Charter school students perform significantly better than those at traditional public schools. This is true for black and Hispanic children. Maybe the chancellor should learn from those schools. They do not focus incessantly on race. They use proven methods to improve performance.
76
I don't recall reading about diversification when Asian-Americans displaced Jews as the majority group in the Special Schools.
Little kids should go to neighborhood schools, not spend time in school buses.
Schools should be evaluated according to academic achievement - what are the schools for?
Parents have to appropriately stimulate their kids, particularly in early language development.
131
Even within an "integrated" school setting, segregated foundation still offsetting: self-segregating lunch table, student clubs, gifted, remedial programs, etc.
27
The emphasis on "diversity" is meant to be divisive to detract parents from the real issues which are that schools are overcrowded and the quality of education is poor.
80
Hey, boss, try this: Improve the lives of students and see achievement levels rise. Oh, that costs actual money. And on "them" no less. Forget about it. Any other ideas? Yeah, blame the teachers.
41
Why try to improve underperforming students’ scores or work to change the virulently anti-education attitude that plagues certain communities in NYC. That would be difficult.
Far easier (though abhorrent and destructive) to bring everyone down to the level of the worst student. In fact, don’t stop there. Why not actively punish the hard working and naturally talented students for being arrogant enough to work hard/study/care about their future?
My heart goes out to the smart and deserving children of all races who will be harmed by Carranza’s anti-education, regressive, divisive policies.
209
Carranza did nothing to integrate schools, and quote frankly most schools would need the neighborhoods to be integrated to make that happen.
What he did do was stir up racism against Asians and try to push Trump like anti immigrant policies. He uses Trump style "elitist" rhetoric to stir up populist outrage against children for the crime of being smart.
Carranza should resign and stay away from any education related position.
156
Carranza’s programs are in silos, Integration, screened schools, excessive reliance on testing, high teacher attrition, homelessness, concentrated poverty, etc., cannot be addressed as separate issues, you can’t toss hastily created programs; example, Carranza’s Just announced “edustats,” periodic testing of all students with prescriptions, has failed everywhere.
What is required is a comprehensive plan, no sign of any thoughtful planning, sadly, a system adrift
28
State officials released a new list of struggling schools Thursday including 124 in New York City, the first round of designations under a new method of identifying low-performing schools.
Eighty-four of the city’s schools are on the lowest rung — known as “Comprehensive Support and Improvement Schools” — and will be required to craft improvement plans approved by the state. The remaining 40 schools are only in need of “targeted” support and will face less intense oversight.
The lowest-performing schools were identified partly because they were in the bottom 10 percent of schools across the state on a combined measure of growth and proficiency on state tests — the biggest factor that went into their rating. For the first time, state officials also took into account science exams, progress on a test taken by English learners, and rates of chronic absenteeism.
https://www.chalkbeat.org/posts/ny/2019/01/17/struggling-schools-nyc-essa/
16
Mr. Carranza's a joke - he's done nothing to improve NYC schools - he's more of a politician, than an administrator. New York City has over 100 high schools with graduation rates below 50%. These high schools are located in the city's poorest neighborhoods. The schools are blighted and the city can't find qualified teachers to go into those schools due to safety concerns. During Mayor deBlasio's entire term(s), the graduation rates have continued falling - he's failed thousands and thousands of students, who won't even graduate from high school, as he's provided no initiatives whatsoever, to improve those schools. None. He and Carranza made a big platform on ending the 'discrimination' in those schools, and failed miserably when it was called out as being a sham. The Mayor hired Mr. Carranza - maybe they'll both leave at the end of the Mayor's term.
91
Segregated schools are like AR 15s, neither are going away
6
So Mr. Carranza thinks the problem is that he is a man of color. Obviously he knows nothing about the history of the NYC school system which has had quite a number of men of color who have been chancellors. Since 1983 there have been 7 Black and Latino male chancellors--Anthony Alvarado, Nat Quinones, Richard Green, Joseph Fernandez, Ray Cortines, Rudy Crew, Dennis Walcott--and 5 white male chancellors. Carranza needs to get educated.
102
“Mr. Carranza has argued that some of the right-wing criticism of his tenure derives from the fact that he is ‘a Latino male in this role.’”
No, Mr. Carranza. You’re just not doing a very good job as chancellor. Students are there to learn and develop their skills and talents, not become victims to your racist initiatives. The New York DoE desperately needs pro-education leadership, and kids in the nyc public school system deserve so much better than this.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/nypost.com/2019/05/25/teachers-allegedly-told-to-treat-black-students-as-victims-punish-whites/amp/
97
Carranza has shown implicit bias against Asians time and time again. Time for him to take his own implicit bias training!
84
It’s not implicit. He openly discriminated against Asians. Implicit bias is proven to simply not exist (or, if it does, to mean absolutely nothing in terms of human behavior).
87
Asians in nyc keep to themselves and are isolated but once you tried to mess with their dominance on education the floodgates opened. When other issues affect NYers of all races they remain silent.
Carranza shouldn’t deal with this mayor who is a dope and farce and knows first hand about exploiting race fur political gain—his son for his election as mayor.
20
In 2018, 91,500 NYC students chose homeschooling, growth from 89,000 from year before. Nationally, staggering 83 percent of homeschool students are white. Clearly, whites are responding to increasing racial desegregation in public schools by abandoning it all together. This is a major problem in American society. Educators who are seeking to desegregate public schools may be driving white students away that are essential for long term political and financial support.
36
Integration is scary to many upper middle class New Yorkers because it can adversely affect them in two material ways: the quality of their kids' education and the value of their house, coop or condo. And while it may be true that integration will not affect either of these things, the perception is that it will so it's something that politicians will have to deal with if they hope to make headway on the critical issue of integration.
26
If families like their school, they should be able to stay in it. I politely but firmly suggest the chancellor and the mayor leave the enormously successful specialized high schools alone and let the most qualified young minds get in, regardless of race.
72
@CP Specialized high schools use a single invalid, high-stakes math/English multiple-choice test as the SOLE measure of a child's academic ability.
We know for a fact that undercounts smart girls, Black and Latinx students. Many who simply did not invest thousands of dollars in test prep.
The mayor's proposal to use GPA and state standardized test scores is BETTER at choosing smart students than a single bubble test. That's a statistical fact. Why fear its implementation?
6
@SHSATSunset.org Why use single high stakes state standardized test instead of single high stakes Specialized High School Admission Test? Both are single administration high stakes tests. Both are pretty much bubble tests. And both give very similar racial distribution at the top. SHSAT is just designed to differentiate performance at the top better (not to identify performance, but to differentiate it). So what's the point?
Adding GPA can muddy the picture a bit because of widely known grade inflation, but you can add it to SHSAT as an additional parameter, no need to use state test.
I just don't see a point in replacing one test with another, with state test, which is designed to measure if students perform at grade level and is not designed to differentiate performance at the top.
29
Asian students are too poor to "invest in test prep."
They do, however, make good use of libraries and study groups -- both of which are free.
101
The only way meaningful integration can be accomplished when there are only 15% white students in the NYC school system is to bus hundreds of thousands of white kids in to NYC schools from the suburbs.
The alternative is to bus hundreds of thousands of minority kids from NYC schools to suburban schools.
Neither of these alternatives is financially or politically feasible.
