“Using It to Our Advantage in a Way It Was Not Designed to Be”: Spanish Dual Language and School Choice in New York City

ABSTRACT

Dual Language (DL), a bilingual program has expanded at a rapid rate in New York City. This qualitative study explores choice in three public schools (n = 42) with strand Spanish DL programs to determine the role it plays in middle- and higher-income families’ decision making. Factors such as location, pedagogical style, environment, and peer group were considered. DL was most often chosen as a default when families’ first choices were not successful. Thus, it has come to be seen as a more viable option for parents navigating the complex choice process in the district.

KEYWORDS:

• School choice
• choice sets
• qualitative

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. G&T currently may be in the process of being phased out in favor of a district wide enrichment program called Brilliant NYC (Jorgense, 2021; NYCDOE, 2021).

2. The names of schools are pseudonyms.

3. In Round 1, children must score 142–148 on the Stanford-Binet® IQ test, though the cutoff can be higher (https://www.testingmom.com/michael-questions/do-you-have-any-insight-into-what-happens-at-hunter-round-2-of-gifted-and-talented-testing/).

4. Children who obtain an overall score of 90–96 can apply to districtwide G&T programs and those who obtain a 97 or above are eligible to apply to both districtwide and citywide programs. Priorities do apply so that children without siblings at a citywide school are not considered for a seat unless they have a 99 or higher (NYCDOE).

5. The Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) Nest program serves students with autism in a classroom with general education students. It is a small Integrated Co-Teaching (ICT) class with one Special Education and one General Education teacher (https://research.steinhardt.nyu.edu/asdnest/about/nycdoe). It is not to be confused with the Nest+M citywide G&T school in Manhattan.