning out high-performing kids who are doing great while the rest of the kids are trying to figure it out on their own because they don’t have the same resources.” Yes, it's the schools. All you have to do is walk in the door & then you'll be "churned out" high performing.
20
I hated everything about the process of trying to get my daughter into a decent high school and ended up sending her to live with her father in the suburbs instead. Finding a college for her, where she is thriving, was easier and much more fulfilling.
7
There wouldn't be such a demand for the elite schools if the rest of the schools in the city weren't so dismal.
You have to fix the problem CITYWIDE, starting with kindergarten.
Not enough money to do that? How about getting rid of the solitaire players in the rubber rooms and using those funds for enrichment?
You're hurting all of the kids with a race to the bottom otherwise.
34
This article and the stream of recent articles continue to emphasize the "segregation" aspects of NYC's system and seem to claim unfair discrimination without being forward about it. Oddly the majority of the comments agree with some test criteria. Is that due to the NY Times audience?
Why is there never mention of free public tutoring?
What is the actual stats on paid tutoring and successful entrants?
My wife taught briefly in a local middle school. There were daily horror stories of extreme differences of abilities of students in the same class. In one case, she asked students to put data into a table and some actually thought she meant write the data onto a desk! Does this aggregation truly help both ends of the spectrum?
31
I am a NYC parent with a child in public school and I completely disagree with the NYC policy to use high-stakes testing being used to evaluate students. There are two, separate tests being discussed: One is the New York State test administered to all NY State students each year. The other is a test specific to NYC academically accelerated “Specialized” schools like Bronx Science.
The Mayor wants to get rid of the Specialized test. But he intends to keep State Test results as acceptable admissions criteria. So the system will still favor kids who get tutored for standardized tests.
Furthermore, with high school space limited and more and more students in the system, even the so-called “City-wide” High Schools aren’t available to students who maintain less than a 90 average— or who score 3s rather than 4s on the State Tests.
1
Look, the results of testing will never be proportional to race. Kids need to study more, read more, increase their vocabularies, and their families need to value structure and education more to make a change.
41
As is clearly stated in the article, the current system of selective high schools, and now middle schools, is being gamed by administrators and middle class parents to ensure a high quality education for those most motivated - all while being paid for through everyone's tax dollars.
(As an aside - the NYC DOE programs for 'special needs' children is even more tainted - costing tax payers hundreds of millions to provide many children with mild to no demonstrable disabling conditions with special education service, particularly for the catch-all 'ADHD'.)
The only way to fix this system is to:
1) allow no more than 10% of high achievers into selective schools like Stuyvesant,
2) have 80% of the students zoned for their nearest neighborhood middle and high schools, and
3) relegate the bottom 10% to schools where they can be taught the basics and tracked to more appropriate vocational and vocational skills.
(Further, the subset that are disruptive may need to just be warehoused in 'rubber rooms' until they get out to sink or swim in life.)
Without some assurance of a decent education in a non-disruptive environment, middle class parents will flee NYC's public school. Should that happen, that will probably bring the City to a degree of decline and hollowing out last seen from the 1960's to the 1980's.
Just like forced busing, this 'education justice' mantra will likely prove to be a progressive debacle that will reverberate for years, perhaps, decades to come.
7
The 'segregation' referred to in the online version of this story, and the 'cherry picking' referred to in the print edition, are not racially-based, as those words are intended to suggest. They are ability-based as determined by grades and test scores. What does it take for some people to accept that not all (most?) outcomes fit preferred racial percentages?
46
Full disclosure: I am a parent of a Beacon senior.
It seems to me that administrators at competition-based admission schools are shoulderd the brunt of the responsibility for the current dearth of minority students in select schools. Can more be done in middle schools to promote the students who face challenges, disproportionately? Because I teach an at-risk student body, I’m well aware that there are immediate needs in the classroom that demand teachers’ full attention; guidance department resources are equally stressed. The city is responsible to avail every student to the full range of opportunities offered by our schools. The chancellor’s office can do more to equip middle schools to navigate the application journey. There are many qualified students who never enter the pathway to New York’s finest schools.
6
Can everyone stop saying "full disclosure" as if they are being impossibly candid. A simple "dislosure" will suffice. A pet peeve of mine.
