Starting today, thousands of New York City students will find out where they’ll be going for middle school — setting off a sorting process that parents say leads to school segregation.
Unlike elementary schools, many middle schools in New York City don’t have set attendance zones based on a student’s address, and families have to apply to get in. Some middle schools serve as a funnel to top high schools, but those “feeder” schools receive mountains of applications for a limited number of spots.
With countless hours of research plus school visits, high-stakes student interviews and even tests, many parents find the process too stressful for elementary school-aged students. But some say there’s an even bigger problem with the application process: It’s leading to racial, economic and academic segregation. Diverse, multicultural New York City has one of the most segregated school districts in the country.
In two local school districts, parents are pushing for changes to the application process to make it more fair.
In District 2 — which includes much of Lower Manhattan, Chinatown and the Upper East Side — two parents on the local Community Education Council want to make sure their middle schools include students at a range of academic levels. That will lead to more racial and economic integration, say Shino Tanikawa and Robin Broshi.
“There’s a lot more to schools than academic achievement,” Tanikawa recently told Chalkbeat. “I want parents to start thinking about what else makes a good education.”
Academic segregation is not just a middle school problem: Chalkbeat has chronicled the extreme academic sorting that goes on in New York City high schools.
In District 15, which includes Park Slope and Sunset Park in Brooklyn, a group of parents are also lobbying for changes to middle school admissions. City Councilman Brad Lander, who has taken a leading role on addressing school segregation, recently suggested the district should require all middle schools to set aside a certain percentage of seats for low-income students.
Mayor Bill de Blasio and the city Department of Education have said they are working on a larger-scale integration plan, expected to be released by June. Advocates say the process of creating that plan has been far too private — which could hurt its chances of success.