By: Cynthia Saltzenflaum
New York City’s schools are “as segregated as the schools of Mississippi and Alabama,” according to a new report.
The solution, it adds, is redistricting and the elimination of admission factors such as grades and attendance. In addition, gifted-and-talented programs should be eliminated because they are – allegedly — racially and economically slanted.
“The City’s new school choice model allowed families to choose schools they perceived as the best for their children, instead of having them automatically enrolled into their neighborhood middle and high schools,” leading the facilities to be “highly segregated,” the School Diversity Advisory Group said in its report.
In 10 years, it added, “every school should be representative of the city as a whole. The DOE should redraft district lines to support the long-term goal of having all schools reflect the city population.”
The report, prepared by something called the School Diversity Advisory Group, continued, “Simply put, there are better ways to educate advanced learners than most of the current ‘Screened’ and Gifted and Talented programs, which segregate students by race and socioeconomic status. Today they have become proxies for separating students who can and should have opportunities to learn together.
“The [panel] also acknowledges the urgency of this issue, as the application process to selective enrollment schools begins in the fall, and catalyzes an admissions process which in turn segregates city students.”
Black and Latino students “are underrepresented while Asian and White students are overrepresented in kindergarten G&T programs,” the report notes. Current programs “segregate students by race, class, abilities and language and perpetuate stereotypes about student potential and achievement,” the report contends. “This must change and it must change with deliberate action and clear-eyed commitment to excellent schools.”
Exclusionary admissions models “often unfairly sort students by their resources rather than interests and opportunities for developing their interests and abilities,” the report adds.
“We also want to ensure that the New York City public schools continue to attract students from across the socioeconomic spectrum. If New York City loses students to private schools or families move to other locations, it will become even more difficult to create high-quality integrated schools that serve the interests of all students.”
“Integrated classrooms yield higher academic outcomes, stronger critical thinking skills and increased creativity,” the report states. “All students in integrated classrooms demonstrate reduced implicit biases and enhanced social-emotional well-being.”
While many schools have “high graduation rates and/or high standardized test scores, these statistics are not necessarily reflective of the quality of the school since many of these schools are populated by students who are considered ‘high achieving,’ ” the report notes.
