The Wall Street Journal published the findings of a new report produced by the Fordham Law School Feerick Center for Social Justice titled, Screened Out: The Lack of Access to NYC Screened Program Admissions Criteria. The years-long fact-finding effort spotlights the failure of New York City high schools to make admissions screening rubrics publicly available and of the New York City Department of Education to hold these schools accountable.
Selective New York City public high schools are supposed to make it easy for families to see their detailed admission criteria, but only a fraction of schools do so, according to a new report from Fordham Law School.
Just 20 of 157 screened high-school programs put their rubrics for evaluating applicants online, or gave them to researchers upon request, the report said Tuesday. At a time when selectivity in admission to public schools is under scrutiny, the report said families deserve far more information on exactly how students are judged.
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More transparency “could go far in helping some families better navigate the process and level the playing field,” said Dora Galacatos, executive director of Fordham’s Feerick Center for Social Justice, which issued the “Screened Out” report.George Westinghouse High School in Brooklyn was one of the few to provide rubrics. It gave 15%of points for attendance, 15% for punctuality, 7.5% for each of the four core course grades, and 40% for state test scores in math and reading.
