The Everchanging Admissions Process

Reflecting on the 2021 Admission Changes

Two years ago, the School District of Philadelphia announced a new admissions process for its special-admission schools. Previously, principals and faculty had a great deal of influence on the process, and historically, minority students tended not to gain admission into Philadelphia’s thirty-nine magnet schools at a rate proportional to their population. The demographics of these magnet schools were not reflective of the city as a whole, and the new process sought to change that. It relied on a centralized lottery system and favored underrepresented zip codes, with school leaders no longer having the final say on admission. Additionally, in 2021, eighth graders had to complete an essay to measure writing abilities, graded by an AI software. Aniesee Meziche, a current sophomore who came to Masterman in ninth grade, was in the first class of students to go through this new process. She described it as “confusing,” and thought that the essay was “unfair because it was computer graded.”

Although the District may have had good intentions, it faced pushback on multiple fronts, especially from within the Masterman community. While the changes gave new students the opportunity to attend a magnet school, they made it significantly harder for Masterman middle schoolers to attend the high school. Previously, Masterman’s high school was composed almost fully of students who attended the middle school. An HSA report on the status of Masterman, published in February of 2023, one and a half years after the new changes were implemented, alleged that “the long history of rigor and enriched curriculum is fading.” Parents claimed that the school would become less rigorous; students would enter the high school who had not had the preparation of Masterman’s middle school, which, in turn, would produce a student body that might not be as academically driven. 

Now that two years have passed, we can reflect back on the process and examine if the District met its goals. The District stated that they prioritized the specific zip codes that have the “lowest representation of students accepted at…criteria-based schools over the last four years.” Figure 1 compares the distributions of zip codes between the class of 2024, current Masterman seniors who went through the admission process prior to any changes, with the class of 2026, the first class to undergo this new admissions process. Just by glancing at this visualization, the distributions seem to have a similar shape, and further data analysis validates this observation. Despite the District’s claims to prioritize certain zip codes, statically speaking, the distributions of zip codes of the class of 2024 and the class of 2026 are not significantly different from one another.

     However, the biggest change is that, “eligible 8th graders who already attend one of the below middle/high schools and meet that high school’s criteria, will receive an offer to that school upon completion of the application process.” This change has been positively received by the Masterman community, but has also raised some larger questions about the future of our school.

There are many benefits to this new policy. It will not only provide security for middle school students, but more importantly, it will strengthen the school’s community and culture, something that should please those who complained that the previous process did the opposite. As Mr. Gilken, Masterman’s Director of Climate and Culture, says “Now, if you are doing the right things, it is a complete stress free process.” HSA points out that the new process will “allow long-term bonds of mutual commitment to flourish among students, families, teachers, and staff; and will create circumstances where the school’s unique offerings can grow ever stronger, given the opportunity to step up in a natural progression each year over a long period of time.” It is exciting to imagine the good this can bring to our community—whether it be in academic, athletic, or social contexts. 

The spirit of this change may merit praise, but it is not clear how this new policy will be implemented at Masterman. If every qualified Masterman eighth grader comes to the high school, there will already be more than 120 students per class, the current number. The high school will have to expand to accommodate a larger freshman class. Does this mean the middle school will shrink? And what about the building, which certainly cannot bear the weight of more students? “We are already almost 400 students over building capacity,” points out Mr. Gilken.

Much is still unknown, but Mr. Gilken stated that “conversations are happening right now between our administration and the District.” For now, however, Mr. Gilken is willing to see the upside: “I am excited about this change. I’m excited for our community.”