68
Given the average two year achievement gap between white/Asian students and black/Hispanic students there is no way that the classroom work of these groups can be meaningfully integrated.
A class moves at the speed of its slower students, especially in mathematics.
Black/Hispanic students raised in low income fatherless homes without books but with gigantic TVs blaring away fourteen hours per day are unlikely to be successful in school.
Forced integration will provoke white flight to the suburbs and the resulting loss of NYC tax dollars.
However, minority students (presumably mostly middle class) who are good students should be given the opportunity to attend better schools.
More charter public schools would be of great benefit to minority students. Catholic schools also have a superior record with minority students.
75
Concerned parents/students prefer attending functional school minus disruptive distractions; unfortunately an endless list featuring violence, way too many pregnant teens.
61
The schools are not segregated. Kids tend to go to school in their neighborhoods. There are predominantly black and white neighborhoods. The school populations reflect the ethnic makeup of the surrounding neighborhoods.
60
@MIKEinNYC See pages 12-15 of this report, which concern the divergence between school population and neighborhood population https://furmancenter.org/files/sotc/2018_SOC_Focus_Web_Copy_Final.pdf
3
This is an honest question: how do you integrate schools that are only 15% white (and another 15% Asian)?
111
@LJ wouldn't it mean rough proportionality between actual demographic breakdown and per-school demographic breakdown? That seems like a pretty huge challenge, but what else could it mean?
6
@berber
Well, assume each school has 100 incoming five-year-olds, with perhaps five kindergarten classes. Then each class would have three white kids (assuming the parents would agree to cross-borough hours-long bus rides for their five-year-olds). Does this constitute meaningful integration? How many families would simply give up and leave the city or opt for private schools? I just don't see how you make the math work.
80
@LJ The only way meaningful integration can be accomplished when there are only 15% white students in the NYC school system is to bus hundreds of thousands of white kids in to NYC schools from the suburbs.
The alternative is to bus hundreds of thousands of minority kids from NYC schools to suburban schools.
Neither of these alternatives is financially or politically feasible.
42
I’ve taught 16 years in NYC public schools. Every time I take my students on field trips they point out the white school group, and the Asian school group, and we are the Black and Latino school group. The kids always comment about this and they don’t feel good about it. I don’t feel good about the segregation either. I applaud efforts to desegregate the schools I think it will benefit all racial groups to interact. And not just students, but the teaching staff and administrations should be integrated too in all the schools.
17
Those school groups are from the private schools and Westchester Co.
25
Thank goodness NY hired him. He was a loser in his other jobs and he's doing a poor job in NY. Between Caranza, the Mayor (DeBlase) and Trump, NY has a penchant for showcasing the worst of the worst. All that wealth and so-called intellect and this is the best you have? Good luck!
69
Implied in forced integration is the absurd belief that some races can only succeed academically when a white student is seated nearby......
The success of asian students hints at the real reason, educational and social values. Their high performance is a consequence of the value they ascribe to education and educators. Further, they do not act out or disrupt the education process. They do not reflexively resent authority.
Students that lacks these values will fail to learn.
153
That a significant number of Black and Latinx student read and compute below grade level indicates a racist education system. Integration, with the demographics of NYC would have a marginal impact in reading and math capabilities. Carranza has his priorities screwed up.
14
@Phyllis Sidney. While I agree that Carranza’s priorities are screwed up. Black and Latino weaker reading levels is in no way proof of racist education system. Schools do not teach kids to read and never have. Parents teach kids to read before they ever get to school. That is the difference.
57
How does this show that schools are racist? A much more plausible explanation is that black and Hispanic families tend to not value education as highly as other races.
62
How does this indicate a racist education system? Correlation does not equal causation. Certain groups perform better than others in school. It might be better to accept our natural differences and stop throwing good money after bad, sowing racial division, and teaching Black/Latinx children the self-defeating lesson that racism is the sole cause of their problems.
41
"... some educators say that Mr. Carranza also urgently needs to address the uneven performance of schools across the system."
Isn't the purpose of public schools to educate children?
If "integration" is the purpose of public education, then why wouldn't everyone send their children to private schools or home school if what their objective is their education?
Carranza has "argued that he had successfully sparked a conversation about inequality that has shifted the city’s perception of its public schools." He sure has.
I ask "what is the purpose for having a conversation about inequality" - just make your goal the education of all NYC children with equal results no matter their color or race or religion. Is integration necessary to achieve this goal?
46
System-wide integration seems like a daunting challenge, but I find the resistance to scrapping the SHSAT mystifying. Does anyone seriously believe that such a test measures intrinsic merit? The very existence of a massive and heavily utilized test prep industry puts the lie to that. It seems like the SHSAT proponents recognize this paradox, as they propose to create a parallel, subsidized test prep industry for under-represented students. Doesn't this just duplicate the existing absurdity? Is it really more just for ALL students to profit the test-prep industry in their meager free time to prop up a strawman meritocracy? It seems more reasonable--not to mention cheaper and less stressful for all concerned--to reckon that the best-performing students in middle school will thrive in the selective high schools, even if that cohort might not perform equally well on the SHSAT. Certain skills that allow children to thrive in difficult environments--most notably, sheer persistence--can help close any knowledge or skills gap that SHSAT purports to measure.
8
@berber
The fact the SHSAT-selected students at specialized high school massively outperforms other high school students shows that the test does measure intrinsic merit.
85
@Jason I think being in a high school with better teachers and more resources than other public city high schools might have a lot to do with that. And when you say outperform, what do you mean? If we are talking about SAT/ACT scores, then you are just substituting one standardized test for another.
6
@berber You realize those students take the test before they attend the specialized high schools right?
And it's not just the SAT/ACT, those students do well at APs and go to highly competitive colleges as well.
43
If Carranza really cared about desegregation, and not just about headlines, he would demand D2 stop giving preferences to its residents for high schools. No other district in Manhattan does. But D2, the whitest district does. I am not holding my breath.
12
A local school district, giving preference to its residents? Oh, my! Must be racism!
Or maybe just common sense, unless you think it’s ok for teenagers to commute across the city to go to high school.
55
@Truth -- the only other district that does this is D26 in Queens which has logistical issue (bordered by Long Island and the bay). MANY kids commute to get to specialized schools. Eleanor Roosevelt, a D2 school on the Upper East Side, excludes kids a few blocks way in Harlem but allows white from Tribeca a preference. Eleanor would be turning over in her grave.
10
@Truth As noted below, no comparable community school district within NYCDOE has such a preference. And of course it's "ok" for teenagers to commute--it's practically the expectation at the specialized schools that everyone so cherishes. The D2 resident preference is a one-off advantage for a community engaged in resource hoarding. Parents plow money into satellite non-profits that boost the school, which they could theoretically do anywhere, but which is much more effective when the spending power is multiplied by the artificial parent pool the preference has created.
10
I think it's cute that the authors of this article included quotes from someone most New Yorkers consider as completely irrelevant: Tucker Carlson.
Might as well ask the farmers of Mongolia what they thought about the NYC school chancellor.
31
Agreed. It is completely disingenuous. There are many conservatives in Queens and States Island who would be happy to tell the reporter what they think. You know, actual New Yorkers whose opinions matter.
37
How do you desegregate a school system that is only 15% white? And why is that?