8
New York CIty does not offer enough quality education that the parents are desperate to secure for their children. It is a scarce resource, which is why it is a stress test and the families are scrambling even before middle school. The bell-weather to describe the school situation in New York city is that there is a scarcity of good educational options, compared to the number of students who are looking to advance to good schools and capable of doing well. Open more schools with the baccalaureate program curriculum, open more academically challenging schools in the Bronx. New York city needs a lot more "good schools".
22
It is almost difficult to know what is worse: this article that mischaracterizes the current system, however flawed it may be (there is no "shadow" system, just as there is no "cherry picking" as the print version states) or Mr. Carranza's politically expedient plan that is based in blatant discrimination, seems unaware of the diversity of the continent of Asia or the socio-economics of New York City and its schools, that bars thousands of children from even applying to schools and makes the process even more excruciating for children, and that seems to believe that the Texas education system should serve as a model for New York.
38
Beg to differ. He was going to over haul the system in Houston but saw the writing on the wall and high tailed it to NY!
You guys can have him!
12
Thanks for letting us know. Can we send him back?
6
And we wonder why teen depression and anxiety is at a catastrophic high in this country?
7
De Blasio and Carranza are going down a rabbit hole.
How do you think the elite colleges will react to this? Many students who previously could not enter these selective schools will be very underprepared. You will not get more Eric Holders or Neil deGrasses by letting standards slip. The Eric Holders of the world will get in, no matter the rigorous standards.
41
Clara Hemphill, whose books were my family's beacon to the NYC public schools, said it best: make the public elementary schools competitive and the problem fixes itself. This is how: starting at pre-K, tax money needs to be used to enrich those schools and those students who need it. I mean: pre-school, after school, vacation school and summer school. Find students and families that will do this work. In middle school, start the test prep. All of this must be free. Do not change the specialized high schools but let students reach their potential by providing avenues for learning and achievement. Level the playing field, but do not destroy the outstanding schools we already have by admitting unprepared students.
47
As many have noted, check out schools like Midwood and Edward R Murrow--both in Brooklyn. They do a combination of screens, ed-op etc and have a diverse student body in terms of race/ethnicity and academic performance. They are high performing schools that serve their students quite well.
16
The notion that there are "good" schools that somehow magically raise the performance of students is absurd. The good schools are good because of the quality of the students.
The elimination of tracking and lax disciplinary policies have made it impossible to mix good students with bad at the same school. Teachers would have to teach students who are ready for calculus with students who can't calculate a percentage.
All that will happen if the requirements are eliminated is that all schools will sink into mediocrity. Parents who can will send their kids to private schools or flee the City; parents who can't will watch, helplessly, as their children are deprived of an education.
Sadly, many of the smart kids who will be left behind are themselves poor. It seems that in their zeal to blame, some want to deprive children of the opportunity to escape poverty through education.
What a sad difference from the days when City College was free, and the "Harvard of the working class." Then, the goal of liberalism was to offer opportunity; now, we just want to suck everyone down to the bottom.
99
There was a time that City College was free but the students who went there were competent and smart and hard working (like my father).
Then in the 1970s a bunch of liberals came up with the brilliant idea that everyone had a divine right to a college education.
As a result admission standards and academic quality plunged. City College has since tightened admissions and made its academics more rigorous and is only now pulling itself out of this hole it dug for itself in the 1970s.
“Liberalism” nearly destroyed City College and liberals are trying to do the same to the handful of quality public middle and high schools left.
26
Amongst all of this hoopla regarding specialized schools and supposed unfair selection practices, I have yet to hear a teacher's voice. Well, as a teacher in a high needs school, I take offense at the idea that the process is unfair to black and brown children. Several of my 8th graders have done very well on the SHSAT--they are lower-middle class, but the secret is not so difficult: there were no excuses. Can't afford SHSAT prep? NYC provides low to no-cost testing programs, in addition to the PUBLIC LIBRARY, which often have SHSAT prep books. Have trouble accessing materials? Well, NYC employs teachers who care very much about their students and spend MANY hours after school to cater to the demands of studying in this city. Most critically, parents NEED to be active in their child's educational life, from the beginning. Read to them EVERYDAY. Don't speak English? Then, read to them in your home language. Engage with them about what is going on around the world. It is not a teacher's job to teach your child how to read; that is the PARENT's job. If you are worried that your child is not prepared for the rigors of an advanced high school curriculum, then, sadly, it probably is too late.
