Brooklyn’s school district 15–which stretches from Boerum Hill to Sunset Park–has some of the most segregated schools in the city. This fall, as part of a new Diversity Plan in D15, sixth graders will attend public schools chosen for them through a lottery system.
The goal of the lottery system (and the wider D15 Diversity Plan) is to address racial and socio-economic segregation in the district’s 11 public middle schools, in part by removing “screens”—meaning that attendance, grades, and testing were not considered when matching students with middle schools. (You can find an outline of the process on Page 61 of the plan.)
My daughter is a 6th grader and now we, like other parents, have a number of questions about her new school. If you’re in the same boat, you know Googling for results isn’t always helpful. Often, the person you’d most like to talk to is a parent of a child who’s already attended your school. Just as often, it’s hard to tell if what other parents are telling you is rumor or speculation.
As a father and as a journalist who has overseen two news networks covering D15’s neighborhoods (Patch and DNAinfo), I see a special opportunity here: to offer families at every school in the district the information they want.
Here’s how this project will work:
- If your family has a D15 middle schooler, the survey below will allow you to submit questions to current parents at your middle school.
- If you’re a D15 middle school family member already, the survey will allow you to answer new families’ questions.
- If you’d like to help support this project across diverse communities attending D15’s public schools–we need translators, help spreading the word, and your ideas–you can sign up below.
If you have questions, please reach out to me by email.