MAKE NY GRADE AGAIN!
9 in 10 parents worry
Parents fear that Chancellor Richard Carranza is using the coronavirus pandemic as a pretext to push through radical changes, including to the school-admissions policy, a new poll shows.
The survey found that 92 percent are “extremely or very concerned” that his scrapping of grades this year will provide a pretext for the hasty execution of larger agendas. “Many parents fear that means the chancellor will use the pandemic as cover to remove highly coveted screened schools and programs,” PLACE, the advocacy group that conducted the survey, said in a statement.
In a panel discussion last month, Carranza (below) told fellow administrators not to “waste a good crisis” in the pursuit of change. In addition to the dumping of grades, the pandemic has resulted in the cancellation of state exams and the removal of attendance as an admissions metric. Without these elements — which form a core upon which most of the city’s better high schools rank students seeking admission based on seventh-grade num- bers — parents are wondering how the Department of Education will handle admissions next year and beyond.
While marks for students in kindergarten through eighth grade have been scrapped, grades for high-school students are continuing despite the lockdown.
The survey found that nine in 10 believe that the DOE’s eventual plan will be “less fair.”
“I have no faith in the DOE making fair admission policy for this coming-up high-school admission for all the students,” one parent said.
Many parents and teachers opposed the scrapping of grades, arguing that students’ work before the onset of the coronavirus was not being recognized. They pointed out that two-thirds of the school year had been completed when buildings were closed.
Carranza and other city leaders have cast the screened schools as favoring privileged students and unfairly excluding black and Hispanic kids. They make the same argument for the eight specialized high schools, whose admissions are based on one citywide admissions test.
Kids with superior resources, critics argue, are better equipped to satisfy traditional admissions criteria. Less-standardized metrics, they contend, would identify a wider pool of qualified students.
The city’s specialized schools are currently 62 percent Asian, 24 percent white and 9 percent black and Hispanic combined.
Many top city middle schools are also heavily populated by AsianAmerican students. At Christa McAuliffe IS 187 in Dyker Heights, Brooklyn, a feeder school to the elite eight, they make up 69 percent of the student body.
Scrapping grades, attendance and standardized-test scores altogether has left parents scratching their heads at what criteria would be applied to high-school admissions next year, something Carranza has failed to address publicly.
A DOE spokesperson said Wednesday night that “no final decisions had been made on admissions” and that there would be additional community engagement before any policy is decided.