Brooklyn public school parents pushed for merit over mediocrity this week, calling for grades and test scores to matter again on middle school applications in one of the city’s highest performing districts.
District 20, which includes Bay Ridge, Dyker Height and parts of Bensonhurst, Borough Park and Sunset Park, had eight screened programs known for generating high test scores and sending kids off to specialized high schools. In 2020, they were slashed to just three and replaced with unpopular lotteries.
“Taking away screening is depriving those talented children. It’s just very unfair to these kids,” said Maya Rozenblat, a Sunset Park mom who attended a rally Wednesday at PS 170 in Bay Ridge, where she was joined by about two dozen other parents who ripped the woke leadership of District 20 Superintendent David Pretto.
“Three recent key decisions and the manner in which they were made reflect the anti-democratic leadership style and violate the collaborative and democratic spirit of public education,” said parent Alina Lewis.
The pool of candidates for competitive, high ranking middle schools has only widened as screens were dropped in favor of a lottery for those with over a 90 GPA.
Now, students are on waitlists of over 800 to get into the top schools and forced to travel out of their districts while their parents say school leadership is ignoring them.
“We need more action, less talk,” said Steve Stowe, a parent of an eighth grader at JHS 259 in Dyker Heights.
Stowe was an organizer of the rally and is the president of the district’s Community Education Council, the parent advisory board.
“This year, our screened middle school programs had waitlists of 700 to 800 kids,” said Stowe. “We know the demand is there.”
Critics of the screened admissions say it hinders diversity and integration. Backers argue screening maintains academic standards and rigor.
Yi Feng Chen isn’t taking any chances — she’s sending her son to another district entirely after he was waitlisted to a school that ended up using a lottery system at the last minute instead of his high GPA.
“Parents, myself and the large, first-generation immigrant community within the district, we want admissions based on merit,” Chen said at the rally.
Before the pandemic, the district of more than 50,000 students had eight of the programs but is now down to three. Sixth grade seats were cut from 800 to 600. Advocates estimate the need to be nearly 2,000 based on student test scores.
Parents blamed Mayor de Blasio’s move to a blanket lottery, driven by equity advocates focused on diversifying the student bodies, as well as pandemic disruptions. Then, current Schools Chancellor David Banks announced admissions would be left up to superintendents.
The anti-equity push is playing out across the city. A March survey conducted by the group Parent Leaders for Accelerated Curriculum and Education found that 85 percent of respondents do not support the reduction of middle school screens.
“Students should be rewarded for hard work and achievement otherwise it’s difficult to ask students to remain motivated,” said Spencer Silverman, a student representative in Manhattan’s District 2, which encompasses schools in East Village, Flatiron, Gramercy Park, Rose Hill, Kips Bay, Murray Hill and Lower East Side
“It is deplorable that superintendents have the mendacity to shamelessly push their own ideology at the expense of clear public will and the directives of the chancellor,” added District 2 CEC member Kaushik Das.
By Wednesday night, Pretto appeared to bend to the parent demands.
“I look forward to discussing plans to make sure that the expansion of accelerated learning that warrants academic screening is implemented in a way that is lasting and works for all kids,” he said.