High School Hustle: Elation, texting, tears and plaintive posts on Facebook
While awaiting word from the city’s specialized high schools this week, I found myself saying meaningless words to my anxious 13-year-old:“If we lived in the suburbs,” I told him, “You and your classmates would never be going through all this drama. You would all just go to the neighborhood high school.” My little speech meant nothing, however, because we have no intention of living in the ‘burbs, even if the New York City public high school process can drive parents to it.
By the time many city kids are ready for high school, they’ve developed an appreciation for riding the subway alone. They are ardent little city dwellers who can meet friends from dozens of different neighborhoods and all five boroughs at museums and movies and skating rinks without asking parents for a ride. Besides, most don’t want to move to the suburbs. But that doesn’t mean they like an arduous high school process of endless tours, tests, interviews, essays, ranking and a giant sorting out that seems arbitrary and mysterious.
Letters went out last week to the 29,000 applicants who took the exam for the eight specialty schools or auditioned for Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School. Some kids opened their letters with a mob of classmates, others found out in the office of their guidance counselors; others got handed the letter on the way out; some got the letters intercepted by their parents and some have still not heard.
Lots of parents don’t appreciate this system. Jennifer from Yorkville, posting on InsideSchools.org, expressed a widespread wish for a system of academically strong and varied neighborhood high schools and noted that she does not understand how school decisions are made.
How, for example, could a kid with a 70-average and a disciplinary record get into Stuyvesant? (Answer - the probably very bright, possibly under-motivated child tests well and the specialized exams are based only on one exam)
How can so many brilliant artists be turned away from LaGuardia? Why do so many talented actors and actresses get rejected, while some accomplished students with terrific grades and great test scores get turned down at their first, second and even third choices? How do schools like Beacon and Bard that are flooded with applicants that look similar on paper make the calls?
They never say, and I don’t have the answers, but if you think parents are mystified and anxious this week, just check in on Facebook posts. If you don’t have your own Facebook to compare notes with other parents, ask your child to share — if they are willing. You will see status updates about tears and depression, along with posts expressing anger, happiness and disgust about having to wait until late March for a “match.” The Facebook friends are offering one another words of comfort, like “everything happens for a reason,” or “Not everyone likes Stuyvesant anyway.”
There are discussions of how the wrong kids get in, along with notes and advice comparing the different schools and lots of the standard: “You rock dude!” and “congrats, ur awesome!”
The news in my household was what my 13-year-old music-obsessed son wanted: acceptance into LaGuardia. His joy was tempered in part by the sobbing in his school from those who were disappointed.
The main round matches won’t be announced till March. That’s enough time, as the city debates mayoral control, for parents and policy makers to think about revamping the high school system.
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Unfortunately, there is no good way to really revamp the system without adding a bunch of incredible new schools. At present there are simply way fewer desirable schools than there are desiring students and parents. It is a recipe for a certain (both large and deserving) number of them to end up disappointed and inappropriately placed.
Comment by a parent — February 10, 2009 @ 1:24 pm
Many congratulations to your son and welcome from a fellow LaGuardia parent, who was in your shoes last year.
At our middle school the guidance couselor picked up the letters on Wednesday and mailed them out to parent the same afternoon.
After the lunch periods ended on Thursday she was happy to be on the phone with parents who wanted a jump on the mail. (This way, parents couldn’t call students during the outdoor lunch period, only after school.)
It’s a better system than many I’ve heard of at other schools, but still, kids who don’t get what they hoped for are understandably upset, although to their credit, their friends are very supportive.
I’m not sure if the guidance counselor also sends “I’m so sorry” letters to kids who didn’t get a match, but I do hope that kids who took the test but didn’t get placed in this round weren’t left hanging.
Comment by Pivia — February 10, 2009 @ 1:41 pm
The whole system is legalized emotional child abuse. I can not stand it. It is sicking to me.
Comment by claudia — February 11, 2009 @ 1:57 pm
My son “with a 70-average” got into BTECH. This is what I call FAIR. No one school would accept him. The grades system in NY public schools just a crap based on teacher attitude not real knowledge. I can’t believe he made it. Besides, I don’t even speak English well and could not afford tutorial. This is a great chance for people like we.
