City Proposes Changes To Upper West Side Diversity Plan: Report

UPPER WEST SIDE, NY — The city Department of Education is proposing two alternate plans to integrate public middle schools on the Upper West Side and in parts of Harlem after an initial plan was met with criticism, according to reports.

The DOE unveiled the two new proposals to increase racial and economic diversity at District 3 schools at a Wednesday night meeting of the district's Community Education Council, education publication Chalkbeat reported. Unlike the city's initial plan, the new proposals are not solely based on students' performance on state tests, according to the report.

The city's first alternate plan proposes reserving 25 percent of seats in each district middle school for students coming from elementary schools with high economic needs that have low test scores, Chalkbeat reported. The second plan proposes reserving 25 percent of seats for students base on an evaluation that considers both test scores and report cards, according to the report.

The DOE's middle school plan made headlines in late April when new schools Chancellor Richard Carranza sent a tweet criticizing the school district's "wealthy white Manhattan parents." Carranza retweeted an article by RawStory with the headline "WATCH: Wealthy white Manhattan parents angrily rant against plan to bring more black kids to their schools." The tweet was liked and retweeted thousands of times, but it didn't earn the chancellor any good will on the Upper West Side.

The article featured video from a Spectrum NY 1 News article about a recent meeting of Community Education Council 3 — a parent-led group that helps dictate school policy on the Upper West Side and in parts of Harlem — that featured some white parents complaining about a city plan to desegregate neighborhood middle schools.

The CEC will meet again on May 22 at PS 163 on West 97th Street to discuss the plan.

Read the full Chalkbeat story here.

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