Report Highlights School Segregation in New York City

A report by the Center for New York City Affairs at The New School finds that 40 percent of New York City kindergartners do not attend the neighborhood school to which they are assigned, exacerbating a persistent problem of school segregation. Using data from 2007 to 2016 from the city’s Department of Education, the study found that students who opt to attend schools in a different zone tend to enroll in schools with higher levels of academic achievement – as measured by test scores – and fewer low-income classmates. In contrast, those who attend schools they are assigned to are more likely to find themselves in schools with higher concentrations of poverty. The report proposes that if every student went to their assigned school, students would be “marginally” less segregated, racially and socioeconomically.