58
@Vincent: Mandate what was mandated in Detroit. Each school has a demographic snapshot of the overall public school demographics.
Each of your public schools has a 15% white student body. How's that for liberal and progressive thinking?But don't worry, NYC will get a free pass.
Now everyone get back to hammering on the folks in flyover country.
10
@JP
NYC consists of five boroughs so it’s not as easy as another city. People don’t drive to drop their kids to school so integrating schools is not practical because parents will not put their 5 year olds on bus. Being a parent ( not white) of public school I can say with complete confidence that most parents don’t care what color are their kids classmates, all they care about a school is if it has a safe environment, academically good and how involved are the parents. Go to websites like insideschools.org and look at the school descriptions and you will get an idea.
Their is huge disparity in wealth in NYC and that divides the school not some racial discrimination like back in the 60’s. It’s easy to say that people need to make sacrifices for social good or whatever you call it but the truth is many will be willing to adjust in other ways but there is no parent that will risk their kids future.
36
@ROK:" but there is no parent that will risk their kids future."
I recall folks saying that in Detroit. It's now called a "dog whistle".
Now back to hammering on the folks in flyover country...
6
The simple reason, that no one wants to publicly admit, is Asian and white children do better because they are motivated and get meaningful support from family. They know success in life is a direct result of education received. So why would parents and children want to associate with schools that cater to the lowest common denominator, excuse failure, eschew discipline, are violence prone, and are administered by incompetent and unqualified “professionals “.
121
Your statement implies Asian and White students do equally well when compared to Black and Hispanic students
The data indicate that the academic achievement gap between Asians and Whites is enormous as well...so the a truly accurate statement would point out that it is OnLY Asians that value education
18
Had some of the comments here come from flyover country there would be accusations of "dog whistles" and "white flight" thrown all over the place.
17
Another big talk but do nothing bureaucrat under the Bill DeBlasio regime. I count the days down until both are gone.
42
How about this: If black and Latino (or “Latinx” or whatever) students want to go to Stuyvesant, maybe they should just try harder? You’d be amazed at what some hard work can do. Look at the Asian community - they are outperforming white students on the SHSAT because they are studying harder.
100
@Truth A single 57 question math and 57 question English multiple-choice exam CANNOT tell us a child's academic ability. No other school in the nation uses only high stakes testing for admissions.
And remember we're talking about 12 year old kids doing a single 2.5 hour test, just one day of their lives.
The mayor does not oppose a merit-based admissions system. He, and most psychometricians simply oppose a SINGLE TEST ONLY admissions system.
6
Not true. Chicago’s system is largely based on a single, high stakes test given in the 7th grade with some side reference to attendance. It’s a hellacious time for the kids. However, Chicago makes an effort to limit the number of white and Asian kids in the top tier schools by creating higher point cutoffs for kids from decent zip codes. And, by decent, I don’t mean just the city’s famous Gold Coast and Lincoln Park. The bureaucracy interprets decent neighborhood as anything other than the bad ones
15
Indeed. When substantial numbers of low income, non-native English speaking Asian students can pass the test, there is NO excuse for black and Hispanic numbers being so low.
The chancellor is right that’s there is a problem, but his ignorance and ideology seem to have blinded him to constructive solutions. He should aim his fury on the teachers, parents and community leaders of these unfortunate kids.
What a disgrace and a betrayal of these children. The old United Negro College Fund slogan still holds: a mind is a terrible thing to waste.
51
This is the school chancellor who doesn’t care about academic excellence, which he considers “white supremacy,” in his mad dash to desegregate the schools. Minority kids need excellent schools, not superficially integrated ones. And all but the most “woke” white parents won’t send their kids to poorly performing schools, leading to white flight. I give him another year before he’s shown the door.
67
Carranza thinks he can bring up blacks' and Hispanic kids' academic performance by bringing down Asians', rather than doing the hard work of figuring out why blacks and Hispanic kids' performance is lagging and addressing the root cause.
And, Carranza, no, it's not due to the "racist," "implicit bias" of white teachers or a "racist" curriculum. You are barking up the wrong tree and doing a true disservice to black and Hispanic kids by telling them that racism is the root cause of their under-performance.
133
Why can't everyone drop the PC attitude and just admit it's about family culture? It's not funding ($775B couldn't fix it). It's not white supremacy (or I guess no one told the low income Asians). It's not a remnant of slavery/Jim Crow (since Hispanics are also underperforming).
We're fresh out of reasons to blame society.
199
@Max
That statement would get you fired in Carranza’s Dept of Ed. I wish I were kidding. Check out their new “equity” training programs as covered by NY Post.
37
His obsession with race politics has hurt his agenda and the children of New York.
83
School districts with the biggest white-black gaps in test scores are: Berkeley, Calif., Chapel Hill, N.C., Evanston, Ill., Asheville, N.C., Washington, D.C., Atlanta, Ga., and University City, Mo.
That's according to Sean Reardon of Stanford’s Center for Education Policy Analysis.
These places are all intensely Democratic. How can that be?
40
The real issue is that black children commit violent acts at schools at grossly disproportionate rates. But it’s considered racist to point out facts, so this issue goes unaddressed.
82
Perhaps Mr Carranza has simply come to the realization that there just are not enough white and Asian kids to pass around to achieve some sort of bureaucratic ideal of racial balance.
45
@BD: In Detroit the mandated busing called for a similar demographic snapshot at every public school.
Paint the subway trains yellow and go!
2
Carranza is a cynical tool of deBlasio's failed presidential ambitions. Carranza's job is education, not desegregation and he failed miserably at his job.
62
I am an NYCDOE teacher.
It is absolutely, positively, and fundamentally racist to say that Black and Latino children need to be "integrated" with Whites and Asians in order to be successful. They do not.
What ALL STUDENTS need is unwavering support, teachers and schools that have a culture of learning and discipline, and parent involvement.
Spare me the wokeness, Mr. Carranza. When you come up with a plan to increase the test scores across the city that actually works, I will respect you. Until then, you are nothing but a talking head with a racial agenda that *does not* benefit children.
206
@Cookie Czar "in order to be successful.": You're presenting a strawman argument because no one has said that.
Integration is important because we're supposed to be a melting pot here in NYC right? Also, schools that are segregated also typically have equally unbalanced funding and resources.
4
Mr. Carranza in his capacity as chancellor of the San Francisco Unified School District left us with schools unchanged or worse off in quality. I found his public newspaper columns and periodic pronouncements incomprehensible, full of buzzwords, grammatical errors, and vague statements of intended good. I am an outsider, so I cannot pronounce anything definitive about this education boss, but my overwhelming impression of him was that he possessed a mediocre intellect and careerist ambitions. I was relieved when he moved on, but I wondered why any school district would hire this seemingly incompetent bloviator.
109
@voltairesmistress
It's the same story in Houston where residents were more than glad to see him go.
57
Well, perhaps it was his priority, and it CERTAINLY was The NYT’s priority, but maybe it wasn’t the priority of the parents and students of the NY public schools.
36
Given the actual numbers, "school by school diversity" is not possible. It's a perfect goal for someone who can't get anything done.
42
But he can sure wreck the handful of high performing schools in the process. I can’t wait to see how all the recently “desegregated” middle schools in Park Slope do on their statewide tests next year. Instead of a handful of great schools, I predict they will all be equal — in failing.
