Disgruntled Brooklyn Parents Want to Know: Do You Hate the Middle School Search as Much as They Do?

Editor's Note: Parents for Fair and Equitable School Choice — a group of parents from School District 15 — want to hear from you. They are not happy about the process of applying to middle schools, not in their district, which includes Boerum Hill, Park Slope and Carroll Gardens, or how it's done citywide. 

We are a group of parents and educators whose children graduated from fifth grade in School District 15 last June. We believe that the district’s current system for applying to middle schools is not only stressful and unfair to families but creates a segregated set of schools with unequal resources and opportunities.

From our perspective, the current system of choice — one without zoned or neighborhood school options — creates two sets of middle schools in the district: one that siphons off a disproportionate number of white, high-achieving kids, and the other that serves primarily lower performing children of color.  

Just look at the numbers: the district is approximately 25 percent white and 40 percent Latino yet the two most selective and high-scoring schools — M.S. 51 and 447 — are each roughly 50 percent white and 20 percent Latino. 

To see if we were an anomaly, or if other parents shared our views, we created a survey about the school choice process.  We received nearly 350 responses in the first week, and the number continues to grow daily. 

Please take a moment and fill out the survey in English or in Spanish:

Here are a few choice comments we’ve collected so far:

Probably the most stressful parenting endeavor I have yet encountered

Favors English speaking parents who have access to internet and email and knowledge about using web resources.

It’s terrifying and unfair. Everyone I know stresses about it inordinately, both children and parents. And in the end the kids with the privilege get in to the better schools. The kids without go to the less resourced and supported schools.

It has become more stressful, especially for students. As a district 15 fifth grade teacher I see students with a great deal of anxiety over "doing well".

Most of the respondents were parents of current fifth and sixth graders. About 70 percent of them said they took time off to participate in the admissions process, a luxury many working parents do not have.

What do you think about the middle school application process? Fill out the survey about School District 15 – and leave other, more general comments here. 

And, in the name of transparency, here are some of the parents involved in the survey: Reyhan Mehran, Penny Fearon, Amelia Costigan,Michelle Morales, Eli and Alana Shaw, Vivian Manning-Schaffel, Miriam Troconis, Neil Ocho, Lesley Alderman, Barbara Lang, Jeanne Kempton.