Danielle Filson, a spokeswoman for the Department of Education, defended the city’s record on school desegregation. New York is more reliant on academic prerequisites like test scores, grades and attendance to place students in public schools than any other school district in America. The city’s gifted and talented classes for elementary school students are about 75 percent white and Asian-American, and there are relatively few gifted programs located in predominantly Black and Latino neighborhoods. White students, who make up just 15 percent of the overall district, are starkly overrepresented in selective middle and high schools. Decades of research have shown that integration can improve academic outcomes for nonwhite students in particular because desegregation leads to money and other resources being distributed more evenly across schools.

Source: New York Times March 09, 2021 13:21 UTC