麻豆精品

Get stories like this delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for 麻豆精品 Newsletter

Reading Nikole Hannah-Jones鈥� latest galvanizing on segregated New York City schools, you could have left with the impression that she already gave up the fight on school integration. However, last week she issued a challenge to New York City Mayor Zohran Mandani: 鈥淚 would like the mayor to answer: When are we going to actually see a real and substantial plan to address the racial and social and economic isolation of students?鈥澛�

His response, while empathetic, was, respectfully, empty. 

Mamdani said his administration is 鈥渄eveloping plans鈥� and mandating 鈥渨orking groups,鈥� but neither he nor Hannah-Jones acknowledged the existence of charter schools like Prospect Schools, which have been running in New York City for 17 years. 

The schools I lead are neither private nor traditional district schools. Prospect is a racially and socioeconomically integrated K-12 public charter school network serving over 3,100 families across nine campuses in Brooklyn. Our student body is 25% white, 31% Black, 29% Hispanic, 10% multi-racial and 5% Asian and Pacific Islander. About 19% of our students receive special education services, and 44% qualify for free and reduced-priced meals. 

Brooklyn Prospect High School is free to every student offered a seat through our lottery and ranked No. 5 among all New York City high schools by on the strength of our rigorous International Baccalaureate (IB) program which every student participates in. We are proof that integration and academic rigor are not in conflict.聽

When I learned of Chancellor Kamar Samuels鈥� vision for integrated NYC schools, I was thrilled, energized and eager to support 鈥� and I still am. But I鈥檓 perplexed by the lack of progress more than nine months into his tenure. Calling for change without a real strategy nor any acknowledgment of the successful charter schools serving more than 150,000 students and families in the city reads like a refusal to focus on real solutions.聽

As a first-generation college student and the daughter of immigrants born in the Bronx who came up through NYC public schools, I could relate to the story of Hannah-Jones鈥檚 daughter Najya. In her version of it, she was far more discerning than I was; she recognized by middle school that she was being underserved. I didn’t see it until I got to Vanderbilt University, scholarships in hand, nearly failing out my first year before realizing my own K-12 experience had left me completely unprepared and underskilled to compete. Dear Mayor: The public school system didn鈥檛 just fail Nayja, it has failed generations of students, and I worry about the generations still waiting for it to change. 

The conversation about school integration and access to excellent schools can no longer remain trapped in the abstract. How about this administration starts by touring the intentionally diverse schools that already exist right here in New York City? Prospect Schools has intentionally built the exact integrated environment that both Hannah-Jones and Mayor Mandani say they want to see. 

Before the pandemic, the city鈥檚 Department of Education sent principals-in-training to our schools to learn from our model through a district-charter partnership. Through multi-week residencies, these emerging leaders saw firsthand how every Prospect student is learning alongside peers who don’t look, pray or live like them. We used to work closely with the district to share lessons learned on our approach, a partnership which could easily be revived. 

The new administration should examine how we deliberately reach out to families across different neighborhoods and communities, how we use preferences to maintain racial and socioeconomic diversity without excluding anyone, and how we design schools so integration is reflected in everything from curriculum to culture-building practices. They can see how we hire teachers who believe in an equitable education for all students. 

At our schools, the history of integration and segregation in New York City isn’t a topic confined to textbooks. It’s the opening session of new-employee orientation every summer, and it sets the foundation for everything we do.

I know district schools operate under different constraints, budgets and legal structures. But the fundamental principles are universal: a belief in the ability of all students, intentional recruitment, admissions strategies that enable diversity, professional development focused on equity and belonging, high expectations for our team, a curriculum that is rigorous and features multiple perspectives. These translate across contexts.

This administration can also learn from the , a network of over 90 charter schools proving that racial and socioeconomic integration provides profound academic, cognitive and social benefits for all students.

The conversation about desegregation has reached a critical moment of public and political attention, and for that I鈥檓 grateful to Hannah-Jones. The district-charter partnership I鈥檓 describing fell through the cracks due to turnover in city leadership, flagging support and the pandemic. I鈥檇 be thrilled to see it resume. 

This partnership isn’t transformational on its own, no single initiative is. But it鈥檚 a tangible place to start, and our doors are open.

Did you use this article in your work?

We鈥檇 love to hear how 麻豆精品鈥檚 reporting is helping educators, researchers, and policymakers.