Oh, that smarts!
HS lottery hurts brightest kids
One of the city’s top high schools has introduced to its admission process a lottery element that could work against top applicants, The Post has learned.
Applicants to Townsend Harris HS with composite scores between 91-100 will all be placed in a top tier of candidates and then be randomly selected for admission.
With the coronavirus knocking out many traditional academic metrics, the Flushing school is using prior grades and state test scores to produce the composite number.
Critics argued that the new system is a dilution of one of the most competitive academic entry processes in the city.
“This puts a student who gets a 91 in the same grouping as the kid who gets a 99,” said one current parent.
“So, you are going to have parents who are frustrated that their kids are putting in that extra work and effort to get the top scores and not being recognized for it.” Another parent agreed. “This has always been a school for the most advanced academic kids in the city,” she said. “The perfectionists. There should be a place for those kids.”
But critics of the city’s various academic screening systems argue that they benefit families of means and have produced sharp racial disparities in top city schools.
Townsend Harris is 55 percent Asian, 19 percent white, 11 percent
Hispanic and 5 percent AfricanAmerican.
The school also will continue to reserve half of its seats for kids who qualify for free or reduced-price lunch. In a video explaining the changes, Townsend Harris administrator Veronica York said that they preserved a rigorous admissions program while expanding opportunities.
“We want to create equal access to the entire bucket,” she said, referring to those in the first tier. “So they will all be ranked one and be accepted via lottery.”
Townsend Principal Brian Condon also endorsed the changes.
“We’re proud of these admissions changes which were driven by the community and live up to Townsend Harris’s mission of fostering academic excellence while expanding access and opportunity for all,” he said in a written statement.
“Our school community’s strength lies in our values and we know this new way of identifying future scholars will build upon the important steps we’ve already taken to ensure equity.”
The school noted that some kids who are not in the top tier also will be considered for admission.
US News & World Report ranked Townsend Harris as the best high school in New York last year — outpacing renowned specialized high schools such as Stuyvesant and Bronx Science.
The outlet ranked it the fifth-best public high school in the country.
This puts a student who gets a 91 in the same grouping as the kid who gets a 99. — Current Townsend Harris parent
Republican Sens. Mitt Romney and Susan Collins will oppose Neera Tanden’s nomination as budget chief — dealing a crushing blow to any hope Democrats had left of her confirmation.
In separate statements on Monday, Collins (Maine) and Romney (Utah) cited Tanden’s harsh rhetoric toward lawmakers on both sides of the aisle, including Collins, as a reason for why she shouldn’t head the Office of Management and Budget.
“Senator Romney has been critical of extreme rhetoric from prior nominees, and this is consistent with that position,” said a Romney spokeswoman. “He believes it’s hard to return to comity and respect with a nominee who has issued a thousand mean tweets.”
Collins argued that Tanden “has neither the experience nor the temperament to lead this critical agency.”
The two moderate Republicans had been viewed as the most likely to consider supporting Tanden’s nomination, which will require GOP support after Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin (W.Va.) announced on Friday that he would oppose her confirmation.
Despite her confirmation appearing to be impossible, the White House stood by the nomination.
Reached by The Post following the Romney and Collins announcements, a spokeswoman said their support for Tanden “still stands.”