43
When they "desegregate" the NBA, then we can look to the "desegregating" the specialized high schools. Last time I checked, any student (purple, brown, yellow, orange) could sign up and take the test.
58
@Rick Sanchez We simply cannot assume that a 114 question multiple-choice test can measure a child's entire academic merit. This high-stakes test only approach for PUBLIC school admissions is so ancient that NYC is the ONLY school district in the nation which still does it.
The chancellor has proposed using student GPA and state standardized test scores in admissions. An approach that just about every psychometrician has agreed is more accurate.
3
@Rick Sanchez
When the NBA holds a 3 hour tryout in which a group of judges give scores to players and all assignments to teams are based on the scores during that 3 hour tryout (with all aspiring players who don't get among the 30 highest scores permanently banned as being unworthy of ever being in the NBA), then your analogy would make a lot more sense.
The last time I checked, the NBA was not forbidden to consider or know anything about how the players had done in college but must simply uses the score that judges gave during those 3 hours and be assigned players according to that score, with all but the top 30 players banned from the NBA permanently.
4
@SHSATSunset.org "The chancellor has proposed using student GPA and state standardized test scores in admissions." - not exactly. He also proposed to admit no more than 7% of students from each middle school therefore cutting off students with higher scores and GPAs if they come from high performing middle school.
And regarding NYC being the only district that does single test admission: show me any other district where specialized high schools produced the same number of Nobel prize winners or at least any significant number. Maybe the other districts should follow us, not the other way around.
21
His job is to improve the schools - and it is not happening
46
From the article:
"He sought to set himself apart from previous New York City schools chancellors and even his own boss, Mayor Bill de Blasio"
Which hardly explains, why he is, as shown in the photo, dragging around Chirlane McCray with him. I wouldn't expect anyone who would do that, to have a prayer of getting anything done.
30
The New York Times published the 1619 Project last weekend which extensively highlighted that roots of the longstanding inequities between African-American people and other people in this country, particularly white people. Clearly many people did not read the issue and/or have no understanding of our nation's culture and history. People who constantly harp on the success of Asian-American students fail to acknowledge the "yellow" ceiling that impacts that group. Think about the spaces/occupations where you don't see Asian-Americans. Why is that? Their "specializing" in test taking and STEM fields isn't very much different than African-Americans being over-represented in the NFL and NBA. It is a survival strategy born out of living within a society that historically and currently discriminates against the two groups. "Get in where you fit in."
It is the height of hypocrisy to pretend that all people have been treated the same or had the same opportunities in this country. The NYC public schools actively discriminated against Black and Latino children for decades. Puerto Rican children got their ESL lessons in a tiny closet at the elementary I went to in Brooklyn. Meanwhile, Asian-Americans are seen as a model minority and rewarded to a certain extent by those w/ power. Justifying school segregation (and housing segregation) sounds like justifying unequal outcomes and inequality for future generations.
11
Oh, I read the 1619 project. Great propaganda. Doesn’t provide a convincing argument for why someone living TODAY can’t avoid joining a gang and instead pick up a book and try to improve their life. Unless your goal is to destroy any sense of pride in America (no worse than any other nation that has existed, ever, and a heck of a lot better in many ways).
59
He failed in San Francisco. No surprise. What is it about our systems that allows some to continually fail up while those with practical experience who could do a good job are just as continually overlooked?
72
As a parent of a child in the NYC school system, it seems that “diversity” is now being used as a club & an excuse to send students to failing schools. If parents object, they are accused of being “against diversity” instead of addressing the problem of “underperforming” schools.
I would happily send my child to any school which will meet their needs academically & socially, however, when a school makes it clear they cannot and will not do anything more than warehousing them, parents have to ask questions about what is going on and why.
Currently students are being “matched” in middle and elementary school with an emphasis on “diversity” over any other considerations. Ultimately this will drive more students out of the public school system, leaving only students & families who have no resources attending public schools in NYC.
While I’m sure the chancellor & the mayor mean well, their efforts & their emphasis is misplaced.
97
@Alizabeth Towery: Folks in Detroit tried to make that claim when court ordered to institute a forced busing program. Each school was to have the same demographic snapshot. Busing went "both ways". The issues raised were labelled as dog whistles and racist.
But don't worry, NYC won't be subjected to such ruled. Now get back to hammering on working class folks in flyover country.
13
NYC needs more seats or more schools to serve those who score well on the specialized test. While integration is ideal we should not bus people all over the place but create schools and programs in underserved areas to better serve black and brown neighborhoods. NYU should provide more test prep to these areas as well as copy programs the Asian community uses that have helped better prepare their kids.
The difference is that parents in the Asian community pay for these programs because they want their kids to compete. They delay gratification to invest in their kids. Are programs like these not available in black and brown neighborhood? Why or why not?
35
@Deirdre A single math and English bubble test cannot measure a child's entire academic ability. And thus should not be used as the SOLE admissions criteria for a PUBLIC high school.
Every school district in the nation, except NYC gets this.
Why continue spending millions in test prep when we have mulitple-measures ( GPA + State standardized tests ) that more accurately identify successful students?
The tests require imagination and logic, skills that can only partly be taught -- and tight from the beginning. Not later.
Sorry.
23
@Deirdre
NYC should provide more test prep. Not NYU...that was a typo.
5
Minority students coming from families that can afford it send their kids to parochial schools.So the parents who could help public schools come up are not involved. Minority parents would love to send their children to public schools but wanting the best for their children they will not. The why out is not who you set next too in school but what kind of school are you sitting in.Middle Class minority parents are willing to make the sacrifices required.
29
The notion that integration will magically fix underperforming schools and students is just another progressive fantasy.
110
Part of the problem is the lack of support for students who are deficient in skills. At the high school level, this mean that many ELL's (English Language Learners--formerly known as ESL students) are given insufficient support. First, you have the insane NYS Regulation 154 that has taken instruction away from ELL students and also forced students who are learning English to sit in mainstream classes with little support. My sister is an ESL teacher in NYC and pushes into English classes in which newly arrived immigrant students are forced read the same materials (ie. Shakespeare) and do modified work. Carranza has done nothing to fight this insane rule....and provides little support for SIFE (students with interrupted formal education) students. Integration will be of little assistance to these students whose numbers are growing but whose support is lacking--especially from the upper levels of government.
21
Conservatives say that Carranza is “sowing racial division”? Let me translate that into reality:
There is entrenched hierarchy in our society, but it’s easy for the people at the top to be oblivious to its existence, because they don’t have to struggle against it. When those at the bottom speak out and resist, the people at the top are shocked and blame the resistors for “creating” division when what they’re really doing is making it harder for the people at the top to ignore the divisions that already exist.
Every time you see the phrase “sowing racial division”, replace it with the phrase “revealing racial hierarchy” and you’ll understand 1) that this is not a bad thing, and 2) why the complaint about sowing division is so offensive.
7
@Sarah D. Asians, who are the most diverse black, brown and other skin toned, lowest income and mostly recent immigrant group call Carranza racially divisive from the bottom of the bottom of the political, social and economic barrel. Asians are already a minority in the majority white general population and a minority again in the majority black and Hispanic NYC public school system. We have to fight twice to assert our rights. And unacceptable that European descendants DeBlasio and Carranza are unapologetic in targeting Asians.
