New York State passed a law this year prohibiting public schools from using test scores as the main factor in admissions, and in deciding who to promote to the next grade. That change is now being implemented just as the New York City middle school application process gets underway, which means many families are scrambling to make sense of the new rules on top of navigating an already complicated search.
In the Brooklyn neighborhoods of Dyker Heights and Bensonhurst, most parents who attended a recent meeting were not happy about their district's decision to change the admissions formula for its middle school honors programs. They used to rely solely on test scores but Karina Costantino, the superintendent for District 20, said no longer. After receiving guidance from the city, she came up with a new formula for her district that gives 45 percent to a child's test scores, 45 percent school to the school report cards, 5 percent to attendance and 5 percent to punctuality.
There are 48 competitive middle schools and programs that used test scores as the main criteria in their admissions. But they are among the best neighborhood schools in the city, and competition is fierce.
District 20 in Brooklyn selects about 1,000 sixth graders each year for its local middle school honors programs. Parent Kim Jalet said those seats should still be awarded based solely on test scores because standardized tests are more objective than school report cards.
"Forty-five percent of the grade that will determine whether children are in the superintendent’s program is now up to a teacher who may or may not like your child," she said, referring to the other name of the honors program. "My son’s fourth grade teacher loved him. Other teachers, eh, not so much."
But travel over to Park Slope and you'll hear a completely different reaction. Catherine Schroeder has a daughter who’s applying to middle schools this year, and she’s glad the scores won’t play a role anymore.
"Having a fifth-grader’s future rest on a couple of days of their fourth grade year is too much pressure to put on anybody," she said, after attending a meeting about the middle school application process at her child's elementary school, P.S. 39.
There is only one gifted and talented middle school in Park Slope: M.S. 51. It used to rely on test scores alone in order to whittle down the number of applicants to 1,000 students, who would then be interviewed for 350 seats. Now, principal Lenore Dileo Berner is going beyond the state's new law by refusing to even look at test scores during the screening process. She noted that many local families protested the tests by opting out of them.
"By not having the test as a factor we are able to look at all of the students equally," she said.
With the middle school admissions process fully under way, parents should ask each school about its admissions policy (changes were made too late to make it into middle school directory.) They should also sign up for the Parents' Guide to Middle School Admissions from WNYC's SchoolBook.