Posted on May 8, 2018

How an Ultra-Exclusive Public School Has Avoided a Citywide Diversity Push

Melissa Klein, New York Post, May 6, 2018

The children of Cynthia Nixon, Samantha Bee and Louis C.K. got into this popular public middle school, while hundreds of others are shut out every year.

The Center School has operated like a fiefdom on the Upper West Side, enrolling just 234 students in grades 5 to 8 with a mysterious admissions process that pledges diversity in race and ability but has resulted in a school that is mostly white, affluent and high-performing.

As the Upper West Side’s District 3 struggles to bring “academic diversity” and desegregation to the area, The Center School stands out as an island of privilege.

It would be exempt from the Department of Education proposal to require middle schools in District 3 give 25 percent of admissions priority to students scoring at the lowest two levels on state English and math tests.

The school’s loophole lies in the fact that it begins admitting students in fifth grade, not sixth, as the district’s other schools do. {snip}

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The West 84th Street school is one of just eight middle schools in the city that has its own admissions policy, but most of the others have clear guidelines for entry, {snip}.

Not The Center School. The process there is a mystery to the students who apply in fourth grade and are interviewed by both a current student and a teacher. Some 350 kids vie for 55 spots, and they can live outside of the district.

“They have their completely own independent rubric which they don’t have to release or justify,” said Alina Adams, an education consultant. “Nobody knows how kids get into that school.”

One mother said that during an admissions interview, her daughter was asked what her parents did for a living.

Another parent cried foul over the admissions process in a comment posted on Insideschools.org.

“They ‘never received’ our application materials. Turns out the exact same excuse was used on another family we know,” it read.

Those who do win a coveted spot love it.

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The school opened in 1982 to lure kids who were fleeing to private schools.

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The Center School has become increasingly white and affluent in the last decade. In 2008, parents — including Nixon — argued that moving the school from its location within PS 199 would result in less diversity. At the time, it was 55 percent white, 23 percent black and 13 percent Hispanic with a “poverty rate” of 38 percent.

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This year, the school’s population is 58 percent white, 12 percent black, 18 percent Hispanic, 6 percent Asian and 6 percent other. Twelve percent of students qualified for free lunch.