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The city’s high school application process is now a crapshoot — and top grades barely matter.
One month before the application deadline, the Department of Education unveiled its long-awaited new admission system, lowering the bar for entry into many competitive high schools — and tossing kids with a range of academic achievement into a random hopper.
“It’s now essentially a lottery system masquerading as a selective process,” said Effie Zakry, a vice-president of the Citywide Council on High Schools, a DOE parental advisory body.
Eighth graders have until March 1 to submit an application listing up to 12 high schools or special programs of their choice in order of preference.
When Principal Nancy Harris at Manhattan’s Spruce Street School explained the new selection system to eighth-graders last week, “The auditorium went nuts,” said Liv Olsen, 13. “A lot of kids were really angry: ‘What about kids who have better grades? What about everyone in this room? What the hell?’”
Amy Nicolas, a straight-A Catholic school eighth-grader, is aiming for Townsend Harris HS in Queens or another top-ranked public school.
“I’m definitely worried about my chances. It’s pretty much a lottery,” she said. “My friends are very smart – their grades are 90 and above – but they’re actually pretty scared of being rejected.”
The DOE’s bewildering new system, an effort to boost equity in nearly 400 high schools, is based on a complex mathematical formula.
For each student, it will take the single top mark in four core subjects – English, math, social studies and science – in seventh or eighth grade. A point value is assigned to each of those marks. The points are then averaged to determine which of four lottery groups the student falls into. Standardized test scores, used in prior years, and attendance, won’t be factors.
Under the formula, a student with grades as low as 75 in some classes can land in the highest lottery group with kids who earned 90s across the board.
All students in the top group will be eligible to attend the most academically rigorous schools. The luck of the draw will determine the freshman class.
“If I’m a student with two 75s and two 85s, I’m happy,” said Maurice Frumkin, a former DOE enrollment official who runs the private NYC Admissions Solutions. “If I’m a student with all 95s, I’m not happy. They have an absolutely equal chance of getting into a given program.”
Alina Adams, author of “Getting into NYC High School,” tells parents: “Don’t worry if your kids are smart. Worry that your kids are lucky.”
Eight specialized high schools, including Stuyvesant, Bronx Science, Brooklyn Tech and Staten Island Tech, will continue to use an exam, the SHSAT, as their sole entry criterion. Twenty other high schools have gotten permission to use additional essays, interviews, or their own tests to screen candidates, and 25 arts schools will choose students based on auditions.
“I get what they’re trying to do,” Amy said. “They’re trying to give more kids opportunities.”
But it means the most diligent students may go unrewarded, the two girls said.
“Kids feel like all the work they put in was kind of useless,” said Liv, who will apply to Eleanor Roosevelt and other popular schools. “A lot of kids are saying it’s really not fair – if they got 100, they’re getting the same chance as someone who put in the bare minimum.”
The changes will have far-reaching effects on some of the city’s most prestigious campuses, parent leaders warn.
“If you have many students with an 80 average getting in, those schools no longer maintain their previous rigor,” Zakry said. “The school has to match the capabilities of the students. They’re forcing the schools to change. “
Zakry fears some schools will end up slashing high-level courses.
“Instead of having 20 students for AP Physics, now maybe only five are qualified,” he said. “Guess what the school does? It has to shut down those advanced classes. Economically disadvantaged students who were able to take these college-credit classes can no longer do so. Is this called expanding opportunities?”
Zakry blasted the DOE for failing to consult with his panel of high-school parent leaders about the planned changes – or even to give them a heads-up.
“For months, we’ve been asking questions. Parents are concerned. We got nothing but a message that ‘information is forthcoming and we have to be patient.’ We found out this week, the same as other parents.”
“To not consult these parents is criminal,” said Kaushik Das, a dad who serves on Manhattan’s District 2 Community Education Council. “We were told under this new administration there would be parent engagement before announcements came out.”
DOE spokeswoman Sarah Casasnovas defended the 11th-hour rollout.
“These updates were shared with families as quickly as possible without delaying the admissions process,” she said.
“Mayor Adams and Chancellor Banks are committed to bolstering access, and our admissions process for screened high schools will expand opportunity, especially for black and Hispanic students.”
But some parent leaders argue the changes will hurt all students, including kids of color.
”It’s the dumbing down of standards at all levels,” Das said.
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