112
"It is not a teacher's job to teach your child how to read"
Yes it is. That is exactly what their job is. Three R's, remember? I cannot believe this teacher is claiming they are not responsible for teaching a child to read. What are they doing then, drawing a paycheck and clock watching? No wonder these kids can't meet basic academic requirements.
12
I am a middle school teacher. If your child cannot read by the time they have reached 6th grade, that is the failure of the parent, not the school. A teachers job is continually enhance a child's learning to increase their comprehension and critical thinking. So, again, a teacher's job is not to teach children how to read, but how to comprehend, process, and analyze what they read.
8
Pete, what exactly in turn are many parents today doing for their kids age 0-6? What do they do on summers & holidays during kids' K-12 years?
Not reading to or w/ them at all? Not even bothering to model the practice of reading anything in print or on a screen themselves - just zoning out on videogames/social media/TV?
Not taking their kids to free public library-based story-telling & literacy basics programs?
Not even bothering to work w/ at least borrowed, used/cheap (sold also at public libraries) or hand-me-down alphabet letter books, number books, flashcards, nursery rhymes, etc.?
Not have any extended family (ex. kids' grandparents, aunts/uncles, babysitting older siblings or cousins, etc.), neighbors, friends, faith groups, etc. who cls be the toddler's 1st reading mentors & buddies before they hit 1st grade - if/when the parents are too busy working multiple jobs, or are functional illiterates themselves who cld use some grassroots help, or if there are no free or low cost Universal Pre-K, Transitional Kindergarden, etc. nearby?
It's no accident that homes of any color & wealth level that don't even have borrowed/hand-me-down storybooks, comic books, etc. tend to also be the same homes that have kids who keep falling behind on progressively challenging K-12 reading comprehension tasks.
Reading, like speaking, is best introduced & kept up by 1-on-1 bonding w/ a caring mom/dad year-round - not just during the 9-mo. schoolyear inside classrooms.
21
The result of diversity at any cost, coupled with more and more restrictions on any effort to impose discipline in the classroom, has caused the widespread abandonment of public schools in the urban areas throughout the country.
NY's system is so large it could probably cherry pick enough minority students sufficiently qualified so as to not affect the quality of the education in these selected schools. Of course, that ignores the detriment suffered by child who is excluded from the highest performing schools solely due to the color of his/her skin
8
The mayor and the chancellor seem hellbent on creating a Harrison Bergerson type school system.
In a geographically dense city like New York, grouping kids into High schools and Middle schools based on ability and work ethic makes sense, because students can be taught at the same level, without instructional disparities within a school.
The better schools are so successful because they start with better students. You can't swap out the kids and expect the same outcomes. Duh.
If they really wanted to fix the school system they would be applying the KIPP academy formula of intense instruction and discipline to struggling elementary schools.
Our kid has never had a tutor, and did well enough to get into Bronx Science without any test prep classes. We chose a neighborhood screened school instead. Heavy parental involvement is the real shadow system at work here. Maybe their real goal is to distribute motivated parents throughout the school system. But it won't work as families will just leave the city.
46
As a bleeding heart liberal we should call out when we are going too far. This headline goes too far. Yes there is concern, and yes perhaps tutoring classes should be made freely available to those in need. However, this article sounds like its advocating for getting rid of all merit based specialized schools. We are all not equally capable. When I was young I could not make it into any of these specialized schools and nor did I belong or have a right to attend any of them.
