12,000-14,000 New York City eighth grade students were denied admission to any public high school. This is an appalling statistic. "How, why, and what now?" are questions for the New York City Department of Education, an entity that never answers questions, denies everything, and listens to no one. And now we find out that several of the most popular high schools have unfilled seats...

Empty Seats at Top Schools Go Unfilled
By DAVID M. HERSZENHORN, NY TIMES, June 23, 2004

The new high school admissions system in New York City has left dozens of seats for the coming school year unfilled in some of the city's most sought-after schools, according to admissions data and interviews with principals and other school personnel.

At Townsend Harris High School at Queens College, where more than 6,000 students apply each year for fewer than 300 places in the ninth-grade class, officials said that at least 40 seats had been left empty after an unexpectedly high number of applicants who now attend private or parochial school turned down the admissions offer.

Other sought-after schools with open seats include Eleanor Roosevelt High School on the Upper East Side, the law program at Forest Hills High School in Queens and the math and science research program at Francis Lewis High School in Queens.

One reason for the vacancies is that the city's new system eliminated the use of waiting lists. At the same time, some of the best-performing neighborhood high schools have been forced to accept extra students and will be even more severely overcrowded next year than in the past, according to the results of the admissions process, which concluded this month.

The overcrowding is expected to worsen at these schools even though the Education Department paid more than $1 million for improvements to the admissions system that specifically included the flexibility to limit the size of these schools.

For example, at Benjamin N. Cardozo High School, also in Queens, one of the city's well-performing but overcrowded neighborhood schools, the principal, Rick Hallman, said enrollment would top 4,000 in September, up from 3,920.

"We expect to be significantly above our register for this past year," Mr. Hallman said. "I know our overcrowding will get greater."

He added, "My concern all along has been our overall size because there is only so much a school can handle."

Other large schools expected to get even bigger include Fort Hamilton High School in Brooklyn and Herbert H. Lehman High School in the Bronx.

In all, officials said there were at least 55 seats vacant in popular schools. Filling them would be a complicated and politically sensitive process, and Elizabeth Sciabarra, the top city official in charge of enrollment, said that there was no immediate plan to do so. Ms. Sciabarra said that offering those seats to students already placed in other schools would create a ripple effect that could ultimately change the placements of hundreds of students. She said that the department was considering appeals from students that might fill some seats, and that students new to the city might fill others.

Last month, officials acknowledged that the principal of Stuyvesant, one of the city's most coveted specialized high schools, had improperly reduced the size of the incoming class by about 100. And Ms. Sciabarra cited a similar ripple effect as the reason that 100 more students could not be admitted to the school for September.

Instead, Ms. Sciabarra said Stuyvesant would add 200 more students for the 2005-2006 school year, angering students who had just missed the cutoff on this year's entrance exam.

Officials at Townsend Harris High said yesterday that they were working with Ms. Sciabarra in hopes of filling its open seats.

The city's new admissions process, adopted this school year, is modeled on a computerized system used to match medical school graduates with residency programs. Students can apply to a dozen schools but are matched to just one based on their preference and the ranking of applicants by the schools.

Officials say the process slightly increased the number of students admitted to their first-choice school. Of the 94,037 children who applied this year, 33.6 percent were offered a seat in their first-choice school, up from 26.7 percent last year.

In late 2001, the city hired Spherion Technology Architects, a division of a Fort Lauderdale, Fla., company, to run the admissions process. The size of the contract has been increased several times as Mr. Klein has ordered changes to the system, and now totals about $5 million.

Just last week, city education officials were hailing the results of the final round of admissions, in which more than 11,000 students were assigned to schools after being denied their top choices in their first two rounds or after failing to fill out an application. And officials boasted that they had so far received only 2,100 appeals, or about one-fourth as many as last year.

But the number of complaints seemed certain to rise as parents reacted to the news that seats in popular schools remained unfilled after many children had been rejected.

Susan Shiroma, the P.T.A. president at Middle School 216 in Flushing, Queens, said she knew of two students with grade-point averages in the mid-90's who were denied admission to Townsend Harris.

"If you were a parent of a kid who had a 93 average and found out there were extra spots available, wouldn't you be incensed?" she said. "For so many of our middle school kids, that is the dream school for them.''

The Education Department said yesterday that it did not know how many big schools were likely to be overcrowded. It provided citywide admissions results but added that the numbers were certain to change.

Enrollment rises at most local high schools each fall as a result of the registrations of students newly arrived in the neighborhood, something that principals call "over the counter" admissions.

