Last week, the Mayor and Chancellor announced the elimination of the academic screens in Middle School admissions and the elimination of geographic screens/priorities in High School admissions. Thank you to all of our parent leaders and community partners who provided ideas and recommendations on how to ensure a fairer and more equitable admissions process for next year. We will be following-up with more details in the coming weeks:
Middle School: Read the Chancellor's Update
- All middle school screens will be paused for this year. This includes academic screens, school-based assessments, composite scores, and auditions. Students will be admitted through a lottery-based system.
- District and geographic priorities, as well as Diversity in Admissions priorities, will still apply for those middle schools that have them.
- The middle school application will open the week of January 11.
High Schools: Read the Chancellor's Update
- Geographic priority for admissions will be eliminated over a 2-year period, beginning with the immediate elimination of district priority, followed by other geographic priorities in the next admissions cycle.
- In consultation with their school communities, screened high schools can choose to remove their screens, utilize the Educational Option admissions method, or maintain academic screening. For those that maintain academic screening, we encourage schools to implement a Diversity in Admissions priority.
- Schools that choose to maintain academic screening will be able to use a combination of students’ 2018-2019 state tests and grades, and the grades from the first part of last year for their screening criteria. Schools that have used their own assessments may continue to do so as long as those assessments can be administered equitably, fairly, and safely.
- Arts high schools will move to a common virtual audition system that will allow students to submit their audition materials online. Students will only need to create one audition that can be submitted for all schools that require it.
- The high school application will open the week of January 18.
- Additionally, we are required by State law to administer the Specialized High School Admissions Test (SHSAT). To ensure health and safety of our staff and students, the exam will be administered in students’ own middle schools to reduce travel and different cohorts of students intermixing. Test registration will open in myschools.nyc on Monday, December 21, 2020.
For more information and details about middle and high school enrollment, please visit the DOE’s website.
