The Opposite Side

Remember that many over-age middle schools students do not advance to high school for three specific reasons -- (1) Schooling is interrupted, (2) students need to change schools but have nowhere to go and (3) appropriate academic supports are not provided -- according to the reported published by Advocates for Children of New York City.

But what about the opposite end of the spectrum? The New York City public school admissions process has grown to be competitive and overwhelming. The New York Times published an article in December about the struggles of one mother and daughter to show the tedious steps for families who have children getting ready for high school. Reporter Jennifer Medina writes:

Ms. [Clara] Hemphill, who is a senior editor at the Center for New York City Affairs at the New School, has skipped at least two full days of work this fall, and has come in late or left early many other times to attend campus tours. She spent much of November on the phone with parents of children enrolled in the schools Allison was interested in. This weekend, her daughter had an 8 a.m. audition at Professional on Saturday and a 1:30 p.m. interview at Beacon on Sunday.

“I’m about as well-equipped as I can be, and I find it to be incredibly exhausting and frustrating,” she said. “You have to keep track of which application has to come with an essay, which has to be hand delivered, which requires a tour. It can be a full-time job.”


When they are in eighth grade, more than 80,000 NYC students must rank the city's 400 high schools in order from their top to bottom choices. When spring arrives, each student is assigned to a high school, usually the student's top choice. But the process is demanding and confusing because public schools do not have an admissions staffs like private schools do.

In this particular case, eighth grader Allison Snyder and her mother, Clara Hempill, make the time and have the motivation to trek through the tiresome high school admissions process. But what about those who don't? As mentioned in last week's posting, a new policy in New York City will make it so that students now must pass standardized tests to advance to high school. This -- in addition to the already demanding process of high school admissions, in addition to those listed by the Advocates for Children -- may only increase the number of over-age middle school students and might, in fact, fuel the problem even further.