58
The simple reality is that education begins before birth. A mother’s healthy diet, rich in vitamins, along with a smoke/drug/alcohol-free environment contribute to the future success of their offspring. Reducing stress during pregnancy is also important (fathers: step up and help take the load off.).
After birth, a child’s home environment is everything. A shocking number of New York City schoolchildren live in temporary housing. Reading to a child beginning at birth and using multi-syllable words and complex sentence structures all add to a child’s intellectual development.
Society cannot fully monitor nor control these aspects of a child’s development, but there are some things that can be done to help “level the playing field.”
1. Make providing the information above a requirement in all prenatal care.
2. Create an army of educational outreach specialists whose mission is to visit families in their homes to offer practical advice about finding places in the home or outside of it to study. These visits should be ongoing and consistent, offering individualized tutoring and family counseling as necessary.
3. Create safe and secure boarding schools for children who are living in dangerous environments. These could be located outside of the city if necessary.
These proposals are expensive. But the status quo is unacceptable and the demands of our 21st century economy mean that those with a substandard education will wind up costing society far more in the long run.
24
My mother was on chemotherapy, hormones, and suffering from an autoimmune disease when I was born. We both survived. My IQ, tested at age 8, was in the top percentile.
My grandmother, a high school drop out, smoked throughout each of her pregnancies. All three of her children are now lawyers (admittedly, with varying degrees of success in that profession). One has asthma but it’s never affected his ability to think or perform at work. Their moral character is also questionable, but my point is:
Where there’s a will, there’s a way. Where there is no will, there is no way.
Also, IQ is not fairly distributed among the population. Nature is not particularly equitable in this, or any other, regard.
20
The idea that a "lack of integration" is the great bogeyman is beyond silly. Asians are the poorest racial/ethnic group in NYC in terms of per capita income, yet schools that are overwhelmingly Asian are thriving. Additionally, even the NYC schools with the least funding still spend far more per student than many other nations that achieve much better results.
Furthermore, the race-blind standardized admissions test for the specialized high schools points us in the direction of the real problem - a lack of academic excellence. That falls both on De Blasio and Carranza to improve ALL schools, but also frankly on the black and Latino communities to ask themselves why poverty doesn't prevent Asian families from instilling a focus on education but seemingly does for them.
Outcomes will always be different when inputs (behaviors) are also different. In other words, are all races having the same number of children at the same ages, with the same percentage of single parents? Are all races equally likely to have ties to a gang? Are parents of all races equally likely to read to their kids to force their kids to do their homework before hanging out with friends, etc?
Schools can't undo poor parenting. Rather than focusing on the false bogeyman of "segregation," the city should put it's efforts behind, parenting classes, job training, birth control access, etc to try to improve the home environments of at risk children.
169
Welcome to The Carranza Experience. First, "I'm not getting the support I need." Second, "the School Board can't get it's act together." And lastly, "No one could succeed here."
He was here in Houston and QUIT with nothing accomplished!
67
Why is desegregation important? What is the benefit? 🤔 Money can be fairly distributed, teachers chosen by lottery, to improve all the schools. Desegregation is a handy, impossible goal for a school system which allows the teachers unions to control the educational system. Wrest control from the unions, assign teachers by lottery, and you will see improvement. Unless like white flight, teacher flight ensues. 😳.
14
Instant integration achieved by lowering standards, and accusing everyone else of being "racists" are the low hanging fruit that this mayor and his chancellor are trying to pick. It's not working. The two of them can't read the tea leaves. True liberals (not far left progressives) are, after a few deer in the headlights years of being confronted on race issues, finally helping the policy and option pendulum swing back from the far left to a more moderate center. Having been in enough education-related meetings where african american women (yes it always seems to be women) are telling all of the white parents that they just need to listen, that as whites they are automatically born racist, that white people have no right to participate in the conversations about race other than to simply sit and take it, recently I see a change. Well written articles and editorials, and smart, liberal people being willing to speak up. The other thing is that since the Trump election, leftist progressives seem to love to make the assumption that every setting, every institution, indeed every group of Americans, is a microcosm of the whole. Not true. New York City did not vote as the country did. Don't try to pretend that all Whites in New York are Trumpists!
60
Mr. Carranza's dogged persistence in pushing failed policies reminds me of this saying:
"The beatings will continue until morale improves!"
37
I would assume that the sensible dults in the room might be focussed on the modest fact that under 50% of students are proficient in math or english.
Only 47.4 percent of city students in grades 3 to 8 scored at proficient levels in English and 45.6 percent made the grade in math.
In math, 74.4 percent of Asians made the grade, followed by white students at 66.6, Hispanics at 33.2 and African Americans at 28.2.
And the powers that be are concerned about magnet schools and forced bussing?
49
The New York City public schools spent $24,109 per pupil in fiscal 2016, according to data released in May, 2018, by the U.S. Census Bureau.
That ranked New York City No. 1 in per pupil spending among the nation’s 100 largest public school districts, according to the Census Bureau, and was more than twice the nationwide per-pupil spending in public elementary and secondary schools, which was $11,762 in fiscal 2016.
Yet somehow any story about failing NYC's troubled public schools triggers calls for MORE MONEY!
More rum in bigger bottles! More pavement on wider roads! More taxpayer dollars for everything!
57
The real issue is fundings of schools. You would think that NYC of all places with its infinite opportunities and thriving businesses would be able to afford funding all schools so all students have quality educational opportunities.
After all the reason desegregation is even an issue is because we have ‘good’ schools and ‘bad’ schools. The fact is even if we weren’t segregated by race we’d still be segregated into rich and poor.
Until we can treat all people equally and given access to the same opportunities we are failing as a society.
2
The schools are funded. Special education classes eat up an enormous portion of the budget -- and unfortunately, much of it is wasted.
41
@NKM NYC, Baltimore, DC and lots of other cities have school funding per-pupil that would put most suburbs to shame. The results are still dismal. In fact, most states have programs that use state funding to top-up districts with low property tax revenue. Look up the Abbot schools for example. And the results are still dismal. Once day liberals are going to have to come up with another excuse, this one's losing its relevance quickly.
45
@NK
How many "special ed" students are sent to outrageously expensive private schools on the public dime? And why?
8
Having been raised in the Bronx during the 50's and 60's I attended all local schools. Elementary(half a block away), Middle School(three blocks away) and my zoned high school. I received a very good education that allowed me to go onto CCNY.
After I graduated I became a teacher and for 35 years worked in city schools. We certainly had issues in the schools but fundamentally all parents wanted their children nearby not bused miles away.
If the City really wanted all children to excel it would spend whatever it had to to make this a reality. As educators we all know what works. As teachers we all know what policies encourage learning and what policies do not. Any child not reading up to level must be given all the help and assistance needed to improve. Of course these ideas are not new and each time they have been raised in the past the City says that these solutions are too expensive. Really? I thought our children are our future. Instead we now want to create an "integration" system. I wonder how much that will cost?
32
The buck stops with Mayor deBlasio, and more fundamentally, mayoral control of the New York City Department of Education. Under mayoral control, one executive chooses the schools chancellor, whereas under the old Board of Education, the chancellor was chosen by a board comprised of representatives of the mayor and heads of each of the 5 boroughs.
