We've been talking a lot about the "losers" under the various example scenarios floated by the Deputy Mayor for Education. I have another question-- who or what are the winners?
My thoughts:
- School proximity: While many of the proposals weaken school predicability by removing a single school of right for some or all grades, overall they may actually increase the number of families attending a school near home. (Predicability and proximity are not one in the same.) Currently, only 25-35% of families attend their school of right. Those who chose to go elsewhere often have to go substantially further away from home -- under some of these scenarios, they would have priority access to more nearby options, which could allow more families to stay closer to home.
- Specialized programs such as language immersion: Several of the scenarios flesh out adding new programs and creating or strengthening feeder relationships between specialized elementary, middle, and high schools with specific academic programs.
- Students/families currently assigned to low-performing schools: Under several of the scenarios, they'd have a better chance of ending up at a high-quality school (although under Scenario B, still a much lower chance than their peers from wealthier neighborhoods)
Any other winners? Trying to look for some of the silver linings in all of the negativity
http://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/1102971/policy-example-a.pdf
http://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/1102974/policy-example-b.pdf
http://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/1102976/policy-example-c.pdf