61
This is the affirmative action debate all over again. Asians are highly over-represented in these selective schools, whites less so. As far as Hispanics, many are first or second-generation immigrants and are less likely to be accepted into these programs due to language and/or academic skills than their Asian peers. My cousin's son, who's white, recently graduated from Tufts University and said that his four years at Stuyvesant High School were more challenging. Of course, if there's racism in the selection process, that should be removed. But if it exists, it'd be very hard to prove. It'd be interesting to see an article about the racial representation of the New York City taxpayer since the DOE's budget is about 1/3 of its total budget. I'm a Democrat, so don't get me wrong. And I teach in a DOE high school. Numerous families moved here from say the Dominican Republic because the education system is better here, and by 'here' they mean a 'low-performing' high school in the Bronx. It's a complex subject, but in the end the system should be lifting everyone up as much as possible. I've seen improvements at my small high school over the past 8 years, so I'm optimistic.
14
Asians have the highest poverty rate in NYC and many if not most are also first and second generation immigrants. There is free and low cost test prep, the library is free...parents of any color who care about education produce kids who care about education and put forth the required effort. You cannot expect the “system” to do the work for you. Does it bother you that Asians are “underrepresented” in the NBA? It is ridiculous to expect the racial makeup of the general population to always be in line with that of the schools or particular industries. Don’t get mad, get even...encourage kids to study hard and compete with the Asians...no excuses. #nocrabmentality
25
In the future I hope reporters will avoid making such statistical versions of apples and oranges comparisons as:
“One in five middle and high schools in New York, the nation’s largest school district, now choose all of their students based on factors like grades or state test scores....
“In Los Angeles, the country’s second-largest district, there are only two selective high schools and two “highly gifted” magnet schools. Boston has seven schools....”
Thus:
NYC: One of five
LA: One of...?
Boston: One of...?
14
Two months into his term, Chancellor Carranza has apparently decided that the gravest problem facing NYC's troubled public school system comes from its....most successful schools. He will not rest until their outrageous and offensive race-blind admissions policies are a thing of the past.
99
The Times seems unable or unwilling to understand that a good school is a good school because it has good students. The minute you open up a good school to low performing students it stops being a good school.
118
It's really heartbreaking to see what's happened to standards at the Times. Too many articles read like one-sided advocacy pieces rather than reporting. From the headline on down, this article is so one-sided that it could be in Pravda.
52
DeBlasio could achieve more fairness without going to Albany by ending District 2's hoarding of its good schools and by changing admissions at the selective schools other than the 3 subject to state rule (Stuyvesant, Bronx Science and Brooklyn Tech), but then he would be going after schools with more whites than Asians. He is counting on lack of power in Asian community.
20
It is not "segregation" to separate kids on intellectual and academic merit.
74
Tracking isn't the problem — the problem is prevention of representative numbers of black and Latino kids from *getting* onto higher tracks in elementary school. The numbers of such minorities getting into the specialized high schools was at a high in the late 80s, then plummeted to the present dismal state after gifted class programs were largely eliminated. Schools like Stuyvesant, Bronx Science, and Brooklyn Tech can be as successful as they are because they DO select for kids who are already academically prepared. We already have examples of what high schools look like when they can't select by objective measures — just look at the other schools. Don't blame the high schools for looking at the results, for the city's short-changing of minority students' potential at the elementary school level. Why do you *think* the score levels on the math and verbal entrance tests are so drastically different? Algebra questions doen't see skin color. It's racist to view that as anything but a terrible failure of our society to adequately teach those kids at the elementary school level. They are now just trying to shove that failure out of view.
31
Well, since the 1980s we've had another three generations who continue to have more babies than they can care for and whose reasons for doing so are really just plain dopey, given that the middle-class families (of all colors, religions, and political affiliations) whose tax dollars go to support these unwieldy families do limit their children to the number they can support on their own.
It's not just dogs and beans that are subject to the laws of genetics.
Yes, "we" have failed these children -- because we have normalized behavior that, years ago, was considered irresponsible.
24
That's an excellent point.
The sad fact is that the rich can send their kids to prep school and the middle class can move to a school district with a demanding curriculum. But talented inner city black and Hispanic kids are routinely deprived of the opportunity to study at a college preparatory level.
Rather than trying to destroy educational opportunities for the better performing students, we should be extending them to talented kids in the black and Hispanic communities, either through in-school tracking or by helping them attend more selective schools for which they qualify.
6
You may have noticed the subject of this is education for children already born.
