Do Not Apply – Manhattan High Schools (update)

Add two small schools; discuss asterisks

[7/30, confirm Urban Assembly Media – jd]

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An initial Do Not Apply list for Manhattan High Schools was published a few days ago.

Here is the amended list:

1. *HS of Art and Design
   
2. *Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis HS
3. *Life Sciences HS
4. Urban Assembly School for Media Studies (in the MLK building)
5. *MLK HS of the Arts and Technology

The sources for this list are (highly) reliable, but I do not have supporting details at this time. Until I have those details and anecdotes, I will leave an asterisk next to a school, to show that its inclusion is unconfirmed. I believe my sources, I believe that these schools belong, but I still want confirmation.

There are good schools, bad schools, mediocre schools. But in New York City we have a handful of schools that are so poorly run, so out of control, with administrations that are so incompetent, mean, arbitrary, or vindictive, that getting a job in these schools often means ending your career before it starts.

The reasons vary. In some cases discipline is not enforced. In others teachers are arbitrarily disciplined, in some cases by screaming administrators, in front of classes. Administrative incompetence may lead to frequent, disruptive schedule changes. Special Ed kids (12:1:1) may get dumped into CTT classes, or regular ed kids may get classified to keep them from taking state exams.

Contractual rights (duty-free lunch, no 4 in-a-row, right to decline per session, pre-ob for untenured teachers) may be routinely violated, or those who exercise them may be retaliated against.

In the end, when we see 40%, 50% of the faculty from September doesn’t return the following September, we know.