Two Decades of NYC High School Admissions: Effects, Equity, and Experiences 2024

We are excited to invite you to a day-long conference on November 18th at Fordham Law School titled “Two Decades of NYC High School Admissions: Effects, Equity, and Experiences” where we will commemorate the twentieth anniversary of New York City’s high school centralized admissions process. This event is brought by Fordham Law School’s Feerick Center for Social Justice and New York Appleseed and will bring together a diverse group of practitioners, researchers, advocates, as well as students and families. 

The conference will examine New York City’s high school admissions process, the various original policy rationales for its adoption, and what current scholarship and research show concerning its impact on students, families, and schools. The conference will also explore seat assignment systems and decision-making, as well as the effect of the pandemic on how school systems, including New York City, changed admissions for selective schools—and how some of these changes have been rolled back. Finally, the conference will also delve into the public conversation around high school admissions and ask how students, families, and educators would like to make the process more responsive to their goals and needs as well as more democratic.