I was thrilled when our daughter got into Beacon, even though it means a one-hour commute from our home in Brooklyn. I have to agree with Clara Hemphill and other readers who comment that there should be an emphasis on improving the quality of schools in every neighborhood. There should be great opportunities for bright and hard-working students no matter where they live and what their income level (the Midwood model).
That is not the case now. My daughter's middle school was in our neighborhood and is a very good school, but its resources are very limited due to the low income of most of its families. The current system only reinforces inequalities because almost anything "extra" in a school has to be funded by parents. Many of these "extras" are what make students competitive for acceptance into schools like Beacon.
Yes, parents are often at fault for not caring enough about academics. But a kid doesn't get to choose his/her parents. Let's not deny opportunities to children who could make the best of them.
14
The criteria for getting into these schools is 100% clear. Education begins at birth - you can't just wake up when your child is entering middle/high school and decide that it is important and you want to focus on it.
Start reading to your child at birth. Enroll your child in early childhood education - universal pre-k was a great step. There are plenty of ways to get into good elementary schools even if you don't have a lot of money. Take out a book from the library to study for the tests. Most kids I know who go to top high schools did not pay for tutors - they took the slow and steady approach and focused on education from day one.
The DOE should spend less time and money tinkering with the system for middle and high schools and put more resources towards nursery and elementary school options so that kids are better prepared. And also, please stop making this a race issue. If anything, it is a class issue. Which is very different.
51
Screening is "antithetical" to what Mr. Carranza wants for our kids, yet his daughter attended one of two screened schools in San Francisco?
"Mr. Carranza has suggested that screening is “antithetical to what I think we all want for our kids.” Yet the two school systems he ran previously also screen students, but in far smaller numbers than in New York. In Houston, 17 of the district’s 284 schools are magnet schools that have minimum academic requirements for grades and test scores; If there are more qualified applicants than seats, students are chosen by lottery.
San Francisco has two screened schools, Lowell High School, which has academic criteria and which Mr. Carranza’s daughter attended, and Ruth Asawa San Francisco School of the Arts, a high school that requires an audition or portfolio."
20
The Mayor's children went to Brooklyn Tech and Beacon
3
Given that Houston and San Francisco are much smaller school districts, I doubt that the proportion of screened schools/seats is any different. I just checked: SF total public school student population is only 55,613 as of this school year. Just under 16,000 high school students. Houston (as of 2014-2015 yr) has 215,000, of which about 46,000 are in high school. They're not doing anything different than we are, they just have smaller school systems.
2
And the mayor's daughter attended Beacon and his son attended Brooklyn Tech.
7
I attended a Jesuit high school in a poor part of the city I grew up in. It had an entrance exam. Yes, it was a private school, but there is no reason why NYC public schools could not do what my school did -- not change the test, but tutor poor and minority grade school students living near the school who expressed an interest in attending so they could pass the test. All of the school's students were encouraged to participate as tutors and many did. Why not pair SHASAT students with those who may want to attend and tutor them to pass the test?
5
More than that, let's stop being politically correct and give the kids in these schools aptitude tests so that the most talented can be put in appropriate classes. Otherwise, they're dragged down by the struggles of the kids around them: one study found that an "A" paper in an inner city school was a "C" paper in a good suburban one.
How much talent is lost because many of these kids don't have engaged, knowledgeable parents who can send them to a school appropriate to their abilities?
17
Midwood High School in Brooklyn enrolls about half its students through a screening process while accepting any student who lives in its geographic zone. The students in the different programs take some classes together, but most are separate.
The result is that the school is much more racially and economically diverse than most other screened schools as well as the city's specialized high schools. It also has lots of high-performing students who go on to attend excellent colleges.
While this model of student selection comes with its own set of challenges, it offers a more inclusive and democratic alternative to the one used by the schools described in this article. And I imagine it removes some of the stress of the application process for families who live in the zone!
8
What makes a school high performing is a critical percentage of the student body being high performing students. There’s no way around that. No one wants to talk about this—they just yell about more resources per student, better teachers, newer buildings, etc. If you replace a “bad” school’s student population with high performing students, the school will instantly be a high performing school. But we can’t talk about that without shouts of racism.
