The Urban Assembly is a group of nearly two dozen schools in New York City that are specialized but whose admissions are not competitive. They are not charter schools. They are affiliated with the New York City Board of Education. The organization released the following statement:
Prioritize Equity, Not Screens We are disappointed by the news that the current administration has prioritized a return to screens in the middle and high school admissions process. This pushes against the Urban Assembly’s value of providing all students with access to high-quality education and supporting schools and educators to meet students where they are. UA Schools remain committed to both unscreened admissions practices and excellence in student education and opportunity. High-quality schools do not result from screening out young people, but from educating them. The Urban Assembly honors the teachers and administrators who tirelessly devote themselves to elevating all students, leading to innovations that solve challenges in education rather than exacerbate them. At UA, we are proud to have been at the vanguard of innovation in public education for 25 years. Just as UA values around postsecondary outcomes and SEL are now educational values, I look forward to the day that all schools value high-quality unscreened public education that is accessible to all students. We will continue the work to bring about that day. In the coming weeks, I look forward to sharing examples of UA innovations in supporting all students with the current administration and district leaders in the pivotal moment, to promote equity in education in New York City.  David AdamsCEO, Urban Assembly |
Diane Ravitch's blog 
LikeLike
Terrible inequity is, historically speaking, the norm, alas, and it’s clear that we are heading precipitously backward in this regard. And, ofc, we see the awareness of this fact of increasing inequity reflected everywhere in our popular culture, as in this film.
The GINI Indices of Wealth and Poverty are measurements in which 0 represents perfect equality and 1 (100%) represents maximal inequality. On these measures, the U.S. ranks with Turkey, India, and Russia.
But the rich keep pushing for more of the pie. More tax breaks. More admissions. More polling places. It’s never enough. They always want more. They continue to take and take and push their toy until it breaks. Again and again throughout history this has been so.
Just have a look at Rick Scott’s new 11-point plan for America. He wants to renegotiate Social Security and Medicare every 5 years and to require that even the poorest of the poor pay some tax. And Joe Manchin refuses to re-up the expanded child tax credit, which lifted millions of little kids out of poverty and hunger, because, he says, “their parents will just use the money for drugs.”
LikeLike
LikeLike
The Urban Assembly is one of six “charter-like” support organizations that support clusters of public schools, and operate within the union contract, a unique configuration, they obviate the need for charter schools.
They can take positions at variance with the Department of Education
The organizations are part of the Affinity District, operating within the larger bureaucracy.
Google Norm Fruchter + affinity district for detailed discussion
LikeLike