Will high school acceptance letters be delayed?
Long-awaited “main round” high school acceptance letters to 8th graders MAY be delayed, according to a report in today’s Daily News.
The letters with high school matches, due to be delivered to students on March 24, are being held up by court order because of a lawsuit against the Department of Education by the NAACP and the teachers union. The lawsuit charges that the DOE acted illegally in moving to close 19 schools.
According to the Daily News, “Manhattan Supreme Court Judge Joan Lobis ruled Tuesday to temporarily ban the city from making the matches, since their process isn’t factoring in the closing schools and isn’t matching kids with them. ”
The court is encouraging both sides to work together to resolve the issue and the DOE is allowed to go ahead and prepare to send out letters — just not send them – yet.
For thousands of anxious 8th-graders and their parents, a longer wait to receive confirmation of where they will be attending school next year means more nail-biting.
Are you among the 86,000 or so families awaiting acceptance letters? How do you feel about the delay?
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I do feel for 8th graders who are waiting eagerly for March 24. But, as the parent of a 5th grader, we are SO much further from knowing anything than the 8th graders. Not only are we not given a date when we’ll definitively hear about middle school assignments, but the vague timeline that gets mentioned indicates we’ll hear sometime in late May to June. This is a process that utilizes 4th grade test scores (tests that were taken in January and March of 2009, with scores available by June 2009), and we began touring schools in the fall. Despite this, individual school’s tests and interviews are only happening right now. Why does this have to be drawn out over such a long period of time??? Yet another case of the DOE performing inefficiently.
Comment by A Parent — March 11, 2010 @ 2:01 pm
I am very upset that the acceptances will not go out on time. I heard that there were fewer matches this year, meaning that many students won’t have any placement at all, and I’m worried that my daughter won’t get into any of her choices. She’s an A minus, B plus student and it seems like only A plus students get placed! Conscientious, hard-working B plus students are out in the cold, thank you very much NYC school system!
Comment by Parent — March 12, 2010 @ 12:00 am
I’m curious to hear how you heard there were fewer matches this year (or what exactly that means) when the results aren’t in yet? Are you basing that on the results of the specialized round? or do you have some kind of inside information. (and I agree space is short for B+ students at selective schools–it’s very scary).
Comment by wondering — March 12, 2010 @ 9:12 am
I am one of those 8th grade parents anxiously awaiting this long drawn out process, having gone through it twice before it seems as if with every child and year that goes by, the process is somewhat longer and much more difficult because of all the choices they must make and not many schools are even looking at the hard-working A- and B students like my own child. I went to an open house in the fall to one particular school who clearly were telling parents and students that if they were not in the top of their class then they should not apply to that school. I was very offended by that. There are so many kids who need help, and the environment in which they are “CHOSEN” to do so can only lead to more drop-outs and continued failures and delinquencies.
Comment by Parent — March 12, 2010 @ 11:13 am
With all due respect to the stress that 8th grade families are undergoing, like commenter #1, I can’t understand why it takes half a year to process the middle school assignments. There are fewer students involved, since some middle schools in the city are zoned. This leaves very little time at the end of the school year for the appeals process if this becomes necessary. The whole process is very difficult, especially for the 10-year-olds who must undergo testing and interviews and then wait for months to learn where they’ll be going to school next year.
Comment by district 13 parent — March 12, 2010 @ 1:57 pm
Poster #4. …..I went to an open house in the fall to one particular school who clearly were telling parents and students that if they were not in the top of their class then they should not apply to that school. I was very offended by that. ….
Cannot blame the High School for this attitude – The HS have their own problems. They bring in too many kids at the low-end, the HS will fall into SINI or SURR (look at the 19 large Schools being closed and currently in the hand of the courts).
Message to parents with younger kids – make them study harder – NOW !!!
Comment by Anonymous — March 12, 2010 @ 3:59 pm
#6, the comment wasn’t talking about a kid at the low end, it was talking a about the B+ students. And the point is, there should be a place for these good students, although sadly they can be pushed aside in the high school admission process. They aren’t the kids who are part of the closing-schools fiascos.
Comment by wondering — March 12, 2010 @ 4:26 pm
More fun from the DOE. The whole HS process is excruciating at best, and now we may have to wait longer… I am not impressed with how the schools are currently being run.
Comment by Shel — March 14, 2010 @ 3:37 pm
#7: Opinion: The HS need enough kids at the high end to offset the # of kids at the low end.
But your assumption seems to be correct. When I spoke with HS people at the HS fair back in Oct 2009. The B+ (aver) student do get the short end of the stick.