38
So activists want to eliminate the system's only decent schools and drive even more middle class families into near bankruptcy by compelling them to send their kids to private schools to get an acceptable education? The single test system seems to be the closest to a race-blind solution there is, and it's mainly dependent on the will of parents for their children to succeed. The large number of free lunch kids in that system is proof that admission is readily accessible to families without means.
50
My children have a right to the best possible education suited for their individual talents and abilities. All children have this right. Taking away opportunities for smart, driven, intellectually curious kids will not help anyone. One of my kids attends a Specialized school, because he decided he wanted to go there and put the work in to do a little prep so he'd do well on the exam (he used only free resources, by the way. $2000 prep courses aren't necessary). My other son liked one Specialized school, but preferred an arts/vocational school and did what it took to win a seat there (attended open house, talked with faculty). Both kids ended up with their first choice.
I believe all kids deserve a good education, but it is unfair to punish my children and take away opportunities to somehow make it up to kids whose parents aren't doing their jobs. Poverty doesn't preclude prioritizing education--as the Stuy student body statistics show.
It is just as wrong to deny gifted kids educational accommodations as it would be to deny children with learning disabilities the accommodations they need.
If we wanted a one-size-fits-all education, we could be living anywhere else in the country. New York City deserves a world-class school system. Part of that means taking advantage of the economies of scale to allow kids to cluster by ability level and interests. Invest in identifying the schools where kids are suffering and fix those. Don't break the good ones.
63
I think the cat is out of the bag, and not a moment too soon! It all began with an argument that the "unfair" single test criterion for admission to the specialized high schools be replaced by a selection process using multiple measures. After all, it was averred, the Specialized High School Admission Test discriminates against families that can’t afford to pay for test prep. However, now we hear NY Appleseed director Gonzales lecture us that “When we have a publicly funded school system, the notion that you can pick and choose your students is problematic” and Chancellor Carranza opine that any screening is “antithetical to what I think we all want for our kids.” Finally, we can see the real agenda: abolish ALL special high schools.
29
The problem is too many schools don't provide a good education. The horror is if you don't get into one of the better schools you might not get a decent education. That's unconscionable.
Instead of worrying about the elite schools perhaps focus on making all schools high quality.
Kids with parents who don't care about education need to be identified early on in elementary school and offered extra school time so they can gain study habits and self worth. I can't say that extra school time will be cheap.
16
"Kids with parents who don't care about education need to be identified early on in elementary school and offered extra school time so they can gain study habits and self worth. I can't say that extra school time will be cheap."
Ah, so the plan is to offer educational services to those who don't care about educational services? And you understand this expensive undertaking will drain resources from students who actually are interested and engaged in education? You see the fundamental problems with this plan, yes?
10
"Parents who don't care about education" will only very rarely produce children who do, GI. And that's the problem.
Whether we're talking about our heartland whites whose anger at everyone but themselves produced a President Donald Trump or our inner-city blacks who vote in politicians that reinforce their sense of victimhood, their disdain for education is self-limiting and self-perpetuating, and it carries down through generations.
Some kids work their little hearts out because their immigrant, illiterate, hardworking parents instill in them a love of learning. Down through the generations, and evident today in our Asian and Russian newcomers, poor people have produced successful children, children who become our physicians, scientists, lawyers, philosophers.
And we have always had our Ewell families, whom in To Kill a Mockingbird Harper Lee called "white trash" -- those who, anytime they want, can go to school and get an education, but prefer not to -- and it does no one any good to pretend that white trash doesn't come in other colors and creeds.
14
The problem is not the student selection process, it's the many students that can't compete at an advanced level. Why aren't all NYC elementary and middle schools held to a higher standard? Stop social promotion. Many kids need help at the elementary school level not quotas when they get older.
58
I'm glad to see attention paid to the screened middle and high schools as necessary context for the conversation about specialized high schools. If schools like Beacon, Bard, Millennium, Lab, and Eleanor Roosevelt are technically more diverse from a racial standpoint than the specialized high schools, they are often far more segregated economically. While their holistic admission processes allow for a degree of racial integration, they also frequently present problems for children who may not have the resources to present a portfolio, whose parents may not be able to join in extracurricular activities, whose learning disabilities mean they do not interview well. And children who live outside of the affluent districts with many terrific middle schools (i.e. 2, 15, 20) may not have the chance to attend one of the screened middle schools that are conduits to all of the elite high schools, the SHSAT schools as well as the screened schools.
