This year controversy abounds regarding Mayor De Blasio's Diversity in Admissions Initiative. As parents, students, and advocacy groups debate the best way to end de facto segregation in New York City, it raises the question of what impact Mayor De Blasio’s plan will have on this year’s high school applicants.

New York City middle schoolers have the opportunity to apply to high schools. Every year 80,000 eighth graders compete for seats in public high schools citywide. The masses of students go through a complex process of touring, testing, and applying in the fall of eighth grade. Following months of touring and deliberation, students rank their favorite schools from 1-12. Similarly, schools rank the students based on their rubrics, which are comprised of a  myriad of unique requirements that differ from school to school, but generally take into account the students’ 7th grade grades in core subjects, 7th grade state test scores, and 7th grade attendance. Some screened schools also require portfolios of student work, essays, interviews and/or a separate test. The Department of Education (DOE) then matches a student to a school taking into account such factors as geographic priority and the ranking of the students and the schools. Eighth grade students will receive only one match from “main round” (not including specialized) schools.  

The ideology behind this system is that every student has the equal opportunity to attend a good high school. Unfortunately, this is not this case. There is still a lot of segregation in New York City public schools. In an article from June 2017, the Gothamist reported that close to half of NYC public schools are at least 90% black and latino according to a recent WNYC analysis of city data. White students make up 15% of the total public school population, but a full third of them attend majority white schools. In other words, white students tend to go to predominantly white schools.  The data regarding specialized schools is even more atrocious. Just 10.4 percent of this year’s admissions offers went to black or Hispanic students — a number that has gone virtually unchanged for years (Chalkbeat). Just 10 black students were admitted to a Stuyvesant class of 902 students, which was down from the 13 who were admitted the previous year. Latino admissions dipped from 28 to 27 students (Cityandstateny). The decreasing amount of diversity in public schools reveals that there is a need for change in the public school system.

The diversity initiative is a plan put in place by Mayor De Blasio requiring a certain amount of seats to be set aside for children on free or reduced lunch. Only a few schools are participating in the initiative but the plan will hopefully grow in popularity. The idea behind this plan is to give priority for seats to children from economically struggling families, who scored just below the cut off scores to gain admission. In addition there are several proposals for a similar program initiating at specialized high schools. The plan Mayor De Blasio is attempting to get approved would reserve 20% of seats at the Specialized High Schools for students from under-resourced middle schools who score just below the cutoff score on the Specialized High School Admissions Test.

Hopefully, this initiative will diversify public schools and provide everyone, regardless of class and race with an equal education. Studies show that conversing with people of different backgrounds enriches education, and being introduced to people who have different beliefs, cultures, and experiences benefits learning. Integrated classrooms encourage critical thinking, problem solving, and creativity. Socioeconomic and racial diversity in schools also has long term effects. “Children are at risk of developing stereotypes about racial groups if they live in and are educated in racially isolated settings. By contrast, when school settings include students from multiple racial groups, students become more comfortable with people of other races, which leads to a dramatic decrease in discriminatory attitudes and prejudices,” says Professor Barend Van Heusden who conducted a study on the effects of diversity in the classroom.

Contrastingly, some parents think that this law is initiating reverse discrimination. An argument commonly used by opponents of the plan is that children who qualify for free and reduced lunch that who do not otherwise meet the criteria are essentially stealing seats from children who would otherwise have been admitted. Some parents believe that the plan is reducing the chance of their child getting into good schools because he or she is not classified as low income. These points are invalid because while a certain percentage of seats are going to children on free and reduced lunch there are still a massive variety of schools for children with higher grades to attend. Some people who make this claim could possibly be uneducated about the positive effects of socioeconomic diversity that could ensue because of this plan.

Ultimately, the Diversity in Admissions Initiative, while currently limited in scope, is a bold and innovative first step toward rectifying segregation in New York City Public schools. New York City is such a wonderfully diverse place and we should celebrate that fact by reflecting that cultural diversity in our public schools.