GothamSchools — daily independent reporting on NYC public schools

Buried in a New York Times article about the suspension of George Washington High School’s famed baseball coach is a reminder of the steep challenge students face when trying to switch high schools.

Fernelys Sanchez was admitted to Lehman High School in the Bronx but wanted to play baseball for George Washington’s winning team, the Times reports. So he moved into his father’s apartment in Washington Heights. Then he tried — for more than a year before he succeeded — to win a transfer.

But a policy shift over the last several years means that the city’s system of school choice largely closes off once students are in high school.

“For whatever reason, it has become increasingly difficult, almost impossible, to get a transfer to another regular high school,” Pamela Wheaton of Insideschools told me two years ago. City officials say it’s not educationally sound for students to change high schools unless they absolutely have to.

The city gives three reasons students can transfer from one high school to another: a long commute, a safety risk, or a health issue. Sanchez’s family said he tried all of them: (more…)

Image courtesy of the Center for New York City Affairs

The city’s complicated high school application process makes low-income and non-English-speaking students more likely to wind up in low-performing schools, some advocates and researchers say. (more…)

Geoffrey Canada (via Flickr)

Harlem Children’s Zone founder Geoffrey Canada has been a big supporter of Joel Klein and Mayor Bloomberg’s education initiatives. So I was surprised yesterday to hear Canada criticize the kind of focused attention on test scores that has characterized their leadership.

The education world’s focus on basic academic results could put valuable programs at risk as the economy sours, Canada warned yesterday during a conference hosted by TC’s Campaign for Educational Equity.

He said he worries that the recession will hit poor communities such as Harlem the hardest, as government and private funders slash budgets for education and other services.

Canada said that distress could be compounded by the education world’s fixation with math and reading performance because other subjects could get short shrift when funds are scarce.

“Unfortunately, so much of the discussion is around academic outcomes that people are going to make some false choices,” Canada said. “We are going to create a hole that we are not going to be able to dig ourselves out of.” (more…)