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DOE Fails To Match 10% Of Eighth Graders With High Schools
By
Garth Johnston
Published Apr 1, 2011
Modified Apr 1, 2011
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By
Garth Johnston
Published Apr 1, 2011
Modified Apr 1, 2011
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Think those 2,000 kids on wait lists for kindergarten are in a bind? How about the 8,239 eighth graders who weren't matched with any of their high school choices and now have to go through the application process for the second time this year? Sigh. Department of Education officials are attributing the high number of unmatched kids—up 22% percent from last year despite fewer eighth graders applying—to an increase in information made available to students and their parents.
Each year students are allowed to apply to up to twelve schools and are then matched to one of them by computer. To help the process the DOE produces a guidebook to the 600-odd programs in 400 schools that are available and this year, for the first time, graduation rates were included. And those numbers seem to have had a dramatic effect on where students applied. "The number of applications to schools with graduation rates below 50% fell by 34% this year while schools with rates above 70% increased by 12%," according to official figures.
“What we see is that when families have more information, especially with regard to graduation rates, they naturally gravitate toward those better options for their kids,” said Marc Sternberg, the deputy chancellor in charge of the admissions process, in a statement.
Still, most of the 78,700 eighth graders getting ready for high school did get into high schools this round, if not necessarily the ones they wanted. 48% percent got into their first choice and 73% got into one of their top three choices (down slightly from last year when the numbers were 52% and 77%). Not surprisingly, six of the top ten most popular high schools were located in Manhattan, with the Baruch College Campus High School being the most sought after (the specialized high schools like Stuyvesant, Bronx Science, and LaGuardia were excluded from the list).
And in case you were curious, the city pegs the lower number of eighth grade applicants this year (there were 80,400 last year) to the increase in seventh graders held back last September.
Kids without a high school match have until April 15 to reapply for open spots in less desirable schools.
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Garth Johnston
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