TL;DR
Get gifts for the two of you delivered free with Prime
- Fast, free delivery on millions of items
- Prime Video, Amazon Music and more included
- Member-only deals all year
At an Oct. 20 town hall, journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones asked New York City schools Chancellor Kamar Samuels about adopting recommendations that include ending screened admissions and changing school zones. The 74’s opinion article argues that New York’s past zoning changes and San Francisco’s recently abandoned citywide lottery show integration policies have not reliably improved achievement for disadvantaged students. The available source does not report that NYC has adopted a new plan.
At an Oct. 20 town hall, journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones asked New York City Public Schools Chancellor Kamar Samuels whether he and Mayor Zohran Mamdani would pursue recommendations to end admissions screening and redraw or remove school attendance zones. The question comes as San Francisco’s school board has voted to replace its citywide choice lottery with neighborhood zones, a change cited in a new opinion article as a warning against assuming integration policies will raise achievement.
The 74’s commentary says Hannah-Jones raised the recommendations of New York City’s former Diversity Task Force during the discussion. The proposals included ending admissions based on grades or test scores and changing residential school boundaries. Samuels pointed to Manhattan’s District 3, where middle-school screening was eliminated during his tenure, and the article says he now favors seeking stakeholder support rather than imposing policies from the top down.
The article also reviews a 2016 District 3 rezoning involving three elementary schools. It says the high-performing, relatively wealthy PS 452 moved into the former PS 191 building, which received a new facility, and PS 199’s attendance area was changed to include some students from Amsterdam Houses. The commentary reports that over the following decade PS 452’s ranking based primarily on test scores fell nine percentile points, PS 199’s fell six points, and PS 191 remained well below average. It presents these figures as evidence against assuming rezoning alone improves achievement.
The opinion piece compares those results with District 1, where elementary schools have been unzoned since 1989 and families can apply across the district. It cites different grade-level proficiency figures at PS 19, Earth School and PS 134, alongside their shares of students qualifying for free or reduced-price meals. The author argues those differences show that school assignment policies have not produced uniformly high outcomes. The article does not provide a full independent evaluation of those schools or establish that the assignment policies caused the reported results.
NYC’s School-Zoning Debate
The issue affects how families gain access to schools and how districts balance integration, neighborhood access and academic outcomes. Ending screened admissions or redrawing boundaries could change where students attend school, while a citywide choice process may place greater demands on families to understand applications and deadlines.
The 74’s author argues that integration should not be treated as a stand-alone fix for low achievement, pointing to differences among New York schools and San Francisco’s decision to change course. That is the article’s interpretation, not a settled finding that integration policies caused the results described. The policy question matters because NYC officials are weighing how to address unequal access and achievement across a very large school system.
Popular right now
Dyson Cyclone V10 Origin Cordless Vacuum
Shark Navigator Robot Vacuum with Self-Empty Base, Dark Grey (RV2120AE)
KitchenAid Artisan 5-Quart Tilt-Head Stand Mixer, KSM150PS, Almond Cream
As an affiliate, we earn on qualifying purchases.
San Francisco Reverses Its Lottery
According to The 74, San Francisco Unified School District adopted a citywide choice lottery in 2011, replacing an earlier arrangement based on attendance zones and federal racial quotas. The lottery included priority for students from areas with historically low standardized-test scores. The district board voted on Oct. 13 to scrap that system and return to residential zones, while retaining the option to apply to specialized programs across the city.
Superintendent Maria Su said the existing process had not worked equally for all families. She cited neighborhood schools losing students and resources when families chose other options, as well as unequal ability to navigate a complicated application system. The 74’s author also points to private-school enrollment in San Francisco, reporting that about 30% of children in kindergarten through 12th grade attend private schools, compared with a California average of around 8%. Those figures are presented by the source as context for the district’s choice system, not as proof that it caused private-school enrollment.
“Many families who do not feel confident in their neighborhood school choose to go elsewhere, which leaves those schools with fewer students and fewer resources.”
— Maria Su, as quoted by The 74
NYC’s Policy Direction Remains Open
The source describes a question raised at a town hall, but it does not report that Mamdani or Samuels has adopted a new integration plan, nor does it give a timetable for a decision. It is also unclear whether city leaders will pursue the former task force’s specific recommendations, modify them, or take a different approach after consulting families and other stakeholders.
The results cited for New York schools do not, by themselves, establish why achievement levels changed or remained different. The commentary argues that rezoning and unzoning have not delivered the academic gains their supporters expect, but its examples do not constitute a controlled comparison of policy effects. San Francisco’s vote marks a policy reversal; the source does not provide evidence yet on how the new assignment system will affect enrollment, integration or student performance.
Watch for NYC’s Public Proposals
The next development to watch is whether the mayor and chancellor outline proposals on screened admissions, school zones or school choice, and how they seek input from families. The source says Samuels has advocated soliciting stakeholder support, but it gives no schedule for consultations or policy announcements.
In San Francisco, the board’s vote sets the district on a path back to residential zones, with applications still available for specialized programs. The effects of that change will take time to assess; the supplied report does not specify an implementation timetable or measures the district will use to judge its results.
Key Questions
Did NYC announce a new school integration plan?
No. The source reports that Hannah-Jones asked Chancellor Kamar Samuels about possible policies at an Oct. 20 town hall. It does not report an adopted plan or a formal announcement.
What changes did Hannah-Jones ask Samuels about?
She asked about recommendations that would end admissions screening based on grades or test scores and redraw, or possibly remove, residential school zones.
What did San Francisco’s school board vote to change?
The 74 reports that on Oct. 13 the district voted to replace its citywide choice lottery with residential attendance zones, while keeping application options for specialized programs.
Does the article prove that integration policies lower achievement?
No. The opinion piece uses selected school results to argue that rezoning and unzoning have not reliably raised achievement. Those examples do not establish that assignment policies caused the outcomes.
Source: rss
