PLACE MATTERS: Education, Location and Opportunity
For the past few years The Public Good has been using data science to explore issues of education, housing and social justice and how they affect the quality of urban lives.
In the coming weeks we’ll be sharing some of what we’ve learned. We hope to engage readers in a larger discourse and to explore further opportunities to continue diving deeper into the significance of place as it influences quality of life and socio-economic opportunity.
Our first piece explores the relationship between admission to NYC’s highly selective specialized high schools and NYC’s middle school neighborhoods. We look at offer numbers to understand the education pipeline that supports or neglects students to prepare for the most rigorous public high schools. We explore the pipeline through the lens of middle school location and environment.
Two months into his tenure, Chancellor David Banks outlined his vision for building trust in New York City’s public school system. Part of that involves focusing on what the individual schools and community districts need to improve educational outcomes for their children and a promise to listen and learn from communities:
“I do not want to create policy where families have not been part of the process… Our Families and Community Empowerment department will also be supporting superintendents, school leaders, and other school staff with professional development to find ways to permanently embed families’ voice in their particular school communities.”
Appropriate support for families, superintendents, school leaders and staff requires awareness of the physical environments where schools exist. Preparing students for admission to competitive high schools starts early and is influenced by daily experiences and opportunities. Are elementary and middle school neighborhoods safe from drugs and crime and are they pedestrian friendly? Do they have a variety of options for after-school enrichment, early childcare and affordable recreation for families?
In 2021 only 17% of all NYC middle schools had more than five students with offers to Specialized High Schools. Seven of the top 10 middle schools in terms of offers are in Manhattan; two are in Brooklyn and one is in Queens. While District 26 in Queens had the greatest number of schools in the top 20 middle schools in terms of offer numbers.
When it comes to creating education policies with the goal of increasing equity, we think it’s worth taking a deeper look at what’s happening on the ground locally and listening to the voices of those who live there.