Robert Leder, the principal of Lehman High, said he expected his enrollment to climb to nearly 4,300. And with two small high schools also housed in his building, the school's total population will be nearly 4,600, he said.

The new small high schools are a priority for Chancellor Klein, and more than 50 are opening this September with a total of about 5,000 seats. But Mr. Leder and other principals say that the new initiative comes at the expense of existing big schools.

"What's patently unfair is to continue to make the bigger schools bigger,'' he said. "It is potentially dangerous. When you continue to pour kids on top of kids, you are looking for trouble."

Stephen Morello, a spokesman for Chancellor Klein, said that the system was better but that officials recognized that flaws remained. "We consider this dramatic improvement," he said. "We don't consider the improvement finished."
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In N.Y.C., choice words about 'choice'
By Teresa Mendez, The Christian Science Monitor, June 22, 2004

NEW YORK - A soft-spoken eighth grader, Samantha Logan seems almost
demure in the shadow of her mother. Laura Logan is fuming, and has
been since May 5, when she first tore into a letter from the New York
City Department of Education. It stated simply that her daughter had
not been "matched" - which meant that Samantha did not have a high
school to attend come fall.

In New York, families may choose from a vast array of public high
schools. Open enrollment - just one part of the school choice movement
here - allows students to attend any of the 290 schools in the city,
eliminating the geographic constraints that have traditionally - and
some say arbitrarily - confined students to their neighborhood public
schools.

The idea is that students who select a school will be happier and more
successful, and families will become more involved in their children's
education.

Today, 46 states have in place some form of open enrollment - either
within a district or city, or, as in Minnesota, even within a state -
according to the Education Commission of the States. Last year 32
states had such programs. With provisions in the 2001 federal No Child
Left Behind Act that encourage parents to pluck their children from
failing schools and move them to other district schools, even states
without explicit policies do, in effect, have open enrollment.

But demonstrating just how complicated it can be to throw open school
doors citywide - particularly here in the nation's largest school
system - Samantha was one of 12,000 to 14,000 rising ninth graders
who, until earlier this month, had no idea where they would be going
to high school.

It's left some critics pondering the toll that this dizzying number of
options might be taking on children - and their parents.

"I believe it has a devastating effect on parents," says Barry
Schwartz, a psychology professor at Swarthmore College in
Pennsylvania, and author of "The Paradox of Choice: Why More is Less."

In a choice-saturated society where there are alternatives for
everything from electronics to education, Professor Schwartz says that
people expend too much time and energy gauging their options. And
hoping to make the perfect decision - an elusive aim that he says is
unrealistic - inevitably leaves one disappointed. Schwartz's advice is
to learn to be content with "good enough." But picking a school, he
says, "is an area of decisionmaking where parents are especially
vulnerable." After all, what parent is willing to settle when it comes
to her child?

After the "match" letter arrived, her family was "in an uproar," says
Laura Logan. She took a week off work, visited Samantha's guidance
counselor six times, and penned a furious letter to Schools Chancellor
Joel Klein admonishing: "I find your new system a disgrace to
children."

To manage the tens of thousands of students entering ninth grade each
year, New York requires high school applications. This year brought a
new system similar to the one that matches medical students with
residency programs: Students rank their choice of schools, schools
rank students, and a computer matches them. Students could apply to as
many as 12 schools and programs, up from just five in past years.

But for families like the Logans, New York's system of choice came to
feel like an unruly web of applications, mysterious computer
assignments, and, ultimately, disappointment worthy of the college
application process.

Logan says she still doesn't understand what happened - why her
daughter, a student with a 90 average and good scores on city tests,
wasn't accepted to any of the schools she listed on her application.
The lesson Samantha says she has walked away with is that "even if you
do well, it's not like it pays off."

This year, 3,200 more students applied to public high school than in
2003, exacerbating an ongoing problem: insufficient slots in the most
desirable schools.

Rather than a case of choice gone awry, though, school officials say
38 percent more students were matched this year than last.

And despite a perception among parents that computers haphazardly
controlled the fate of their children, Elizabeth Sciabarra, who
oversees high school admissions for the city, says, "The way kids
listed the schools on their application is the catalyst for the
computer figuring out the match."

As of June 10, every applicant had a seat in school for next year. And
for every parent like Logan, there were more than five whose children
received offers from schools on their original list. That makes for
70,000 to 80,000 "happy parents," according to Ms. Sciabarra.

