A Missed Opportunity to Plan For Equity: A Response to High School and Middle School Admissions Changes in NYC

PRESS NYC affirms eliminating middle school admissions screens and demands more visionary solutions moving forward.

PRESS NYC, Parents for Responsive, Equitable, Safe Schools, is a parent collective who hold the education press and the NYC mayor accountable. We lead on CECs, build learning communities with students, write anti-racist curriculum, have expertise in the challenges of navigating the system for students with disabilities, and demand that parents are able to engage with the DOE in their language. We expect the DOE to be responsive to the communities it serves, centered on equity, & grounded in health & safety.

The Department of Education has announced that:

• for the upcoming school year, and possibly beyond, all middle school admissions screens will be eliminated.
• all geographic priority in high school admissions will be eliminated, including in District 2.
• individual high schools will be allowed to maintain their screening policies, using grades from 6th and the beginning of 7th grades.

Thus far, no information has been released regarding admissions testing for Gifted & Talented.

In response, PRESS NYC:

• supports the DOE’s elimination of screens for middle school admission for the current admissions cycle, and advocates for ending them permanently.
• urges the DOE to adopt an admissions model similar to D15, pegged to district averages of students living in poverty. Or to use a transparent parent friendly algorithm like the one put forward in District 1.
• applauds removing geographic priority for high school admission as a small step toward equitable enrollment, but recognizes that this action alone will not accomplish equitable enrollment.
• urges the DOE to consider an admissions mechanism that will create diverse student populations in each high school (intentionally building upon the Ed-Opt method).
• urges the DOE to suspend G&T testing and the SHSAT because there is no equitable way to administer tests for G&T or SHSAT without jeopardizing health and safety of our students and educators, and given that students and families have been dealing with pandemic circumstances beyond their control that have barred them from an equitable education.

“The admissions plan as announced can only achieve the goals of equitable, integrated, culturally responsive and sustaining schools if followed by subsequent announcements of policies that enable these changes to succeed.” — Yuli Hsu, 1st VP Community Education Council 14, Member of PRESS NYC

“More diverse schools on paper, which might be the result of these admissions changes, may not equal more diverse classrooms if de-tracking is not a focus. Unless each school has a diversity equity and inclusion committee of some kind, there will be no collaborative body working to bring these ideas alive in the school. Parents might have new opportunities to apply to schools that might be a great match for their children or adolescents but they might not get the support they need to learn about these schools.” — Naomi Peña, President of Community Education Council 1, member of PRESS NYC

“School communities often make up for the lack of vision and planning in plans like the ones being unveiled today, but we want a whole school system that creates the conditions for student centered, humanity driven anti racist practices in every classroom, across all grades. What we often see when seemingly revolutionary policy is handed down is how privileged swaths of parents and eager to please administrators are able to find loopholes in the language and practice of policy that continues to uphold the status quo. We won’t allow for this to be heralded as a success when the SHSAT is still being administered and G&T remains in tact despite the pandemic proving once again that New York City’s children remain separate and unequal.” — Tajh Sutton, President Community Education Council 14, member of PRESS NYC

“The pandemic is forcing changes that de Blasio should have made on day 1. Now that they are beginning to be made, will there be the needed social emotional supports, like advisories, once they are in these schools? Will there be professional development in differentiation? Will they make sure all parents can access virtual tours in their languages?” — Liz Rosenberg, member of PRESS NYC, District 15 parent.

“Standardized tests, including the test for the G&T and SHSAT, are only a measure of access and privilege. It perpetuates segregation and a caste system in our schools. It would be irresponsible to just lift screens without putting in place priority measures for marginalized and minoritized students. These policies need to be centered on racial justice, not just because of COVID19, but because our students deserve integrated, fully funded, equitable schools.” — Kaliris Y. Salas-Ramirez, PhD, president of Community Education Council 4, member of PRESS NYC

Eliminating Middle School Admissions Screens

PRESS NYC applauds the NYC Department of Education for the long-overdue elimination of screens for middle school admission for the current cycle, and we advocate for making this policy change permanent. This is a first step toward a more equitable middle school admissions process. It has always been unjustifiable to base admissions for ten-year-olds on criteria like grades, test scores, or attendance that are overdetermined by factors outside a child’s control, and given the impact of COVID-19, using such screens would be unconscionable.

