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A version of this essay originally appeared on the .

Recently, the New York School Talk blog published a guest post by Tim DeRoche, author of , which asked the question: 鈥溾��? (Spoiler: He thinks they do.)

DeRoche writes:

鈥淭ake a look, for example, at PS 8 Robert Fulton in Brooklyn. Only 20 percent of the students at PS 8 come from low-income families, and almost 80 percent are proficient in reading.鈥�

Hmmmmm. The number of low-income kids and the number of kids not reading at grade level maps almost exactly. What an interesting coincidence.

Must be a one-off.

It is not a one-off.

Looking at a selection of NYC鈥檚 鈥済ood鈥� schools, we see that:

At , 20 percent of students are not reading at grade level. And 22 percent of students qualify for free or reduced price lunch.

As , 13 percent of students are not reading at grade level. And 12 percent qualify for free or reduced-price lunch.

At , 13 percent of students aren鈥檛 performing at grade level in either math or English. And 11 percent qualify for free or reduced-price lunch.

At , 12 percent of students aren鈥檛 performing at grade level in math. And 13 percent qualify for free or reduced price lunch. At neighboring , it鈥檚 11 percent not performing at grade level in math and 9 percent free or reduced-price lunch.

The list goes on and on.

For the record, I鈥檓 not the one saying that the kids not performing at grade level are the same as the kids who qualify for free or reduced-price lunch.

But that does seem to be what the city Department of Education believes. They鈥檙e the ones insisting that removing academic screens, which look at grades, state test scores and more for middle and high school admissions, would . Press coverage of the initiative tends to use the words 鈥渓ow-achieving,鈥� 鈥渓ow-income鈥� and 鈥渕inority鈥� as if they were interchangeable. (.)

There are, of course, notable exceptions. Brooklyn鈥檚 highest-performing traditional public school, , has 96 percent of students performing at grade level in math, with 84 percent receiving free or reduced-price lunch. Even The New York Times was that the Success Academies, which are majority minority and free or reduced-price lunch students, do the best job in the city of .

And yet, the numbers persist.

DeRoche also wrote:

鈥淢any middle-class and lower-income families do not have the opportunity to enroll their children in the most coveted, high-performing public elementary schools, even if those schools are within walking distance of their homes 鈥� In nearly every city the pattern is the same: State law allows (or even requires) the district to draw attendance zones showing who gets to attend which schools. Districts use the lines to determine who can enroll in these elite, high-performing public schools.鈥�

He鈥檚 right, of course. But I feel compelled to ask: What makes these elementary schools high-performing?

If it were the schools themselves, the teachers, the curriculum, the administration, heck, even the physical plant, would the numbers of children performing at grade level still map so precisely to the numbers of children who don鈥檛 qualify for free or reduced-price lunch?

Isn鈥檛 that a little too interesting of a coincidence?

Are the schools providing any value-add at all, or is it simply that those who can afford to get their , do? And those who can鈥檛 (or don鈥檛 realize that they should, after all, they鈥檙e attending a 鈥渉igh-performing鈥� school) 鈥� don鈥檛?

When activists beat the drums for diversifying schools, whose benefit are they doing it for? (See what had to say about that . And on a related note, why some black families prefer .)

they鈥檙e doing it for the low-achieving/low-income/minority students who will benefit infinitely from going to school alongside high-achieving/high income/non-minority students. But will they? Will they really?

That鈥檚 not the inconvenient truth the above numbers point to.

As during a District 3 Community Education Council meeting, 鈥淭hey don鈥檛 know what to do with the who got into these , and now they have no support. Do you know how they鈥檙e ? They鈥檙e not returning my calls!鈥�

Another parent told me, 鈥淥ur teachers thought they were such great teachers. Until they had to teach kids who didn鈥檛 come in already knowing the material, and who couldn鈥檛 get help at home or .鈥�

In his post, DeRoche makes the understandably common mistake of assuming that 鈥渉igh-performing鈥� schools are responsible for 鈥渉igh performers.鈥�

In NYC, that would not seem to be the case. Interestingly enough, this is the same argument those who are make 鈥� that it ultimately doesn鈥檛 for students. One does wonder, then, why they鈥檙e also fighting so hard to give a ?

Low-income and minority students can absolutely be high-achieving, as demonstrated by P.S. 172, the Success Academies, , and multiple schools in Queens that manage to equalize students performing at grade level with those qualifying for free or reduced-price lunch.

But the schools that produce these results have to be schools that actually teach their students. Ones that have a , along with the belief that all students can learn.

They cannot be schools that assume their jobs are done the minute they minority and low-performing students to .

We can keep talking about . We can keep talking about schools and for low performers. But until we confront the fact that getting accepted into a high-performing school doesn鈥檛 guarantee high performance 鈥� and until we commit to taking a deep dive into seeing what actually does and then at all schools 鈥� we are going to keep getting the same inconvenient numerical results.

Sure, the optics might be better. But the same students are still being underserved. Even at the 鈥渉igh-performing鈥� schools they鈥檙e now being allowed to attend.

Alina Adams is a New York Times best-selling romance and mystery writer, the author of Getting Into NYC Kindergarten and Getting Into NYC High School, a blogger at and mother of three. She believes you can’t have true school choice until all parents know all their school choices 鈥� and how to get them. Visit her website, .

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