NYC moves away from de Blasio’s unfair high-school-admission scheme — but not far enough

Colleges Chancellor David Banks' new new highschool admissions standards rewards excellence and excessive achievement.
Gregory P. Mango for NY Submit

Kudos to Colleges Chancellor David Banks for telling children and fogeys: “We do imagine in excessive requirements.” Good grades and onerous work will matter once more underneath town’s new highschool admission course of. Too unhealthy he didn’t go far sufficient.

The revised system places a couple of fifth of scholars citywide into the highest tier that will get “first entry” to screened excessive faculties: Eighth-graders (with a GPA of 90 or above) who place within the high 15% of their center college or the highest 15% citywide. As Banks notes, this rewards “those that work onerous academically and make it to the highest of their center college class.”

Final 12 months’s high tier included 60% of Eighth-graders; the ensuing lottery then positioned far too many children in faculties that didn’t match their skills — condemning far too many excessive achievers to colleges that may’t problem them.

However one holdover from the de Blasio battle on excellence stays: Colleges can’t use scores on state proficiency exams as one criterion for admissions. Why not, Mr. Chancellor?

The revised system places a couple of fifth of scholars citywide into the highest tier that will get “first entry” to screened excessive faculties.

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We now have no downside with boosting “entry to communities who've traditionally been locked out of screened faculties,” as Banks says his system does — supplied it has safeguards towards wholesale grade inflation on the middle-school degree.

That's, as is the brand new system penalizes children whose center faculties set increased expectations. If he’s critical about excellence, Banks wants to provide selective faculties some technique to handle such points. In any other case, he’s nonetheless guaranteeing grim instances of mismatch.

However at the very least this streamlined admissions course of is easy and simple to grasp, with sooner timelines for open homes, purposes, and admission provides. It additionally extends the wait-lists interval into mid-September to make sure that any open seats get crammed by college students wanting to enroll.

The plan additionally ends the de Blasio ban on screened middle-school admissions: It’s as much as the superintendents of every of town’s 32 college districts to work with middle-school leaders and the group to plot admission standards for such applications. Mother and father can at the very least hope that, for instance, a performing-arts center college can display screen for performing-arts aptitude.

The final mayor sabotaged instructional excellence on his means out the door. Now the brand new chancellor has taken one step again towards true equity. Simply take yet another, sir, and also you’ll have it proper.