By Carol Burris
…Since December of 2015, she has repeatedly asked the district to create a fair policy to accommodate students in the admissions process if their parents opted them out of the state test. Cognizant of state law as well as the practices of other school districts, including New York City, Nevergold knew that other places made accommodations. On March 23, after three months of administrative evasion, she submitted a resolution to the Board to direct the staff to provide a recommended solution to resolve the problem. The resolution was tabled, and then later passed by the Board, when no progress was made.
Through her persistent questioning, it was discovered that 14 children who opted out would rank high enough for admission if their COGAT scores were doubled, like the private school students without achievement scores. Meanwhile, students continue to be moved into the competitive schools from wait lists, even as these opt-out students are denied.
What has occurred in Buffalo, a district in which the majority of students are of color and come from homes that are poor, would never happen in an affluent, suburban district. Stalling and dismissiveness would not be the way the problem is resolved. As a district administrator who wishes to remain unidentified told me, “We are engaging in a form of disenfranchisement that walks like punishment and talks like punishment.” I think that sums it up pretty well.
Sigh…
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