I've written elswhere about the school choice process for public schools in San Francisco and for high schools in New York City. But, regardless of whether the process is a good one or not, the problem facing parents who have to decide how much they like each school can be a tough one, especially if there are a lot of schools.
Two articles help you feel the pain:
New Plan on School Selection, but Still Discontent discusses San Francisco, and
It’s a nightmare to apply for high schools in city discusses New York.
Some more background information here.
HT: Parag Pathak
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
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1 comment:
It's actually really tragic how little advising my cousin got on picking schools. His parents did not care about (and therefore did not help with) the decision, and from my understanding, he chose schools relatively randomly. This was also around the time my grandmother died, so time and energy resources were quite low everywhere, especially for my cousin, for whom my grandmother was a sole guardian.
He got very good exam scores and ended up with what he listed as his second choice - which ended up being a very bad, failing school. (He chose it because it had a "great name" - something to do with business preparation in its name, and it marketed itself well somehow). His grades have turned from A's to fails (he started cutting school; one might argue the environment was not conducive to his learning), and by the time my family tried to transfer him to another high school, he had failed so many classes that the only direction to go was downward.
Essentially, it's really tragic that there's a negative selection against those who don't have the means to do research on schools, even if they deserved to get into the school by the merit of their knowledge. Schools are such important places to develop young minds, and it still makes me cringe that my cousin's uninformed decisions have affected him so much.
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