The New York City Department of Education (DOE) announced new high school admissions policy changes for academic screened schools in late January. There was no engagement with school communities or parent leaders on this policy.  Upon review of the screening criteria, it is readily apparent that the DOE constructed a fancy lottery masquerading as a screen designed to mislead parents into thinking merit remains the guiding standard .

In each of the 4 core subjects, the student’s best grade from the past year and a half are converted to scores that place them in 4 groups. The top tier (350-400 points) )is a very large "bucket" and consists of students who received subject grades as high as 100 and as low as 70s. These are not average grades; these are the best grades. For in-demand schools, the DOE assigned lottery number would be the primary determinant of whether a student receives an offer.

The DOE’s Chief Enrollment Officer Sarah Kleinhandler admitted at a public meeting on Feb 15 that the large grade range for the top "bucket" was to boost enrollment for Black and Brown students, as opposed to rewarding performance. Per her remarks, based on DOE's modeling, access for Black and Brown students to screened high schools went up by 13%. This penalizes students with stronger academic performance to give an advantage based on racial preference. Dropping the academic bar in a heavily majority minority city signals a deeper issue - the DOE is concealing lapses in educating students consistently rather than correcting the real issue which is that ALL students need better schools and curriculum to begin with.

We demand that the NYC DOE:

• Simply average the 4 subject grades and straight rank them top to bottom (like was done in most previous years) instead of a complex point system;
• Adjust the top tier lottery “bucket” so the grade band is narrower such as 95-100, 90-95;
• Permit all individual schools to add supplemental screens (not just Consortium schools), ex. Essays, writing samples, interviews, etc.;
• Provide lottery numbers to all parents via MySchools BEFORE the application closes;
• Provide real parent engagement for the 2023-24 school year for the admissions process.