The mayor is not an educator and his choices for schools chancellor shows his lack of educational background, as can be said of Mayor Bloomberg. Those of us within the system have seen this repeatedly.
He could have chosen a top educator like Diane Ravitch or Linda Darling-Hammond. Instead, this time around he brings in a transplant from Houston who displays little knowledge or appreciation for the history of the North-East, New York City and its far greater demographic diversity.
The problems of the New York City Department of Education are in many ways a symptom of larger socio-economic realities. The system should therefore not be targeted and scapegoated without addressing the larger issues.
Regarding school administration, it may be time to relinquish NYC Mayoral control and return to a Board of Education with greater numbers of stakeholders involved in selecting a schools chancellor.
42
@Constance Benson
Mayor control like charter schools was code for do nothing. As a proud graduate of the NYC public schools I received a superior education . I was fortunate to have caring certified teachers not Teach For America, and lived in a very involved community that supported the educational system.
We need to do away with Mayor control, the only results we have are children who are once again deprived of an education. Big promises and no results Bloomberg, Klein did nothing to enhance the education system with the uncoordinated closing, theories based on what? report grades etc. Vocational schools done away with. Paying parents to take their kids to the dentist. All of this nonsense so people wouldn't pay attention to the facts that the schools were falling apart under his watch,
A novel idea would be to have the school system administered by a educator, have every classroom teacher certified in their subject matter. Get the student teachers from Bank Street and Brooklyn College helping in the classrooms. Put money into the school system and get rid of this chancellor who has no educational plan but is destructive and arrogant.
The Mayor has grown tired of NYC and wants to move on. Please move on and let real educators take control of the system. We cant afford to have another generation of children receive and inferior education.
16
Here's one option: instead of trying to destroy existing merit-based schools by watering down admissions standards, why not create more of them? That is, if there are really that many qualified students who are not getting into these top schools. Otherwise, put the focus back where it belongs--on parents, communities, and job creation to improve what schools can't. You can't teach people who don't show up, much less give them advanced math.
93
@Oriflamme We support merit-based and rigorous admissions standards. The mayor does as well. We do NOT believe that a single 57 question math and 57 question English bubble test tells us a child's ENTIRE academic ability.
Highstakes testing also greatly undercounts our high-performing girls.
2
@SHSATSunset.org Then why hasn't the mayor proposed a better merit-based system? Why are he and Carranza defaulting to racial quotas and arbitrary cutoffs?
Also, what makes you believe that girls are worse at tests?
35
Here’s a thought. Why not make all schools as good as merit based schools and give all kids a good education. We don’t need winner and losers. We need to make all kids winners.
16
Mr. Carranza may or may not help New York schools but he left a flaming mess behind from his tenure as the head of the Houston Schools (his last job).
It is likely that the state will step in this year to administer the school system since many of the schools are failing their students miserably.
75
@gpickard his tenure in San Francisco was just as terrible and included eliminating 8th grade algebra and all accelerated middle-school math classes in the name of eliminating bias/evening the playing field...nevermind the results and the loss of opportunity for advanced students. How this guy managed to get the job he has now is a very interesting mystery.
113
Educators into new trends eliminate courses considered elitist -- or that reveal which kids just cannot excel. These courses aren't good for the numbers. But when kids do poorly, it's usually because they haven't been shown the by their parents to do well.
24
It seems very clear that this enormously powerful state has two extreme personalities. At once, the most progressive, AND the most conservative of populations. What we hear the most about is how liberal they, which is obviously not the case. A stateful of NIMBYs. What do you have to say for yourselves, Schumer, Deblasio, et al?
10
What does Schumer have to do with this? This is a city issue and completely the fault of DeBlasio and his chosen chancellor. It’s not a NIMBY issue, it’s an issue of maintaining the standards of the elite schools. What he needs to do is improve the performance of elementary,middle, and high schools throughout the city. Wrong approach seeking quick political results just as everyone predicated so he could use it for his presidential bid. Total failure.
28
@ChesBay This is a common misconception. NY is NOT progressive in education. NYC is the MOST segregated school district for Black kids in the entire NATION. NYC is the ONLY school district with a single high-stakes exam as the sole admissions criteria for public schools in the entire NATION. NYC has some of the widest achievement gap in education outcome in the entire NATION. That's considering every red or GOP state you can think of.
2
"The buffet of options offered to families includes charter schools, small schools, magnet schools and ones that have academic requirements for admission or gifted and talented programs."
The "buffet of options" doesn't include a good neighborhood school within walking distance of the students' homes. Shouldn't that be the priority?
79
Don’t water down schools that are already succeeding with with kids that are likely to fail. Instead, make the failing high schools better with better funding. Having a policy of affirmative action and purposefully weakening a school’s academic strength can only be worse for all.
68
@John Albert
John, I'm a teacher who has worked in several Title 1 (low income) schools. Money is not the answer. You can pour all the money you want into programs, but just know that kids succeed when their parents get involved and care about their education. Applies to all races and economic categories.
217
@John Albert No one is recommending schools should be "watered down". What we are asking is that PUBLIC schools should not use a SINGLE math/English bubble test as the SOLE admissions criteria.
No school in Santa Clara or anywhere else in the Nation does what we're doing in NYC.
The mayor's proposal simply replaces 1 high states test with student GPA and a universally sat NY State exam.
@SHSATSunset - “merely” is a big word. Some totally unprepared kid at a failing school who is close to the top of her class doesn’t deserve to get a spot at Stuyvesant over some kid who is just below the cutoff at a top middle school. How is that fair?
16
In terms of the specialized schools, why does everyone dance around the issue — that culturally Asian people are more focused on education than their black and Latino counterparts. Heard of Tiger Moms, anyone? The only way to solve this so-called problem is for black and Latino parents to be encouraged/educated as to the value of education and the value of pushing their children to excel. That includes pointing out that these schools — and the increased opportunities they provide — exist, something many minority parents apparently don’t know (though you can bet that virtually every Asian parent, most of who are poor, are aware of them). In addition, constantly making excuses for the poor performance of certain groups leads to the perception that they are incapable intellectually, which is traveling into uncomfortable territory.
257
@Matthew Dowling We are using a single 114 question math and English high-stakes bubble test that's NOT fully taught in public schools as the SOLE admissions criteria of these schools. How does every dance around the fact that this practice is ridiculously outdated in 2019?
2
The questions do not have to be "taught." They cannot be taught.
The kids who take the test have to use their intellect to figure out the answers. That's what's good about the test.
83
@B. The SHSAT exam is not an IQ test. It doesn't tell you how "smart" a child is. It's also above grade level, that's why students spend $1000s in private prep to succeed.
It's really an academic competition. Students take a 114 bubble test, once then the top 5000 students get offers, regardless of their performance.
4
The heart of the problem is the anti-intellectual attitude of the American people.
44
The heart of the problem is the anti-intellectual attitude of the American people.
14
In the 1960s I did some of the earliest integration research on busing black children from urban public schools to elite white suburban schools. While stresses on the black kids (travel time, overt racism, increased academic demands) were substantial, much worse was that urban schools had not at all prepared their students to compete at the same grade levels as their suburban peers.
