The seven New York City elementary schools participating in a pilot program to diversify their student bodies met their goals for next year’s kindergarten admissions in all but one case, education officials told WNYC, meaning their youngest students will be substantially more diverse than the year before.
The results of the diversity pilot were released Tuesday as part of the citywide announcement of kindergarten admissions offers.
In an effort to increase socio-economic and racial diversity at their schools, a group of principals in 2014 asked the city’s Department of Education for permission to use factors like family income or English language status in admissions. They got the green light in November for pre-kindergarten and kindergarten students enrolling for the 2016-17 school year.
"The pilot worked," said John O'Reilly, principal of The Academy of Arts and Letters.
Arts and Letters met its target of offering 40 percent of seats to incoming kindergarten students who qualified for free or reduced price lunch. Siblings of existing students at the school still received priority overall.
The school, in a gentrified Fort Greene, has seen its racial diversity all but disappear from the younger grades. Out of current kindergarten students, 11 percent qualify for free or reduced price lunch. Next year, the percentage will be almost four times that.
"Having a diverse school — a racially diverse school, an economically diverse school — is so valuable to me and I think my community," said O'Reilly.
In northern Manhattan, the Castle Bridge School set aside 60 percent of seats for kindergarten students who qualified for free or reduced price lunch. The school exceeded this goal: 67 percent of students offered admission for kindergarten next year qualify for the designation.
Julie Zuckerman, principal of Castle Bridge, said it was important for the school to enroll a mix of kids, and to reflect the diversity of the entire district — in this case, District 6, home to a long-standing Dominican immigrant population and an increasing number of middle class residents.
“Because we are zoned for the district, and not a particular school zone, we tend to draw a lot of middle class families," said Zuckerman. "That’s not representative of the district, and yet it’s 70 to 75 percent of our applicants.”
Castle Bridge also set aside 10 percent of its seats for children with incarcerated parents. In this case, the admissions target was only partially met, with 7 percent of future kindergarteners having an incarcerated parent. But Zuckerman said she expected to meet that target by the start of school in September.
Josh Wallack, a deputy chancellor overseeing enrollment, said education officials were pleased with the initial results.
“Now, the work ahead is for those school communities to work with those families and encourage them to accept those offers,” Wallack said.
The city has not yet said if it will expand the pilot although Schools Chancellor Carmen Fariña said she hoped it would serve as a model for other schools.
"We think it's an important step," said Wallack. "I think we're going to continue over time to look at this strategy and other strategies and where we're successful, we'll build on them."
Besides Arts and Letters and the Castle Bridge School, the schools participating in the diversity pilot include the Neighborhood School in Manhattan; the Earth School in Manhattan; P.S. 146 The Brooklyn New School; P.S. 372 The Children's School; and Brooklyn Arts and Science Elementary School.