Is Demography Still Destiny?
The NYC Department of Education is proposing the de-zoning of elementary schools in districts across the city, arguing that it will increase equity by expanding options for students to attend better schools. However, school choice alone has proven to not be sufficient to increase equity for students in the highest-needs neighborhoods. A report released by the Annenberg Institute for School Reform last year showed that after a decade of the most expansive high school choice system in the country, the college readiness of New York City high school graduates is still very highly correlated with the neighborhood they come from.
- Only 8 percent of students from Mott Haven graduate ready for college, while nearly 80 percent of students from Tribeca do.
- In the city’s neighborhoods with 100 percent Black and Latino residents, no more than 10 percent of high school students graduate ready for college.
- In the Manhattan neighborhoods with the highest college-readiness rates, fewer than 10 percent of the residents are Black or Latino.
- Eighteen of the twenty-one neighborhoods with the lowest college-readiness rates are in the Bronx (the other two are in Brooklyn).
- Thirteen of the fifteen neighborhoods with the highest college-readiness rates are in Manhattan (the other two are in Queens).
School choice in itself, whether through school creation, de-zoning or other methods,
