A Brooklyn middle school has taken center stage on a revived debate over using auditions in middle school applications, at the risk of shutting out students from the area.
Following fierce backlash from some Sunset Park parents, advocates and local leaders, the Department of Education hosted a forum Tuesday night with more than 150 attendees to rethink selective admissions at MS 936, a performing and visual arts school known as “Arts Off 3rd.”
Families who favor the more-challenging application process said it gives budding art aficionados an accelerated program — while opponents think it shuts out low-income students who lack access to art lessons and resources.
Stephen Stowe, president of the parent-led Community Education Council 20, said there are steps the DOE can take to make sure all students have a fair shot at audition-based admissions.
“We think, just like any selective program, the answer is to develop and cultivate, not to do away with,” said Stowe.
“Let’s also try to find some way to help students who might be at a disadvantage at applying, but have the talent and ability to do well at this school,” Stowe said. “Maybe they haven’t had six years of paid private piano lessons, but there are ways to identify students who have a natural ear for music.”
MS 936 opened its doors in 2020 and used random selection to admit students — until this admissions cycle, when applicants were invited to audition for programs in art, dance, theater and music. The deadline to submit virtual audition videos and materials was in March, according to the school website.
The lottery brought roughly two-thirds of offers to students from Sunset Park elementary schools, according to city data shared on Tuesday night. The numbers showed 83% and 74% of admit letters went to students from low-income families in 2020 and 2021, respectively.
Since shifting to an audition-based process, 61% of offers went to students from the area and 71% to poorer children, the city data showed.
One mom, who said her daughter “worked super hard on getting in,” added that she had “mixed feelings as a parent” about the admissions process.
“There’s so many kids that have amazing talent,” she said at the meeting, “and if given the opportunity, they can really show it and sometimes they need to be shown the arts to really grasp onto it. So it almost sounds like we need more schools, or more schools to pick up the arts.”
“Screened” admissions have been on hold during the pandemic, when then-Chancellor Richard Carranza told parents that nearly 200 middle schools would not use academic records, auditions, attendance or other benchmarks to evaluate applications.
The controversial application process has come under fire among some advocates who say screens put certain students at a disadvantage for accessing well-resourced schools.
“There’s a lot of claim that these are different, there are different kids of screeners,” said Council Member Alexa Avilés, whose office pressed the DOE to engage with parents and asked the superintendent to meet with nearby elementary schools, which a spokesperson said he has been doing.
“Screeners are screeners — they filter people out,” said Avilés, adding that elementary-aged applicants may have not been exposed to the arts yet.
In an email to parents obtained by The Post, Council Member Justin Brannan, who also represents families in the school district and has advocated for arts education, took a different approach.
“Yes, I support — and have always supported — MS 936 as it was intended to be: District 20’s first middle school dedicated to the arts with a district-wide audition based admissions process,” he wrote.
District 20 Superintendent David Pretto said at the meeting the DOE could consider changes for future admission cycles, citing some tweaks his team has made already: From axing technical music terms from its admissions process to removing a graphic art component for kids who could not access the technology.
“Those components of arts auditions weren’t considered in order to ensure that the auditions were fair,” he said, “and that everybody had an opportunity to accurately present their talents.”