Comment by Anonymous — March 15, 2010 @ 9:59 am
Five Thousand (5000) 8th Grade kids already know their HS placement for September 2010. These are the kids who received an offer for the Specialized High School. They can either accept the Specialized seat OR the non Specialized HS on their acceptance form.
Comment by Anonymous — March 15, 2010 @ 10:02 am
Children that got a Specialized high school placement does not mean that they will be successful, just were able to do well on the test. There are kids who drop out/asked to leave these schools due to poor performance too. A child can have a great 7th grade and Ace it – but still have trouble – in high school.
A parent has to do the best for their child – an A+ student or not. It is disgraceful that those popular school require an A for 7th grade – and nothing is done by the DOE to level out schools for non-A+ students.
Comment by Anon — March 15, 2010 @ 5:31 pm
The fact that selective schools are so popular is the reason they can require such high grades in prospective students. So, in a way, putting such a school on top of one’s list makes it all the more selective.
Personally, I have no problem with some schools being selective. It makes sense to have advanced programs for kids who are ahead in academics. What bothers me is the single year criteria. Why is the seventh grade the only grade considered for high school admission? Why not average the sixth and seventh grades attendance grades and all? Wouldn’t that give a clearer picture of a child commitment and potential?
Comment by EFM — March 16, 2010 @ 7:13 am
So there’s still no more word on this? Unbelievable. Judging from the boards, nobody seems to be too annoyed by this. I’m extremely grateful my daughter made it into a specialized school, so we know where she’s going, but I’d be climbing the walls if she didn’t.
Comment by wondering — March 17, 2010 @ 6:20 pm
i am dieng to find out what school i get accepted to! And yes it is very nail bitting not to know. i find it really stupid to delay it and i say that the letters should be sent. i got accepted to two catholic high schools and didnt pay the admissions fee because i wanted to know what public high school i get accepted to, but now if i dont get accepted to public school in in hot water and might have to go to a zoned school. >:O
Comment by Mookie Perez — March 17, 2010 @ 10:04 pm
Mookie – you should check your posting for punctuation. It is scary to see that potential high school students do not have the basics in grammar and punctuation (and spelling).
Comment by Parent — March 17, 2010 @ 10:44 pm
Jesus. I am pissed off! I am in the 8th grade and I am very pissed. Why do we have to wait?! I’m biting my nails here. The anticipation is killing me! I am very angry that this DOE is doing this to us. My friends and I are going crazy with anticipation and curiosity!ALLAH HELP US!
Comment by Anonymous — March 22, 2010 @ 3:26 pm
I am glad that we chose to forgo this public high school nonsense and go with our catholic school choice. I hope that the guidance counselors have plenty of tissues on hand when they finally give out these results. I have a feeling that a lot of kids will be heartbroken.
Comment by howard beach parent — March 24, 2010 @ 8:50 am
Isn’t there a more reasonable way to handle this?
Like, for example, send out the letter now, and if the lawsuit get settled in favor of keeping the 19 schools open, the have a special round for those schools?
Is is really necessary to hold the entire process hostage to a legal deceision concerning 19 schools to which, rightly or wrongly, no one will be matched and which, rightly or wrongly might close?
And if the court rules in favor of keeping the schools open, what then? We start the process over?
Out weighty jurists are not thinking this one through.
Comment by bigbill — March 24, 2010 @ 11:41 am
If only the UFT really WERE “for the children” as they so impudently claim instead of being out only for their own self-serving interests. To bring about a lawsuit that is relevant to about ONE percent of the schools in the city, but negatively impacts just about EVERY EIGHTH GRADER IN TOWN is ridiculously self-aggrandizing. They want to make headlines, not Make Sense.
Comment by james — March 24, 2010 @ 11:56 am
I think its a shame thats my son and ten of thousands of other children have to suffer
Comment by kelly — March 25, 2010 @ 6:11 am
How can they say they have the childrens best interest, their actions tell scream to me they don’t. When you have a child’s best interest you would be more than willing and eager to close down failing schools in an attempt to hope that by doing so you’d motivate other schools doing poorly to get their act and take a stand this will not be tolerated any loner. WHY SHOULD ARE KIDS GO TO FAILING SCHOOLS? This makes no sense to me. If a school is failing to send a child there translates they don’t have the best interest of the child. It sounds to me like administrators egos are all up in arms and they don’t want to lose their current positions, but if they are failing then they are failing the children, and they don’t deserve their positions.
Comment by Gina — March 25, 2010 @ 2:00 pm