The existence of the SHSAT schools means that the playing field is somewhat leveled for kids who may not have ways to meet the high and frequently ambiguous screening standards of the MS 51s, the Labs (middle and high), the Beacons, the Deltas(JHS 54) and so forth. You can't change the SHSAT entrance exam without examining the other entrance policies that bar the door for too many kids. Bottom line: we need better schools for high ability students--including twice exceptional children--at every point from K-12.
18
Carranza and DeBlasio are changing the definition of merit & being qualified - this is myopic and divisive. The best & brightest of NYC kids regardless of race, class, neighborhood, or connections, should be allowed to gain entry fairly to these STEM schools. The test is fair and the only way to guarantee this.
44
You either have a meritocratic systems and challenge every student to keep learning as much as they can, or you force concerned parents of able students out of the system and it collapses.
You cannot legislate equal parenting; you can only use public schools to provide opportunity. And real opportunity means keeping high demands and rigor in all courses, at all levels, even in the special ed courses (maximally challenge all at the right level).
However, you destroy real opportunity if you to try to legislate equal outcomes, and destroy quality and appropriate levels of challenging work.
83
Way back in the 1960s I did some of the earliest research on busing black children from Boston public schools to the white suburbs. The stresses (travel time, hostility, overt racism) on the black kids were substantial, but even worse was the fact that the Boston schools had not remotely prepared their students to compete at the same grade levels as their peers in the suburbs.
Integration is absolutely a worthy goal, but it makes no sense to dumb down the entrance criteria for the specialized schools in order to meet some arbitrary racial quota or balance. Doing this will set up for failure many or even most of the students so admitted, and will force many teachers to teach to the lowest common denominators. (A further need will be to set up a series of tutorial and remedial classes for the "challenged" students, which will require additional funds and personnel.)
The (very expensive) answer is not to water down the selection criteria for the specialized schools, but to improve all schools.
80
If you have this system of feeder middle schools academically selecting their students and then feeding a percentage of them into the specialized high schools, changing the HS admissions process with quotas for under-represented minorities (Black and Latino) is not going to change the academic preparedness for success at those high schools. Recipe for failure and more years of education wilderness all in the name of diversity. Maybe Mayor de Blasio should implement quotas from the elementary schools into the middle schools as well. Another path for failure. Remember busing. That didn't work.
14
A test is the most "fair" system for the poor to advance. A test not only measures your skills, but also how you deal with pressure. Getting rid of the test can only open doors for corruptions and "quota" based on races. People will vote with their feet by moving elsewhere. The debate is more about two different values systems: "Should we change the rule to make it fair"?
22
The debate is racial. The Left doesn't believe in merit. They believe in skin color.
Welcome to Social Justice USA.
15
I am a teacher in Chicago Public Schools at a neighborhood school on the far south side of the city. We are implementing this same system this year in the midst of the charter school movement. Our schools are highly segregated, I teach history to a student population of 99% African American students. Every year when we get to studying Brown vs. Board of education and our text book declares victory for ending school segregation inevitably one of my students will look around the classroom and raises their hand, "Mr. Holland, how come there's only black kids in here then."
Although I appreciate a chance to facilitate a lively student discussion about why that may be, I'm tired of facilitating discussions about how racism still prevails and the history of public education struggling and too often failing to address it. Four years ago a charter high school moved into the same high school building that I work in. Now there are two schools in the same building. Every once and a while some poor kid will flunk out of the charter school and register at mine. The number of special ed. students requiring additional services is at minimum a third higher in our side of the building than the other. While I have appreciated the charter school's air- conditioning leaking through the ceiling ducts to cool my un-air-conditioned classroom the notion of equity has become a sick joke to me. In light of this article, I don't expect it to get better.
21
Bravo. Your remarks illuminate the broader landscape of public education. This is a country which prefers private solutions in ALL areas of life: education, health care, housing, and so on.
When we see oases of high-functioning public institutions, our knee-jerk reaction is to tear them down. Whether it's our national park system (in the name of conservatism) or successful public high schools (in the name of liberalism).