We know that historically marginalized students have suffered most during the pandemic. Many have chosen fully remote learning due to health concerns. Too many still lack devices and reliable internet connections 9 months into pandemic schooling. Over a hundred thousand students are living in temporary housing. Many children live in fear of their caregivers getting sick or losing financial stability, and many have already experienced these realities. The DOE is on the right side of history in offering historically marginalized students equitable access to middle schools of their choice.

However, if this policy changes admissions only, it will fail. If the DOE is committed to creating diverse and integrated schools, they must enact an admissions process aligned with the process in District 15: every middle school should have a student population that reflects its district. We urge the DOE to implement and improve upon the District 15 process citywide, using the district averages for students living in poverty, with an eventual eye to adjusting district lines to ensure equity citywide.

Removing District Priority in High School Admissions

We applaud the DOE for removing geographic priority, as recommended by the School Diversity Advisory Group. For too long, district priority in admissions has enabled opportunity hoarding and has fueled school segregation.

However, simply removing geographic priorities, especially D2, will not automatically result in equitable access for historically marginalized students, nor will it ensure culturally responsive or sustaining learning environments for all students. Although the removal of screens creates opportunities for increased access, especially for low- income and students of color, it does not guarantee integration. In order to realize our vision of equitable, integrated, culturally responsive and sustaining schools, we must interrupt systemic, wide-ranging patterns and implement mechanisms (building on Ed-Opt) that intentionally promote diversity and anti-racism, including the “5 R’s of Real Integration” developed by IntegrateNYC.

Removing this single geographic screen is an important first step, but expecting schools to desegregate themselves based on access alone has never proven effective. This must be accompanied by a commitment by the DOE to facilitate active outreach to all middle schools in order to ensure the high school applicant pool reflects the diversity of the city. And to make this desegregation effort sustainable, it must be accompanied by a commitment to create a culturally competent and representative school environment.

We are frustrated that the DOE has missed an opportunity for truly transformative change by failing to remove all academic screening for high schools, even as a temporary measure. The lack of valid metrics during the pandemic, when already-existing inequities were magnified, highlights the baselessness of screening policies in general. DOE’s own analysis from spring 2020 shows that 1 in 6 seventh graders perform at least one level worse on 6th grade tests. More disconcerting was their analysis showing both 4th graders and 7th graders perform worse on marking period grades than on final grades. Given these takeaways, we recommend removing academic screening for high schools at least for this admissions cycle.

Gifted & Talented

Research is clear: testing 4-year-olds is not meaningful. Nothing in either science or educational practices justifies this, and it is unsafe to conduct in-person testing during the COVID-19 pandemic. We demand that G&T testing be suspended for this year and that the city move toward a schoolwide enrichment model and Universal Design for Learning immediately.

SHSAT

Although the state controls the single-test admissions criterion for 3 of the city’s specialized high schools, we continue to demand an end to this egregiously inequitable policy, which the city could implement for the remaining SHS’s right away. “The existing system is championed by those who have figured out how to win at this game, with the rules as they are, and who are willing to say or do anything to protect the status quo, no matter the harm to children in all communities. We must reject this, and demand an equitable education for all of our children,” as we wrote in our recent opinion piece.

“We believe that every child — regardless of their parents’ admissions savvy, their test prep regimen, or any other factor — deserves high quality public schools, simply for being a young human to whom we owe our best. Instead of more “specialized” schools, let’s instead make every high school spectacular. Let’s provide the resources for deep, meaningful learning. Let’s do away with scarcity-by-design. All students deserve a public education that cultivates empathy, critical thinking, and cultural competency, and ensures young people become the community-oriented, engaged citizens needed for our democracy to flourish.”

We Continue to Demand:

Equity of Opportunity, Access, & Resources:

• Unscreen our schools
• Enact police-free schools
• Focus resources where there is highest need

5 Rs of Real Integration:

• Resources
• Race & Enrollment
• Relationships
• Restorative Justice
• Representation

Culturally Responsive & Sustaining, Healing-Centered, Liberatory Schools

Whose Quality Goes Beyond Reputation & Test Scores to Meaningful Criteria:

• Teachers & Leadership
• School Culture
• Resources
• Academic Learning
• Community & Wellbeing

PRESS NYC media contact: Liz Rosenberg, parents.PRESS.nyc@gmail.com

We are part of a broad coalition of citywide organizations representing stakeholders in public education who recognize the importance of this long-overdue step toward removing discriminatory admissions screens, but will continue to push for resource equity, real integration, and more meaningful definitions of school quality.