Mayor de Blasio: It’s Time To #RetireSegregation

Mayor Bill de Blasio and Chancellor Richard A. Carranza

Adopt the School Diversity Advisory Group recommendations.

The School Diversity Advisory Group has released its second set of recommendations. As in the first set of recommendations, we are happy to see community driven solutions at the forefront. We call on this administration to: 1) approve all recommendations, and 2) release a timeline and implementation plan before the end of 2019.

In particular, we believe priority should be placed on recommendations to:

  • Fund all districts to pilot community driven alternatives to segregated G&T and screened K-8 admissions;

  • Discontinue the use of the Gifted & Talented admissions test;

  • Eliminate the use of exclusionary admissions practices at all middle schools;

  • Eliminate lateness, attendance, and geographic zones as criteria for high school admissions and enrollment;

  • Ensure all high school admissions criteria are transparent and designed to reduce the racial and socio-economic isolation currently prevalent in most high schools;

  • Redesign high school screening algorithms to weight socioeconomic indicators in admissions; and

  • Redraft district lines to support the long-term goal of having all schools reflect the city population.

These are critical steps toward dismantling systems that create and perpetuate segregation in New York City public schools. A student’s zip code should never determine their future. We call on Mayor Bill de Blasio and Chancellor Richard A. Carranza to quickly adopt these recommendations and work with stakeholders to produce plans for implementation.

To: Mayor Bill de Blasio and Chancellor Richard A. Carranza
From: [Your Name]

We call on this administration to: 1) approve all recommendations, and 2) release a timeline and implementation plan before the end of 2019.

In particular, we believe priority should be placed on recommendations to:

Fund all districts to pilot community driven alternatives to segregated G&T and screened K-8 admissions;

Discontinue the use of the Gifted & Talented admissions test;

Eliminate the use of exclusionary admissions practices at all middle schools;

Eliminate lateness, attendance, and geographic zones as criteria for high school admissions and enrollment;

Ensure all high school admissions criteria are transparent and designed to reduce the racial and socio-economic isolation currently prevalent in most high schools;

Redesign high school screening algorithms to weight socioeconomic indicators in admissions; and

Redraft district lines to support the long-term goal of having all schools reflect the city population.

These are critical steps toward dismantling systems that create and perpetuate segregation in New York City public schools. A student’s zip code should never determine their future. We call on Mayor Bill de Blasio and Chancellor Richard A. Carranza to quickly adopt these recommendations and work with stakeholders to produce plans for implementation.