I am glad that Hannah-Jones wrote today's article on the 10-year anniversary of her 2016 essay, “Choosing a School for My Daughter in a Segregated City.” Much of what she experienced and criticizes is what many of us know and have written about: the benefits of ability grouping, accountability, high expectations, and objective measures. It’s especially sad that her daughter exhibited many of the traits of successful students, yet her mom and the system failed her. Her love of math was not nurtured, and worse, her teachers didn’t correct her along the way (and we all know that math is cumulative), to the point that she ultimately failed her Algebra Regents. As for her advocacy for integration and her admission that she “betrayed” her daughter in pursuit of it, it’s NOT the schools. For the most part, it’s about residential choices and financial constraints. She confirms much of what helps or fails students starts in elementary school. K–5 education largely depends on where families live, exacerbated by the fact that 50% of white families in NYC send their kids to private schools. The hard truth is that racial integration is very difficult to achieve, especially because most parents are unwilling to sacrifice their child’s one shot at an education for the sake of long term improvements that are stubborn to affect. Activists, including NHJ, have opposed supposed instruments of segregation like G&T, yet these programs educate fewer than 5% of elementary school students. Charter schools, which Black and Hispanic families have increasingly chosen and whose enrollment is more than 90% Black and Hispanic, make up 23% of K–5 enrollment but they actually educate students better than our district schools. Maybe Hannah-Jones is finally seeing the systemically negligent public school system that prioritizes special interests and political tenure (aka power) over the best interests of NYC kids. One can only hope.

Stuyvesant High School was ranked #2#,561 in this year’s @USNewsEducation National Rankings; last year, it was #33#. Other top NY schools also fell in the rankings. What caused the precipitous drop? @NYSED would not permit College Board to release the aggregate AP (Advanced Placement) scores used in the ranking calculations. Why? Commissioner Betty Rosa has not provided a reason, but insinuated that it was to protect student privacy. Such a bold-faced lie that @USNews issued a statement: “NYSED has characterized U.S. News’ request as an attempt to obtain protected, individual student-level data. This is categorically false. No individual student data was requested.” Why does the NYS Education Department want New York schools to look bad? We deserve an answer.