How crazy is NYC's new "no screened middle schools" approach? I think it's hard for ppl outside system to really get it so I want to try to break down a small part of it, the part I know. NYC has "citywide" gifted&talented schools, 5 of them in total. One is K-12, four are K-8.
Unlike g&t classes *inside* other schools, these are stand-alone schools. They operate a full year ahead of the regular school curriculum of same grade. One of my kids goes to one of these schools. My other 2 kids are also smart but my daughter is in her own league.
She finishes a book a day, sometimes two. She's teaching herself French in her spare time. But more than any of the stuff she does outside of school, she excels in school, at her already insanely hard, competitive, school she often says it's easy.
Kids who apply to, and get in, to her school for Middle School are also very smart (and driven, competitive & all the other things you need to be for these kinds of pressure-cooker schools that are VERY MUCH not for everyone). But they come into 6th grade already a year behind.
Just think about that for a sec. When the schools used screens (test scores, grades, etc) kids entering in Middle School already found catching up to kids who have been one full school yr ahead curriculum-wise to be hard. Now it will be RANDOM. It's setting kids up for failure.
There is so much wrong with the random lottery for school process but it's particularly wrong to stick kids into existing schools with very difficult curriculums and say "good luck!"
If the goal is to increase diversity, instead of to destroy schools that don't fit the average mold, using random lottery is worst way to do it. It would make more sense to still screen but use a different method to ensure a specific racial breakdown, go by neighborhood etc.
Oh, I meant to address this. It will stay rigorous (for now)! Because very few kids leave these schools so very few seats open anyway. I am not worried about the school changing (yet) because great majority of Middle Schoolers will be from within school.
https://twitter.com/danasduds/status/1341086131425845250?s=20
It's setting kids up for failure. There were a million ways to change the system and our mayor and his chancellor chose the absolute worst one.
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