School integration (“diversity”) is a worthy goal but:
1. Many blacks find that the assumption that mixing black kids with white kids will somehow improve the black kids to be insulting.
2. Mixing students of very different academic abilities will force some teachers in the high-performing schools to teach down to the lowest common denominators, short-changing the high performers.
3. Given the large performance gaps between the high- and low-performing schools, the former will need to provide major counseling and tutoring services to help the incoming students try to catch up with the higher-performing students and help under-prepared students cope with the stresses of a more demanding academic environment.
4. The parents of many students who are forced to attend low-performing schools will consider switching to private schools or relocating to the suburbs, thus reducing even further the number of white students in the school system.
The answer is not to try to spread the relatively small numbers urban white students proportionally across all urban schools, but to improve ALL urban schools.
119
@Mon Ray
From my understanding re; point 1, the reasoning has nothing to do with the children as much as their parents at least if you are talking about transferring a white kid to a school that has mostly POC(people of color).
It goes something like this.
You transfer a white kid to a school that is majority POC. The parents, wanting the best for their child, agitates like crazy to get improvements for the school. The improvements help not only the kid the parents were trying to help but also all of the other kids in the school.
I think it would be better to just skip the anguish and improve the school but that's just me.
9
Shame on Mr. Carranza for playing the race card! The only priority for the overpaid school chancellor should be on improving educational outcomes. This means more than increasing the graduation rate if those who graduate come out functionally illiterate.
As a life-long New Yorker who is a product of the NYC Public Schools and the City University, there were always some who did very well, some average and some who did poorly. Making everyone "above average" would better serve the fictional Lake Woebegon and only serves to pretend that there is no distribution of capacities and abilities.
The problem now is that schools are expected to educate everyone and this something they have never done.
139
@SR
I would expect a surgeon to have gone to school ,become a medical doctor before they operate on me. charter schools dont have certified teachers and many public schools have teachers teaching out of their subject expertise to save money.
When we are always counting pennies how in the world do we think these students can learn when there instructors dont even know the subject matter?
6
@Tony
Good point but I have trouble seeing how it relates to my post. Most instructors are not exceptional nor are most students. The real world is composed of a range of abilities. By the time people get to be surgeons, hopefully, they will have made it through a few cuts. While I am not a fan of charter schools at all, do we have any data that teacher certification leads to better educational outcomes?
10
In my experience, teachers with degrees in education are not as effective as teachers with majors in the subjects they teach.
Maybe for first and second grade -- but even so, teachers need to be readers (and not just readers of "how to teach" manuals) who actively know science and history and aren't just a step ahead of their not-yet educated little charges.
A Masters degree is a good thing; but please, not in education.
(Special ed. and audiology I'll give you.)
26
Please just worry about teaching the children and not treating schools as a social experiment, to fit some type of political agenda.
143
Mr. Carranza and Mayor De Blasio thought the specialized high schools would be a soft target, where they could score an easy early victory in order to build credibility. They thought this because their victims were non-English- speaking immigrant families who couldn't fight back. A cynical strategy that almost worked.
229
@James Ribe The SHSAT exam that the mayor opposes is a single 57 math and 57 English bubble test used as the SOLE measure of admissions for NYC PUBLIC schools. No other city, include Los Angeles does this. And the mayor's crazy notion was that we could use State standardized tests that are universally sat, together with student GPA ( good enough for every college ) to access student ability.
1
@SHSATSunset.org We New Yorkers know an thinly veiled racial quota when we see one. The SHSAT was partly implemented to prevent anti-Jewish quotas at the specialized high schools as the Ivies like Columbia were known for discriminating against Jews from the 1930s-1960s. Now they are a bulwark against anti-Asian racial quotas.
The mayor's notion was and still is to replace the admissions by the SHSAT with a combined metric of middle school GPA (which has been found to exhibit high grade inflation in underserved communities where 90+% of certain schools are passing their math classes while only 3% of passing state math exams) and state exam scores.
The bill that failed allowed any future Chancellor to determine the weighting between GPA and state exams with avenues to add additional subjective criteria like interviews and recommendations. A recipe for inviting manipulation and nepotism into the admissions process.
My response to your inane argument that "no other city does this" is "no other country has landed people on the Moon" either. NYC should be proud of having elite high schools who refuse to discriminate against Asian students.
71
Los Angeles doesn't have a school like Stuyvesant.
29
Mr. Carranza's focus on race perpetuates racism and his efforts to dilute standards represent "regression to the mean." Help struggling schools by addressing the poverty, incarceration, etc. that make it difficult for students to do well in school not by lowering standards or forcing people to go to particular schools as some soft racism social engineering project.
101
Carranza focuses on integration for one reason: he's given up on increasing academic performance. He has the power to shuffle students around, creating disruption in their lives just to tinker with the racial demographics, but that does nothing for academic performance. Why is he focusing his attention on messing with the few schools in the city that are succeeding, while ignoring the vast majority that are failing?
He's a racist and an ideologue who cares more about the colors of his students' skins than whether or not they're actually learning anything.
282
@KM These "few schools" use a single 114 question math and English multiple-choice test as the SOLE measure of a child's academic potential. We know this is wrong. We know this undercounts some demographics ( including girls ). And we have all the data required to fix this.
NO ONE is asking for standards to be lowered, rather that we improve the METHOD of measuring academic ability.
7
@SHSATSunset.org Carranza's alternative proposal of taking the top 10% from every middle school, no matter what their performance is, would undoubtedly have the effect of lowering standards. So isn't lower standards precisely what the proponents of this measure are asking for?
49
@sc This is false. Please read the proposal before commenting.
His proposal is to, ( 1 ) take the top 7% of each school by GPA, but only if that student ( 2 ) is also in the top 25% of NYC students by standardized state scores.
That student has to meet BOTH criteria. This method has been model to actually INCREASE GPA performance in specialized high school. That's what the actual data says.
5
Carranza's and De Blasio's misguided attempts to desegregate NYC's schools by destroying the few good public schools that NYC has will destroy the city. They seem to forget that you can't force middle-class/upper-middle class white and Asian parents to send their kids to certain schools. Sure, the schools may be "integrated" for a while, but this is while the MC/UMC parents are getting their ducks in a row. Those with means will send their kids to privates; others will flee to the suburbs.
Watch then the property values drop, the tax base diminish and NYC go on its way to Detroit. You think I'm exaggerating, but don't underestimate what middle-class parents will do to ensure a good education for their kids and the spiral effect similar to a bank run when people think their kids' livelihood is at risk.
124
@Alison Replacing a single math and English bubble test as the SOLE admissions criteria will not "destroy" our schools. You have no proof of that.
But what we DO have proof of is that this has been an argument against desegregation efforts since the 50's.
And what we also have proof of is that the ENTIRE psychometric testing scientific community agrees that GPA plus more universally sat exams ( as the mayor proposes ) is very more effective at selecting our best performing students.
2
This is misguided. The majority of asian students attending the magnate schools are low income. It is just that they value education more than others. DeBlasio just wanted a win for his failed presidential bid.
50
SHSAT, you're very engaged in the subject, but facts are not on your side, I'm afraid.
37
Just like the mayor and the chancellor were quick to tout the successes of Pre-K, the bulk of the academic focus should be on the lower grades PK-3 across the city. Let that stream up over the years ahead.