Comment by qwer — February 11, 2009 @ 2:59 pm
My son, who is very talented, has played the saxophone since he was 7 and has played in bands around the city, the Borough-Wide Band, City-Wide band, in solo’s at concert’s and with NY POPS, was not chosen for LaGuardia. He was devastated. He wanted to throw his saxophone away and never play again - is this fair to put our 13 year old kids through a process like this? To destroy a child’s ambition and talent. To make them feel rejected and question their own talent? Is this fair to do to the truly talented kids and the academically bright kids of our city - to put them through a process like this? Oh, he also had a 90 average, so it wasn’t because of his grades. They actually never tell you what it was or why your child wasn’t accepted, they just send out very impersonal rejection letters. It makes me sick and has for a few years now, I’ve been through this before. All I can say is that there must be a better way and there should be some support for the kids that don’t get into the schools they want.
Comment by Sherri Hawkins — February 12, 2009 @ 1:31 pm
When I think about my daughters experience, I don’t know what I’d wish for for future NYC public school parents. I had a very politically-incorrect thought when it was over and my daughter had gotten into Brooklyn Tech, which we didn’t even know that we wanted until that moment. Many colleges are talking about doing away with the SAT, with good reason. Having said that, testing is the only (almost) even playing field right now. I learned the hard way when my kid took the Hunter test two years ago, and we just walked in like it was no big deal. Too late, I find out about the private school kids who are all extensively coached and the driven public school parents who know to get their kids tutoring - my daughter had never even seen the math on that test before. This time, we sprang for a tutor that my daughter shared with two friends - a big expense. But here’s the issue for me: the specialized school test is only elitist, geared towards those who are savvy and wealthy enough to get help. Again, the private school kids have some advantage. But that’s better than the Beacons, etc., which seem to run on an ad hoc system that changes every year. Almost two weeks later, I’m still curious about a pattern as to who got into which school. Beacon seems to have had quotas limiting the number that it took from each “gifted and talented” middle school, whereas Bard, which was very selective last year, took whole bunches of kids who put it down at any number. We don’t know anyone who got into Millennium, and almost everyone that we know put it on the list. In my nyc fantasy, all HS applications would be 90% test-based, but would leave room for attendance and behavior issues. Every middle school grades differently, so I don’t think that that’s a fair indicator. Do you think Joel Klein is listening? Because the current system is a disaster.
Comment by Sherry — February 17, 2009 @ 11:00 am
Just came across this blog. I have to say that Thurs., Feb. 5th was among the worst in our family’s memory. Our daughter did not receive an offer from any specialized school, including her #1 choice, LaGuardia. She was devastated, having had a callback and all…She has a high 90’s average, absent 2 or 3 times the entire 7th grade year, late: never…She is a diligent, hard-working student. It’s a sham she was not able to celebrate in early Feb…… We foolishly did not realize when she took the SHSAT that she should have put all 8 schools — at least she would have had a fighting chance…She only put the 2 that she thought she would actually go to. Now, I can’t help thinking that if she had at least gotten into one of them, we would know her “main round” schools…this has been a tortuous process for us.
To comment on Sherry’s Feb.17th note, there is a student at my daughter’s school who was accepted at Brooklyn Latin and at Millennium; the confusing thing to me is that she was supposedly among the students in the top 2% who were to have their choice of schools…Has anyone else ever heard of that top 2% — on the ELA’s and Math tests ? — as being the criteria for choosing your own high school?
In any event, I am sad to say that we may be spending $$ to send our child to Catholic school, something I never thought in a million years that I would do!
Comment by Martia — February 24, 2009 @ 5:30 pm
Martia. The top 2% rule does not apply to selective admission schools like Millennium. What you referred to only applies to ed-op schools. Those are schools that accept a range of students according to a formula set by the DOE (some at the top, some at the bottom and a lot in the middle). If you score in the top 2% citywide on the 7th grade ELA AND you rank an ed-op school first on your high school application of 12, then you are guarantteed admission to that school.
Comment by Anonymous — February 24, 2009 @ 8:49 pm
thanks to anonymous for the clarification on the top 2% rule…
Comment by Martia — February 25, 2009 @ 11:37 am