The New York City education department has extended the high school application deadline to Dec. 9, following a technological mishap with an online tool designed to help students assess their odds of admission into certain competitive high schools. This extension applies to all applicants, whereas students applying to NYC Lab School for Collaborative Studies and Millennium High School—two institutions directly affected by the glitch—have been given until Jan. 10 to submit their applications. According to a statement by the education department spokesperson Jenna Lyle in the NY Daily News, "This issue, which only impacts a small percentage of students, has been resolved, and we apologize for this inconvenience."
Developed in cooperation with economists from MIT, the "chance of offer" tool experiencing glitches intended to leverage historical enrollment trends to offer guidance to families putting together a balanced high school application. However, after implementing a new feature, students were mistakenly informed about their prospects at the two aforementioned schools due to incorrect data on seat availability, as Gothamist reported. Despite these issues, the education department stands by the tool, with Lyle saying, "We’re proud to provide resources like the new chance of offer tool, which help to provide more guidance and insight as students make exciting decisions about where they’d like to attend high school."
New York City's public high school admissions process is notably complex, requiring students to rank their school preferences from among 400 options, each with varying admissions criteria. The newly developed admissions assistance tool factors in a range of inputs, including a student's lottery number and academic achievements, offering a predicted chance of receiving an offer from selected schools.
Families had previously encountered delays with the MySchools portal this fall, which prompted a postponed start to middle school applications. A troubling pattern seems to have developed, where the education department faced multiple technical setbacks affecting public school students over the past year, reported by NY Daily News. Furthermore, Elissa Stein, who operates a consulting service called High School 411, noted to Gothamist, "It’s even more complicated and overwhelming," regarding the admission process this year, even disregarding the technological snags.
The city's education officials have declared the high school offers are expected to be released on March 6, providing clarity and results to students and families after a period marred by technical complications and extended deadlines.