23
Seems the bureaucracy is “reforming” the Chancellor, rather than the other way around.
He and De Blasio need to stick to and keep pushing on their plan for the specialized schools.
If poor kids top their class at lousy schools, why should they be punished that their schools didn’t give them the preparation that highly tutored others got? They should be rewarded for doing the very best with the very little they were given by the City and its schools. That includes admission to selective schools (where if they are nurtured, their work ethic will allow them to eventually excel again).
While $23mm sounds like a lot for diversity training, given that intentional and unintentional biases can significantly affect how a teacher interacts with a student, if the program is good, it is money well spent.
Still, if after 1 year, the Chancellor’s main claim is that he’s a “realist,” it may be the job is too big for him. There is very little he has done to date that creates a foundation to continue to build on. What the NYT describes, is not a “plan,” but rather scattershot steps that seem to have no broad or coherent vision behind them.
8
@AJ Their plan for the specialized schools would destroy them as elite centers of learning. The exam is by far the most objective sorting mechanism that exists, and if kids aren't making the cut on the exam then they don't belong in those schools.
If you want to do black and hispanic kids a favor, then improve their early education so they can pass the exam on their own merits. Don't be lazy and implement racial quotas. They will know they don't belong, and so will all the other kids.
131
@KM The idea that using more than a single high-stakes bubble test for our ENTIRE admissions criteria would "destroy" our schools is ridiculous. And is a very old racist argument.
Not a single psychometric testing authority disagrees with the mayor's plan to replace the single high-stakes multiple-choice exam with student GPA and standardized test scores.
2
@KM nearly all elite institutions consider factors other than test scores, including factors that promote diversity. Has this "destroyed" Harvard and Yale?
1
"Mr. de Blasio canceled a $773 million school improvement program, known as Renewal, after it was unable to turn around many long-struggling schools, "
A year later, what are the lessons learned from this initiative and what changes have been applied to not repeat the same results? Seems to me that the policies should be to improve one elementary school, one middle school, and one high school in each district at a time, then after the resulting improvement, the next set of schools in each neighborhood.
15
The focus needs to be on high quality education, extra curricular programs, and social emotional skills for students. Focusing on desegregation is totally not the right focus especially with 14% white only.
Mr. Carranza should invest the money in developing the right solution by making students part of the solution.
Sadly to say that I see many leaders are disconnected and focus on the wrong solution.
Ask all your stakeholders to provide practical solutions.
38
Good story. I found myself increasingly skeptical about Carranza during the ongoing debate over the specialized schools, as he failed over and over to engage the immigrant community whose children make up a large proportion of the students in those schools.
I found myself wondering if he regarded those schools as easy targets because unlike the G&T population--heavily white and asian--or the District 2 population, which is also disproportionately white, the specialized high school students were from families with fewer resources to fight back.
At the same time, one rarely heard Carranza discuss academic excellence aside from with regard to the specialized high schools. Consequently, he began to seem a one-trick pony.
To be clear, I think the lack of black and Latino students at the specialized high schools and the other elite high schools has been a scandal for a long time. But the solutions are complex and won't be found until some chancellor focuses with laser intensity on the education that comes earlier in life, especially middle school. Carranza has alienated too many stakeholders at this point; I doubt he has the resources to even start the conversation. And I don't think he wants to.
132
@aging New Yorker I have a theory that DeBlasio and Carranza thought that they could have a win/win situation by increasing diversity in the specialized high schools and also pushing high achieving Asian students back into their neighborhood high schools which would improve the test scores, grad rates, etc. at those high schools. It makes some sense as a policy but seems unfair to individual students.
15
@Jennifer
It makes no sense as a policy. The Specialized High Schools are for the brightest, most academically ambitious students. There have been more Black and Latinx students in past years. The problem is K-8 education.
19
"The city could change selective admissions policies that tend to exclude black and Hispanic students from the highest-performing schools." Bad idea... The the small handful of elite schools like the Bronx High School of Science should admit solely on the basis of standard exam performance. Everyone in this world should have equal rights and opportunities but when it comes to intelligence and potential, we are not all created equal. Exceptionally bright students need the highest level of challenge and rigor, and the average student will fail to keep up and will hold the other students back.
167
@Mike F. Agree. Unfortunately the differences in academic performance can largely be explained by The Bell Curve. The real challenge is developing an educational system and policies that recognize general differences among different groups and maximizes benefits to each group by taking into account these differences.
22
@Alison The Bell Curve? GTFOH. Black and Hispanic students comprised over 50% of the student body of Brooklyn Technical High School, a specialized high school, in the 1980s when there were gifted and honors classes in almost every middle school in the city.
Unfortunately, by the 1990s, the de-tracking movement and "reformers" dismantled most of the accelerated academic programs in most of the neighborhoods that are predominantly black and Latino like Bedford-Stuyvesant.
We must return to tracking and bring accelerated academic opportunities back to every public school in NYC so our brightest children, no matter what race are given the opportunity to excel and fulfill their maximum potential. That is the progressive and enlightened thing to do, to acknowledge that the de-tracking movement was a failure.
67
@Nicholas If your analysis was correct, Black students would have also have had significant representation at Stuyvesant as well. They never did.
What was more likely is that Brooklyn Tech, with Brooklyn crime statistics of the late 80s and 90s was seen as offlimits to many students who compete for it now.
As soon as getrification occurred then Black students were pushed out due to the competitiive, zero-sum nature of the single high-stakes admissions system.
12
Do the math: Only about 14.3% of NYC public school students are white. Thus, if all white students were allocated equally across all schools, each school would all be about 14.3% white; i.e., white students would be a very small minority in each school.
There just aren't enough white students in the system to provide meaningful integration.
New York City's overall population is highly segregated by neighborhood, and those parents (mostly white) who can afford it live in neighborhoods where the schools are mostly white or send their kids to private schools. If "balanced" NYC public schools were required so that all had 14.3% white students there would be a mass movement of white families out of the city or to enroll their children in private schools. (White flight is not new.)
Obvious--though untenable--solutions are to bus more white students into mostly-non-white NYC schools from mostly white suburban schools (never gonna happen); or to bus hundreds of thousands of non-white students from NYC out to the mostly white suburban schools (not enough schools to hold all these students; never gonna happen in any case).
It was insulting to educators when Bloomberg appointed an antitrust lawyer Chancellor of NYC Schools, but he hit the nail on the head: “After all, ... our goal was to create more good schools, not to destabilize those that were doing well.”
The answer, Messrs. Carranza and de Blasio, is to improve all NYC schools, which will take money--and leadership.
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@Mon Ray
Spot-on Mon Ray. If White and Asian kids aren't attending public schools, integration is not achievable. Furthermore, even if NYC paid for every Black and Brown kid to attend private schools, I suspect that Whites and Asians would flee to super-private schools.
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@Mon Ray
Yes. This really is one of the fundamental issues. The neighborhoods--like the larger park slope area and the upper west side- that actually have some diversity in their populations can work on meaningful integration plans. But generally speaking our city school system is overwhelmingly black and brown and it's not clear what is meant by desegregation in this larger demographic context.
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@Mon Ray
Having been woke by the 1619 Project, it is clear that slavery has caused the lack of white students.
Ergo, slavery has caused this failure to desegregate.
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