Najya, a middle school student navigating New York City’s public school system, faced significant academic challenges that highlight ongoing inequalities within the city’s education landscape. After excelling in her earlier years, Najya began struggling with algebra in high school, revealing deep gaps in her foundational math skills such as long division and fractions—concepts she should have mastered in elementary school.
These academic shortcomings contributed to anxiety and a decline in confidence, prompting Najya’s mother to enroll her in tutoring. An assessment at the tutoring center confirmed the deficiencies, but also underscored Najya’s potential. With intensive support and compassionate teaching, Najya regained her footing, ended the school year with improved grades, and passed her state algebra exam.
Najya’s experience offers insight into the disparities between two distinct layers of the city’s public education system. Her middle school, Unison, serves a broad range of students without selective academic criteria, in contrast to her high school, which admits more academically prepared students. Emily Paige, Unison’s principal, explained that the school enrolls all children in its neighborhood, regardless of their prior knowledge or academic readiness. This approach results in classrooms with many students who have struggled academically or face learning disabilities.
Paige described the challenges posed by the segregated structure of New York City’s schools, which track students not only by race and socioeconomic status but also by perceived ability. While elementary schools typically serve local neighborhoods—with affluent, predominantly white neighborhoods having wealthier schools and low-income, majority Black neighborhoods served by under-resourced institutions—school choice options at the middle and high school levels allow more affluent families to send children elsewhere. This system leaves schools like Unison with concentrated populations of students facing educational neglect.
Unison’s policies reflect efforts to accommodate these needs. The school eliminated traditional homework assignments, basing this decision on research that homework often provides little benefit to students with significant academic gaps and can exacerbate frustration when support at home is lacking. Instead, students complete assignments during class time where teachers can assist directly. However, some students, including Najya, reported feeling unchallenged and expressed a desire for more homework, viewing it as a validation of their academic growth.
Paige acknowledged the emotional toll of this dynamic, emphasizing the need to balance high expectations with support. “It is important to not, in our pursuit of being antiracist, lower expectations,” she said, cautioning against unintended consequences that perpetuate inequities under the guise of equity.
The school also implemented an “Algebra for All” initiative aimed at offering advanced coursework to all students. Yet, teaching complex material to students with major foundational gaps, often by novice teachers, remains a persistent hurdle. Grading practices shifted toward emphasizing growth over mastery, which, while aimed at encouraging progress, also reflected the challenges of educating students who enter with substantial learning deficits.
Paige has since reinstated homework and made other adjustments, but she acknowledged such measures address only symptoms rather than root causes. She described the struggle of operating within a system that is structurally unequal, striving to meet the diverse needs of students amid systemic challenges.
“We are working within the system that we know is not working, while trying to recreate it,” Paige said, highlighting the complex realities facing educators committed to serving vulnerable student populations.