Giving Compass' Take:

• Mayor Bill de Blasio announced that he will accept almost all of NYC's School Diversity Advisory Group's recommendations, but with a few caveats. 

• Some say that the Mayor's efforts for integration so far are steps in the right direction to address segregation, but there is more work to be done. What are the next steps to solidify meaningful integration within the school system?

• NYC schools need to think about accountability for diversity in oder to achieve integration. 

Mayor Bill de Blasio endorsed a series of recommendations offered by the city’s School Diversity Advisory Group, an announcement that top city officials — and even some integration advocates — heralded as a triumph. “Today’s a big deal,” Chancellor Richard Carranza said, noting the city had accepted virtually all of the advisory group’s 67 recommendations. It “represents the systemic change that we’ve been yearning for,” said Mark Treyger, chairman of City Council’s education committee.

But despite the soaring rhetoric, the suggestions the city has pledged to adopt don’t come with precise integration goals, changes to any enrollment policies, or a timeline for seeing results.

The initial recommendations made by the advisory group, released in February, did not address some of the most explosive issues — including gifted and talented programs or academic screening — that advocates say are essential in addressing segregation. The education department’s latest announcement sidesteps those issues, too.

Instead, the city has pledged to push schools to be more representative of their surrounding districts and boroughs — with the goal for schools to eventually match citywide demographics. That is a more aggressive target than the city’s previous diversity goals, which experts said were extraordinarily modest.

Though the mayor introduced a proposal to integrate eight specialized high schools last year, which requires approval from state lawmakers, some advocates argue the mayor hasn’t done enough to address segregation in the vast majority of schools whose enrollment processes he directly controls.

“The proposals are a step in the right direction, but they don’t match the urgency of the crisis of segregation in our schools,” said Torres, a student at Manhattan’s Pace High School who has pressed the mayor on school segregation.

Read the full article about New York City schools integration program by Alex Zimmerman at Chalkbeat.