UPDATE: What We Know And Don’t About District 2 Middle School Plan
**updated 11/1
Today New York Schools Chancellor David Banks sent an email titled “Helping You Find the Right School” likely intended to assuage the stress parents are feeling about the competitive scrum that is middle and high school admissions in New York City (or as one principal is reported to have said “Welcome to the Hunger Games of admissions”).
As we wrote about previously, in the city’s largest school district, District 2 in Manhattan, the feedback to the Superintendent was a request for at least some screens to be reinstated at the middle school level. The ask by a large percentage of parents was disregarded. This was particularly confusing as some districts decided to keep a handful of screens which was also the recommendation made by the District 2 Community Education Council (CEC).
So, the question parents have been asking is… why? Why would District 2 remove ALL screens in light of community feedback? Chancellor Banks delegated the decision to the community and the local Superintendents. But for District 2 there has yet to be a clear communication from Superintendent McGuire beyond a perfunctory ‘next steps’ letter shared on October 26 (see here).
A Passionate Response Against Screens
What we have since come to understand, though, is what Superintendent McGuire’s wife, professor of education history/policy and author of “The History of Zero Tolerance in American Public Schooling,” thinks about middle school screens and selection. In fact, one day before Superintendent McGuire sent his letter to parents, his wife, professor Judith Kafka published an op-ed in the Daily News entitled “NYC middle schools shouldn’t pick their students.”
It opens with:
“Interest groups are loudly arguing for a return to exclusionary, competitive admissions processes that demonstrably contributed to New York City having one of the most segregated public school systems in the United States. After a two-year pause in the use of “screens,” which led to modest increases in student diversity at many of the city’s most competitive middle schools, the city Department of Education (DOE) is now allowing the 32 community districts to individually decide whether screens will be reinstated. Supporters push two related arguments: Screens reward the merit and “hard work” of successful students, and white and wealthy families will exit the school system if they aren’t able to access the city’s most sought-after schools.”
It’s clear that professor Kafka has strong views on screens and we hope that Superintendent McGuire will share more thoughts on whether he agrees and why he decided to disregard the feedback of parents in his district and, at the very least, come to a compromise in the spirit of Chancellor Bank’s promise of ‘listening to each community.’
UPDATE November 1:
Readers have asked us to share some of Professor Kafka’s past research, op-eds, testimony, etc. Those links are here:
In her recent op-ed Kafka references research she conducted regarding middle school admissions in District 15. She put out a call for subjects in 2017. The final diversity plan for the district can be found here. Kelly McGuire joined as Deputy Superintendent of District 15 in 2019.
Kafka published an earlier op-ed about gifted and talented programs for the Daily News in August 2019: “How G&T programs hurt NYC: They create a climate of scarcity and drive segregation inside the system”
Kafka contributed written testimony to New York State Assembly for May 10, 2019 hearings on admissions to Specialized High Schools. It was adapted and reprinted on the Century Foundation website.