Notice that no one complains that private schools skim Black and Hispanic students with aid packages, so as to be "integrated".
2
Once upon a time, a neighborhood public school served all comers by tracking kids. The kids who could do the work were in one class, the kids who aced everything in another, and the struggling kids in a third.
It wasn't impossible to move into a different track.
But you see, that system was deemed unfair (and racist).
Now you have a charter school in a part of your building, and what is that but tracking?
Mind you, fine private schools also track their students, usually in math and language classes. And why not? Nothing more boring for a bright kid than to be held back by those unable to do the work, no matter the reason; and nothing more frustrating than to watch one's classmates excel in work that makes one's little head spin.
Teachers know these things.
13
Yep! Loaded headline. I never thought that I'd be advocating for the DOE in NYC but here goes: there is no "shadow system." The DOE explains the many different ways of entering the almost 600 high schools through websites, through guidance counselors, through parent coordinators, through emails sent to your home. More, there's insideschools, the website that explains each and every school. More, there's a book that's published each year that explains exactly how to get into each school.
More, there are a wide variety of schools out there and it would be interesting to locate families that have used that variety of entry for their many kids. For example, our family used SHSAT, auditioned for LaG and then went through a variety of choices for the huge other categories of schools. the Bards needed a written test. Done. Plus interview. Also done. the NYCischool needed tour plus online test. done. The Aviation school needed tour, then scores of X level for one program and Y level for another program. Done. The Harbor school needed us to "show interest". Done. ETC. Also then we ranked them. Then it was lottery time and we get whatever school we get. Each child used a different set of schools. One was more SHSAT material. One was "purely lottery for me," and that was fine and attended an unselective school with 2/3 poverty rate. It's not a shadow system, it's a gift to parents when you have a variety of kids. They can go to the school that best fits them.
49
This might be a problem if it weren't for the fact that way too many New York students are really Special Ed (formerly called CRMD).
10
Just so you know, my cousin did a terrific job teaching "special ed" kids whose real problem was that their parents hadn't given them any language skills -- and that their parents ultimately wanted them to remain "special ed" students even when my cousin had raised their skill levels.
You know, there's money to be made in having "underperforming" children.
When my cousin called in the parents whose kids had succeeding in getting into mainstream classes in order to discuss their progress, they were furious and insisted that my cousin stop saying that they didn't need to be in "special ed" anymore.
7
Because they can get disability income for each student with "special needs."
It can come to $700/month.
1
The racism built into the New York City Public Schools is the lousy education that most students receive. This will not be fixed by dragging down the better schools.
36
The use of four "racial" categories - black, Hispanic, white, Asian - as the barometer/measurement does not tell the whole story and media presentations are sometimes confusing at best and misleading at worst.
For example, at schools such as Beacon, there are students from a variety of backgrounds not so easily categorized regarding race, country of origin, demographics, etc. There are "biracial" students; students of Middle Eastern background (is an Egyptian student considered "white"?); Asian-born and Latin American-born children adopted by "white" parents; Muslim students from Albania, etc. There are also students with physical handicaps.
The 8 test schools have varying demographics - not all identical to Stuyvesant. Enrollment data also shows differences in gender among the schools. (see Inside Schools) And most media accounts rarely bother to mention that a sizeable number of students at Stuyvesant and the other test schools come from low income families with parents who did not attend college.
26
This headline is completely misleading. It is not a 'shadow system'. Specific schools have widely known and publicized standards for entry into their schools. The NYC DOE has a well-publicized High School fair each fall and publish a telephone size book describing in detail the statistics and policies for all high schools. NYC is unique in that it has so many great options for high school. A day spent at any of these schools will show they are definitely not segregated. The larger argument (and Times reporting) should focus on ways to expand a successful mosaic of high schools, and ways to provide outreach to families of 4th and 5th graders explaining the way the middle schools and high schools are structured. Creating a larger 'market' will put pressure on the city to improve everywhere. While I am not a fan of charter schools, they do provide a similar alternative choice. We should be supporting the success of our high school choices, not tearing them down to achieve an unrealistic goal of perfectly proportional ethnic distribution.
82
Do we want equal opportunity or equal outcomes?
19