The model held up as open enrollment at its best also comes out of New
York - circa 1974. Within eight years, Harlem's District 4, composed
predominantly of low-income minority families, had risen from dead
last among the city's 32 school districts to 17th. By 1982, every
student in the district was required to apply to junior high.

"Parents weren't stuck in a school," says Deborah Meier, a principal
at the Mission Hill School in Boston, who was one of the reformers
behind District 4's "miracle." "That gave them a certain loyalty to
the school they chose." Even if they stuck with their neighborhood
school, the act of choice made them more engaged.

Rather than expending so much effort on picking the best schools for
their children, Schwartz says, parents should be encouraged to invest
that energy into improving neighborhood schools. The momentum of
school choice, with its movement away from neighborhood schools and
emphasis on market values and competition, doesn't look to be ramping
down anytime soon.

New York, however, is trying to smooth out some of this year's
glitches - largely communication problems. An outreach program for
sixth-graders and their parents will give families an extra year to
research and select schools.

For the Logans, though, it's too little too late. Laura has pulled her
daughter from the public school system, opting instead for parochial
school and tuition fees that she's not sure she and her husband can
afford. Had she known the anxiety and disappointment that awaited
them, she says, "I would never have put us through this."
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BACKGROUND

In October, 2003, the New York City Department of Education issued a report on the new admissions process for high school admissions (excluding the specialized high schools and La Guardia HS for the Performing Arts) whereby eigth grade students would apply to 12 high schools, listed in order of preference, and a computer would "match" the students to the top choice whenever possible. This is the same process used in the admission to medical school.

How well is the new process working? As of May 6, 2004, 12,000 to 14,000 eighth graders who are in need of a ninth grade placement in September still do not have a school to go to, according to the New York Times
[34% Got Their First City High School Choice By DAVID M. HERSZENHORN.

If the DOE is correct in their reporting that about 35,000 did not get into a high school by this time last year, this is an improvement, but we want to know:
1. What is being done to get a placement for the children still without a school to go to?
2. How will a school be decided upon, and who will be deciding on which school these kids attend?
3. What socio/economic background do the children who are still without a placement have?
4. Is 14,000 a true estimate, or is the actual number of kids without high schools much higher?

14,000 students learn high school pick a no-go
DAILY NEWS May 6, 2004
By ELIZABETH HAYS, NICOLE BODE and KATHLEEN LUCADAMO

Up to 14,000 teary-eyed eighth-graders were shut out of public high schools yesterday under the Education Department's new citywide admissions policy.
For the first time, all city students were required to apply to public high schools - even their neighborhood school. They could list as many as a dozen choices.

But as of yesterday - when guidance counselors delivered acceptances - about 14,000 students had no takers, according to the Education Department.

One Brooklyn guidance counselor said nearly a quarter of her eighth-graders didn't get into any of their wish-list schools. "I'm sick over it. It was terrible, just dreadful," she said yesterday after handing out the rejection letters to crying children. "Most of the kids who did not get a school are good kids - the ones who work hard. And they didn't get anything."

Officials said 84% of 94,000 students who applied got into one of their 12 picks. Roughly 30,000 eighth-graders earned their top choice and another 34,000 were assigned their second or third choice, according to the Education Department.

Muba Yarofulani, the parent association president at Intermediate School 285 in Brooklyn, said the new process had many parents fuming. "People have been calling all day," she said.

There will be a final admissions round for the students who were rejected by up to a dozen schools. All students must get placed.

Some students who didn't get their first pick are appealing.

Joel Mowatt, 14, was sold on the math program at Curtis High School on Staten Island - but was told to go to New Dorp High School, his zoned school.

"Why go through all the paperwork if the kid wasn't going to get the school of his choice?" his mom, Marva Mowatt, asked.

Chancellor Joel Klein touted a 38% increase in students who got one of their choice schools compared with last year.

In the past, students were automatically assigned to their zoned school and applied only for specialized ones.
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Flaws In The High School Admission Process
by Marcia Biederman (Gotham Gazette, June, 2004)

Roman Kravchenko, an 8th grader in Brooklyn, came to this country two years ago. After one year of English as a Second Language classes at Joseph B. Cavallaro Intermediate School 28, he attained full language proficiency. Now he studies reading and writing alongside American-born students. He got a 94 in English on his last report card and a 95 average overall.

Yet Roman has not been accepted to any of the six public high school programs to which he applied. Now he's one of 14,000 young New Yorkers adrift in an adolescent limbo created by the city's new high school matching system.

