2021 High School Admissions Vol. 1

By Joyce Szuflita
Read HS Admissions: Vol. 2 - it is more up to date.

The DoE announced the things we have all been waiting for yesterday (kind of).

Dates:
Registration for the SHSAT begins on Dec. 21. Deadline to register Jan. 15
The test will be administered at your current middle school beginning the week of Jan. 27
(no word on how it will work for kids in Independent, Parochial or Charter schools yet), don't panic, more details about how, and when will be released. Everyone will be attended to. For now, just register for the test on MY SCHOOLS when you can.

High School application will open the week of Jan. 18
The Deadline will be the week of Feb. 22
There is usually a gap of about 3.5 months until placements are made.

Screened Schools:
They will continue to be screened using grade and test data from 6th and part of 7th grade. They may also continue to use essays, assessments, interviews (yada yada – they each need to tell us individually what they are using, as in the past).
The schools will each determine their individual screened requirements with likely priorities for economic diversity and that info will be listed on MY SCHOOLS.

District Priorities will be removed this year but Borough Priorities MAY remain in place. Next year, Borough priorities will be removed.*

     *This has begun a flurry of speculation about opportunities in the District 2 schools from Brooklyn families. Most of those schools gave priority to District 2 THEN Manhattan THEN to NYC students as a whole. This year it may be: priority to Manhattan THEN to NYC. It appears to me that does not increase access to families in Brooklyn. Sorry folks. For exact priorities, check the individual schools’ MY SCHOOLS Directory listing - AND THE SCHOOLS own websites. The big issue here may be how late the schools finalizes their screens and priorities.

No attendance or punctuality data will be used by anyone.

Ed Opt Schools:
(this report from HS 411 since the journalists don't seem to understand how important Ed Opt Schools are to ME!)

In the past, Ed Opt programs have gathered a bell curve of students based on State ELA tests. Since no State ELA tests were given last year:
They will now use a composite score of grades from the four core subjects (English, math, science and social studies) with this break down:

• Average final grades from 6th grade (2018-19 school year)

• + Average of the Sept-Feb. marking period for 7th grade (2019-20 school year)

• + Standardized test scores from spring of 6th grade (2019) – if you don't have test scores, the DoE has, in the past, just used grades twice

THEN (maybe this is why the journalist skip the Ed Opt explanations…)
Based on this composite score it will be determined whether you are the in the HIGH, MEDIUM or LOW category. The schools will take a third of their freshman class from each category based on lottery. (This is a significant change from previous years and a boon for high performing students)

Audition:
Auditions will be held virtually through the Virtual Audition Submission Tool that will open in Jan. You will submit files to this online tool. All the schools worked together to simplify this the audition components. That information is here.

All the Audition programs will ONLY use your audition for ranking, EXCEPT La Guardia which will use some academic metrics (more info later).

To read more:
Chalkbeat