HIGH SCHOOL STUDENT SELECTION OFTEN UNFAIR AND ARBITRARY
Schools Rejected Students Who Should Have Been Considered for Entrance,
Gave Seats to Some Who Didn’t Meet Standards, Audit Finds
An
audit of the Department of Education’s (DOE’s) high-school
placement process determined that the process often reached arbitrary
and unfair results: It denied many students an opportunity to be matched
to seats in certain highly competitive programs even when the students
met all eligibility requirements, while offering
seats to other students who had not met the criteria.
“Our
audit confirmed what many frustrated parents and students have long
suspected: the City’s high-school placement process
is often unfair and deeply flawed,” Comptroller Liu said. “Applying to
high school is an important and stressful enough experience for students
and parents, and it must not be left to a sloppy and random system like
the one our audit found. We are pleased
that the DOE has agreed to adopt our recommendations to ensure a fairer
and sensible system.”
The
audit examined student placement for the 2011-12 school year at five
schools considered among the most competitive for entrance in their
respective boroughs. The schools are Hostos-Lincoln Academy of Science
(Bronx), Baruch College Campus HS (Manhattan), Midwood HS Medical
Science Institute (Brooklyn), Tottenville HS Science Institute (Staten
Island), and Townsend Harris HS Intensive Academic
Humanities (Queens).
Students
can apply for up to 12 schools, which they rank in their order of
preference. The DOE then enters the students’ choices into its
Student Enrollment Management System (SEMS). Students who apply to a
screened school, like those the audit examined, must meet certain
selection criteria in order to be ranked for possible enrollment by the
schools.
Screened
schools use their own criteria — such as seventh-grade report cards,
standardized tests, and attendance records — to screen students.
Students who meet the criteria are ranked on a list for possible
enrollment, although the DOE does not require screened schools to rank
every single student who qualifies because of the overwhelming number of
applicants. Finally, SEMS matches students’ preferences
against the schools ranking. When a student’s top pick school ranks
them high there can a match and the student would be offered a seat at
the school.
The five schools received 21,315 applications for 828 seats.
·
5,702 students appeared to meet the screening criteria.
·
The programs ranked 4,075 students.
·
The audit found 1,946 unranked students, many of whom actually scored better than those who were ranked.
·
319
(8 percent) of the 4,075 students who the programs ranked appear NOT to
have met the criteria. Of these 319 students, 92 were offered seats at
the schools, and 60
were enrolled.
Other Findings
Comptroller Liu’s audit also determined that:
·
The
five schools failed to maintain adequate records. Auditors asked the
schools to produce documentation explaining the rankings of certain
applicants, but only one
school, Townsend Harris HS Intensive Academic Humanities, provided any
records documenting its decisions. The other four had not kept such
records, as they are required to do by the New York State Education
Department.
·
DOE
does not require high schools to have written procedures to explain the
methodologies they use to rank students. For example, Midwood HS
Medical Science Institute
states that students need report card grades of 90-100 in seventh-grade
English, math, social studies, and science classes, but does not let
students and parents know that it gives the math and science grades
greater weight than English and social studies
grades, which is part of its ranking formula.
·
The DOE did not oversee the placement process in order to ensure that it ranked students fairly and consistently.
·
Middle
schools are not keeping high-school applications, as required. The DOE
could provide student applications for only 14 out of 150 randomly
selected students, so
there was no assurance that guidance counselors accurately recorded
students’ choices.
Response
The DOE generally agreed with the audit’s nine recommendations. It agreed to:
·
Review
the ranking practices at the four schools the audit report determined
had questionable rankings in order to ensure that the schools are
following their own published
screens and DOE policy for student selection.
·
Require high schools with screened programs to document their ranking formula and processes.
·
Review
screened schools’ ranking criteria, especially for those schools in
high demand, in order to ensure that they are ranking students fairly
and consistently.
·
Ensure
schools keep records of their ranking of the students applying to their
programs, as required by the State Education Department.
Background
The
DOE manages two different high-school placement processes. The first,
known as the high-school application process, is for eighth-grade
students applying for the ninth grade and first-time ninth graders
applying for the tenth grade. Schools in the application process select
applicants by using one of seven admission methods: (1) test, (2)
audition, (3) educational option, (4) limited unscreened,
(5) screened, (6) unscreened, and (7) zoned. Three-quarters (215,556)
of the City’s 284,513 high-school students on register as of October
2011 had been placed at their schools through this placement process.
Comptroller Liu’s audit focused on screened programs
because they are one of the most popular for student applicants. For
the 2011-2012 school year, 30 percent of the programs chosen by students
were screened programs. Screened programs comprised 25 percent of
student matches. However, because the schools
themselves establish and oversee the ranking criteria and actually rank
the students, the screened programs are also especially vulnerable to
potential manipulation.
The
remaining 68,957 students were placed in their respective high schools
through the second process, known as the over-the-counter
process, which is for (1) new students, (2) students returning to New
York City public schools, and (3) New York City public high school
students transferring between high schools.
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LIU ON POSSIBILITY OF MONITOR FOR NYPD
City Comptroller John C. Liu
stated the following today on reports of the Department of Justice’s recommendation for an independent monitor for the NYPD:
“The
possibility of an independent monitor for the NYPD’s stop and frisk
program should be a sobering wake-up call for
Mayor Bloomberg and Commissioner Kelly. Stop and frisk is out of
control, has split communities from the police, and may be contributing
to significantly higher claim costs. Simply abolishing stop and frisk
would alleviate concerns about management of the
NYPD. In its place, the NYPD should embrace community policing,
especially the proven strategy of focused deterrence.”
Background:
Liu Statement on Proposed Reforms to Stop and Frisk, May 2012:
http://www.comptroller.nyc.gov/press/2012_releases/pr12-05-059.shtm
Liu: New Claims Against Police Keep Rising, June 2013:
http://www.comptroller.nyc.gov/press/2013_releases/pr13-06-078.shtm
Comptroller Hosts Stop & Frisk Town Hall – Queens March 13, 2013:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KZISl655_cw
----------------------------------------------------------------------
City Comptroller John C. Liu made the following statement
in response to today’s news conference on thwarting smartphone theft:
“We
welcome Attorney General Schneiderman’s and San Francisco District
Attorney George Gascón’s common-sense initiative to take a stand against
the rapidly escalating problem of cell phone
theft. The Attorneys General, with cooperation from the world’s largest
manufacturers of cell phones, are tackling a growing problem.
In the time it takes you to read this statement, more than 200 smartphones will be lost or stolen in this country.
In New York City alone cell phone robberies increased 40 percent in the past year.
“The
cell phone thefts in New York City too often involve violence.
Tragically last year a 26-year-old chef at the Museum of Modern Art was
killed for his iPhone. The manufacturers must quickly
come up with the technology to make stolen smartphones useless. When
that happens, stealing a smartphone will be a waste of time.
“We
note that the City pension funds have a substantial investment in the
largest manufacturers of cell phones, all of which are taking part in
today’s conference. We urge these companies
to make fighting the theft of cell phones their number-one priority.”
Background
As
of June 12, 2013, the NYC Pension Funds held a combined 2,333,996
shares of Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) valued at $1,008,729,731.24; 660,409
shares of Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) valued at $575,863,439.82;
19,078,143 shares of Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) valued at
$667,735,005.00; and 254,903 shares of Samsung (KOREA SE: 005930) valued
at $311,460,657.26.
