Episode 2: Noah Goes to High School
“If I can get out now, of course I will. Quicker the better, honestly. It makes no sense to waste another year here.”
The School for Classics is located on the top floor of a junior high building in East New York, Brooklyn.
The Cypress Hills housing project is across the street from School for Classics.
In Part Two of Noah's story, we dive into New York City's "open choice" high school admissions process, a driver of school segregation. On May 5, the New York Times ran a feature called The Broken Promises of Choice in New York City Schools, which provides an in-depth look at how the process fails low-income students of color across the city.
Below, find two excerpts from the 2017 New York City high school directory: the description of Noah's school and the "Action Steps Checklist" for families. Click here to see a PDF of the full 626-page document.
This is the 1-page overview of Noah's school in the 2017 high school directory. He was surprised to learn that the stats are two years old and much of the other information is misleading.
These are the suggested action steps for families to take when going through the high school selection process. I've found that many students, including Noah, have to navigate this complicated process on their own.