New York City has a large number of schools with competitive admissions. Some, like the Bronx High School of Science and Stuyvesant High School, are protected by state law because their graduates are successful and vocal and oppose any loosening of the entrance requirements they met. Many additional screened schools were added during the administration of Mayor Bloomberg, perhaps hoping to hold onto the relatively small number of white students in the public schools. Asian American families strongly defend test-based admissions policies, and their children are over-represented at the most selective schools.
Mayor Adams, who controls the city’s public schools, announced a restoration of screened admissions.
The New York Times reported:
New York City’s selective middle schools can once again use grades to choose which students to admit, the school chancellor, David C. Banks, announced on Thursday, rolling back a pandemic-era moratorium that had opened the doors of some of the city’s most elite schools to more low-income students.
Selective high schools will also be able to prioritize top-performing students.
The sweeping move will end the random lottery for middle schools, a major shift after the previous administration ended the use of grades and test scores two years ago. At the city’s competitive high schools, where changes widened the pool of eligible applicants, priority for seats will be limited to top students whose grades are an A average.
The question of whether to base admissions on student performance prompted intense debate this fall. Many Asian American families were particularly vocal in arguing that the lotteries excluded their children from opportunities they had worked hard for. But Black and Latino students are significantly underrepresented at selective schools, and some parents had hoped the previous admissions changes would become permanent to boost racial integration in a system that has been labeled one of the most segregated in the nation.
“It’s critically important that if you’re working hard and making good grades, you should not be thrown into a lottery with just everybody,” Mr. Banks said, noting that the changes were based on family feedback.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
I suppose that the logical next step is to have siblings fight it out with weapons over who gets to eat and who goes to bed wounded and hungry. How about selective admissions preschool? How about selective admissions grocery stores? Give neoliberals a chance and they will strip everything in the world down to an uncivilized, downright antediluvian struggle for survival. Screw thy neighbor.
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Especially sorry to see that the new Mayor and Chancellor are endorsing a policy that will harm poor children of color. But then, Mayor Adams used to be a Republican.
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The new mayor is the new top cop and will seek mass incarceration for everyone against whom the entrepreneurial system is rigged. He is Republican Lite, just like Bloomberg.
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The idea of a public school having admissions policies, with very, very few exceptions, like a school for the arts, should be unimaginable.
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A downright shame. Instead of taking the time to review and young people on the many ways they are smart and what their interests are, NYC Schools once again are looking at a narrow range of variables to make make decisions that only show how smart you are to a test.
Then of course, the schools that these students would have gone to lose their top scorers on tests (that I don’t think show much) and get lower ratings.
When are we giong to stop the madness? When are we going to create a system of public schools that is truly public?
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These are difficult questions, with negative consequences no matter how they are decided. Classes that have students with a wide range of abilities present a huge challenge for the teacher. Given all the other obstacles to effective teaching, why make it even harder to give each child what he or she needs, to engage everyone, to present material at a level all students can respond to? And if so called tracking does happen within a school, how will it look when the accelerated, or “enrichment” classes have a racial mix obviously different from the rest of the school? Is that better than entire schools that are not representative of the city as a whole? And if children are grouped by ability, would it then be possible for teachers to work more effectively to improve levels for all? Surely it’s a no brainer to promote more specialized high schools so the number of places increases. And promote smaller classes and effective teaching at preK and lower grades so all children have a chance to excel, not just the ones from privileged homes.
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The Pacific Legal Group is hoping to win a case before the Supreme Court this session to overturn diversity mandates in our public schools.
The Pacific Legal Foundation was founded in 1973, during Ronald Reagan’s tenure as California governor, by his supporters who envisioned a conservative version of the American Civil Liberties Union.
Since then, the organization, based in Sacramento, has expanded greatly. Its most recent annual budget was $17 million. Critics point to the group’s well-heeled donors and partners, including the Kochs, the Atlas Network and the Uihlein family, who operate the large business products supply company Uline, as proof that it is heavily influenced by business interests. The foundation says its support comes from 6,400 donors.
The foundation has a successful track record: 14 victories in Supreme Court cases. It is also known as a prolific filer of “friend of the court” briefs, including in support of Students for Fair Admissions, the Virginia-based group waging a legal battle against affirmative action at Harvard and North Carolina.
Here in Boston, we have a new admissions policy for our three screened schools. There’s a small group of relentless posters on Twitter who just cannot stop themselves from making racist remarks about how the quality of those schools has been ruined because the admitted class is less white than it once was.
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