Ideally, New York City schools would represent all the city’s children and their diverse racial and socioeconomic backgrounds. They should also be equitable, offering students culturally relevant curriculum and preparing them to navigate the world’s social and economic complexities.
Noor Muhsin was excited to see that Millennium Brooklyn had a more diverse freshman class this year. But she’s still worried about a big gap.
1. Racial Diversity
The city’s schools remain highly segregated by race, even as New York’s overall racial demographic is increasingly diverse. As more minority children enter the city’s classrooms, some educators are working to create opportunities for their success and to reduce educational inequality.
But achieving the goals of diversity requires more than just enrolling students from different racial backgrounds. The teachers who teach those children also must be more reflective of the city’s growing demographics. In many school districts, only a small percentage of the workforce is comprised of people of color, and some of that population is retiring or leaving teaching for other careers.
Some educators argue that a lack of representation in the teacher workforce is a result of a systemic problem in which minorities are discouraged from pursuing a career in education, and that schools should make efforts to increase teacher diversity. Some educators say that a more diverse teacher workforce could help students learn better, and that minority students need to be exposed to teachers who can relate to their experiences and perspectives.
Several recent initiatives have been launched to promote diversity in the city’s schools. Last year, Mayor Bill de Blasio proposed getting rid of the controversial standardized test that is used to admit students into New York’s specialized high schools. The proposal, which needs approval from the State Legislature, has faced ferocious opposition from many parents and alumni of the seven schools.
In recent years, the racial makeup of New York’s schools has changed significantly. Long-standing inner-city majority Black and Latino neighborhoods have become whiter, while historically white “semi-suburban” areas in the outer boroughs have remained largely white. This is a reflection of the fact that many racial groups have increased in relative size, while the city’s white population has declined.
New York City officials recently announced a plan to promote racial diversity in the schools. The plan included a series of numeric goals that outside observers have both celebrated and criticized for being too low. This map allows users to explore the city’s public schools and see how they measure up against these goals.
2. Gender Diversity
The city’s schools are often discussed in terms of racial diversity, but it’s equally important to consider how gender is sorting the school system, too. Gender imbalances can make it harder for students to find a welcoming environment. They can also hamper efforts to increase the number of women and girls studying STEM fields and coding.
Gender gaps are one of the challenges facing the 38-member Student Diversity Advisory Group (SDAG) charged with reshaping citywide policies and practices such as admissions to specialized high schools, where the City Council has put pressure on the Department of Education to ensure greater diversity.
Educators say gender imbalances are exacerbated by the way admissions processes skew students toward schools with the same demographics. For example, many of the more academically competitive screened schools in the city are highly female, including Stuyvesant and Brooklyn Tech. And many of the schools that require auditions for entry — such as music and arts programs — lean heavily toward girls.
It’s difficult to quantify the extent of the problem, because the city only collects data on a limited number of schools that allow families to list their children as nonbinary or non-male or female on official school records. But last year, the city started listing statistics publicly for the first time after clearing the way for families to select “X” on official school documents instead of “M” or “F.” Officials say 108 nonbinary, gender fluid, or gender expansive students selected that option in the last school year out of about a million kids in public schools across New York City.
At some schools, the lack of balance can be a major headache for administrators. At P-Tech, a college-prep program in District 75 that’s predominantly all-boys, Principal Kiri Soares has had to recruit community-based organizations experienced with working with boys and set up after-school workshops geared towards boys. So far, it has helped improve the graduation rate for boys, which had been at a dismal 65%.
Changing the culture of a school can be daunting, even for educators who are committed to diversity. And for students, it can be a long road to finding the right school, especially when they are still figuring out their identities.
3. Economic Diversity
In addition to racial diversity, schools should also strive for economic diversity. Economically diverse schools serve students who are more likely to be in need of assistance, such as from low-income families or those in temporary housing, which can help boost their academic achievement. But economic diversity is harder to achieve because of the many barriers that prevent economically disadvantaged students from attending high-performing schools.
Currently, 502 of the city’s 1,757 schools are racially representative in terms of student enrollment (meaning that they have roughly 90 percent black and Hispanic students). These schools also have at least 46 percent economically diverse student bodies. However, it is important to note that economic diversity is still a problem in the city’s schools.
While the mayor and his first schools chief, Farina, have supported hyper-local efforts to promote integration, the city has largely refrained from pushing through broad mandates to achieve these goals. Rather, they have focused on creating programs that allow schools to reserve seats for groups of students with specific needs, including English language learners, children in foster care, or those from families with an incarcerated parent.
These new admissions policies have been effective in increasing racial diversity in some of the city’s most competitive schools. But they have not yet produced significant changes in economic diversity. That is because schools that use these programs still rely heavily on grades and other screening measures for enrollment, and these methods can be easily gamed.
For example, last year when a school used a 85 grade point average to define its top tier, it offered just over 300 seats to students with 85 GPAs — and those offers went to the highest-scoring students in every racial group, except Latinos. The rest of the top tier went to students with lower scores, and the lowest scoring applicants got the remaining seats.
As a result, the number of students accepted to Millennium Brooklyn, for instance, remained essentially flat when it switched to a 90 GPA cutoff this year. Similarly, at several other highly screened schools with new admissions policies, there has been little change in the overall makeup of the freshman classes. This could mean that the new policies are working, but that they’re having less of an impact than some advocates have hoped.
4. Social Diversity
When it comes to student achievement, racial and economic diversity in schools is key. But school diversity is about more than race, income and ethnicity; it’s also about students’ social worlds, their relationships with peers and the quality of teaching. That’s why the Research Alliance is exploring a number of new initiatives focused on social diversity in NYC schools.
For example, we’re looking at ways to improve the way that schools connect with students, families and communities. We’re also examining ways to better understand how teachers’ and other staff members’ experiences of segregation in their own schools and communities shape the work they do with students.
The city has made progress toward its goals for racial and socioeconomic diversity in schools, but there’s still room to improve. For example, in the specialized high schools that require passing the controversial standardized test, admissions for Black and Latino students remain stubbornly low.
In the last year, Mayor de Blasio proposed getting rid of the exam in favor of “merit-based” admissions. But that move was scuttled by the state legislature without ever reaching the Assembly floor for debate. And despite recent gains, the majority of seats at the city’s top public high schools remain reserved for white students.
The racial segregation in high schools is compounded by the economic segregation in neighborhoods. In many parts of the city, schools are highly stratified by wealth: Districts 9 in the Bronx, 20 in South Brooklyn and 26 in Queens have all fewer than 10 percent racially representative schools; District 7 in Manhattan has more than half.
This data visualization lets users explore how different schools across the city stack up against the DOE’s recent goals for racial and socioeconomic diversification. Users can select a specific school, district and admission method to see how that school compares with its peers.
We’re highlighting this new map in the hopes that it will spark conversations and inspire ideas about how to further promote student equity and access for all. We encourage readers to share their own thoughts about the best ways to make this city’s schools more racially and economically diverse.
