ERIC Number: ED559679
Record Type: Non-Journal
Publication Date: 2015-Mar
Pages: 47
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: N/A
EISSN: N/A
Pathways to an Elite Education: Application, Admission, and Matriculation to New York City's Specialized High Schools. Working Paper
Corcoran, Sean P.; Baker-Smith, Christine
Research Alliance for New York City Schools
New York City's elite public specialized high schools have a long history of offering a rigorous college preparatory education to the City's most academically talented students. Though immensely popular and highly selective, their policy of admitting students on the basis of a single entrance exam has been heavily criticized. Many argue, for example, that the policy inhibits diversity at the schools, which are predominately Asian, White, and male. In this paper, we provide a descriptive analysis of the "pipeline" from middle school to matriculation at a specialized high school, identifying group-level differences in rates of application, admission, and enrollment unexplained by measures of prior achievement. These differences serve to highlight points of intervention to improve access for under-represented groups. We also look at the role of middle schools in the pipeline, examining the distribution of offers across middle schools and testing for middle school effects on application and admission. Finally, we simulate the effects of alternative admissions rules on the composition of students at the specialized high schools. A data appendix and additional tables and figures are included.
Descriptors: High Schools, Urban Schools, Special Schools, Gifted, Talent, Admission Criteria, Enrollment Trends, Prior Learning, Disproportionate Representation, Intervention, Educational Needs, Gender Differences, Racial Differences, Neighborhoods, Middle School Students, Institutional Characteristics, Outcome Measures, Cohort Analysis, Student Records, Performance Factors, Academic Persistence, Graduation Rate, Grade 8, School Policy, Selective Admission, Simulation, Academic Standards, Scores, Competitive Selection, Statistical Distributions, Regression (Statistics), Academic Achievement
Research Alliance for New York City Schools. 285 Mercer Street 3rd Floor, New York, NY 10003. Tel: 212-992-7697; Fax: 212-992-4910; e-mail: research.alliance@nyu.edu; Web site: http://www.ranycs.org
Publication Type: Reports - Evaluative; Reports - Research-practitioner Partnerships
Education Level: High Schools; Secondary Education; Middle Schools; Junior High Schools; Grade 8; Elementary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: New York University, Research Alliance for New York City Schools; New York University, Institute for Education and Social Policy (IESP)
Identifiers - Location: New York
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A