Roman came here from Russia to become a boy without a country. As of early June, he and the thousands like him didn't know where they'd be in September. For the first time in New York, they can't even count on attending their neighborhood school.

The latest edition of the "Directory of the New York City Public High Schools" http://www.nycenet.edu/OurSchools/HSDirectory -- the city's instrument for guiding eighth graders and their parents through the high school admissions process -- boasts cartoons, youth-oriented graphics and "fun facts" about famous New York City high school graduates like Lucy Liu and Colin Powell.

But it lacks a comforting sentence that was included in the more humdrum edition of the previous year: "If you received no offers, you will attend the local high school." That is no longer true. Students must list even their local, zoned high school as one of their choices and hope for a match.

Roman wasn't shooting for the moon. His dream is to attend Edward R. Murrow High School, a school popular with Brooklyn's middle class that accepts students of various abilities. He applied to three selective programs there - each counted as one choice - and to another well-regarded school, Madison. He also listed Franklin D. Roosevelt and New Utrecht High Schools. Some might say those last two should have been happy to have him.

Nobody wanted him, perhaps because Roman's high average and swift mastery of English couldn't remedy a fatal flaw: in 7th grade, he'd been placed in English as a Second Language Arts. His official designation as an English Language Learner had barred him from taking the 7th grade state standardized exam in English Language Arts, and high school admissions revolve around 7th grade scores.

Roman had been instructed outright not to apply to high schools with "screened" admissions, which in the arcane parlance of high school admissions, absolutely require the 7th grade English Language Arts test score. But the lack of the score couldn't have helped him with the other schools either.

"When I found out that no school wanted to take me, I thought, what did I do wrong? It's my fault," said Roman.

Such reactions are common in unmatched students. They sound like mugging victims.

Soon, however, Roman found his bearings.. "Even my teachers said, 'It's some kind of mistake. With your average, no school? What nonsense.' That's when I decided to fight back."

He and his mother, Polina, have decided to renew their push for Murrow. Armed with recommendations from Roman's teachers, Polina secured a letter from a Murrow assistant principal agreeing to accept the boy if the Department of Education consents.

In the meantime, Roman was given a list of schools that still have openings and told to rank his choices again for the final round of the admissions process. There were still openings at Madison, and he will soon learn if he was accepted. In late May he didn't feel hopeful: every unmatched kid he knows had ranked Madison first, he said.

He found the other schools on the list unacceptable. "Their graduation rates were less than 50 percent. I was shocked," said the honors student.

If the match system failed Roman because he's a former English Language Learner, it failed another student at his Brooklyn middle school for very different reasons.

Jason Reichman, also an eighth grader at I.S. 281, had considered Murrow, too. But Jason has been diagnosed with Attention Deficit Disorder. His mother, Nancy, said, "When I saw how unstructured and laid-back Murrow is, I said, 'Jason, this is not for you,' and he agreed."

Instead, they looked for a smaller school, where Jason would be sure to get attention. His mother said he does well in all subjects except math, for which he has an individual educational plan.

"He needs a little extra guidance," Jason's mother said. "He's not special ed or a top student. He tends to get lost in the shuffle."

The city has supposedly addressed the needs of students like Jason with the creation of new small high schools set to open in September. In the spirit of we-told-you-so, the city announced that more than 8,000 students who applied to one of the small high schools opening in September were matched to them.

Indeed, Nancy Reichman wanted her son to apply to the new high schools - until she learned that the closest ones were eight or nine miles from her Gravesend home and not on a direct public-transit route. In the end, she found only three schools of acceptable size for Jason to list. Two are highly sought after: Telecommunications and Technology High School and Leon M. Goldstein High School for the Sciences. The third, Brooklyn Studio High School, was a pioneer in mainstreaming special education students into general education classes.

Jason received no offers. "My son felt like a failure," his mother said. "It's a farce. They give them all these choices, and all of a sudden there are no choices."

Like Roman, they were given a list of schools with open seats. Not one met Jason's needs. Because she had to submit something, Nancy wrote the name of New Utrecht High School, affixed the notation "signed under protest," and faxed it to the education department with an appeal.

Jason is feeling better, his mother said, because he knows "I'll continue to fight it even if I have to get a lawyer."

The city's new high school admissions process is said to resemble the match program that admits med school graduates to residencies. But Roman and Jason aren't looking for prestigious places to advance their careers. They're just two kids who want to succeed in city high schools that have failed so many others.

Marcia Biederman writes about city public schools for InsideSchools.org and contributes regularly to The New York Times.