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Good morning. It’s Amy with Chalkbeat New York.

Ten years ago, Nikole Hannah-Jones published a seminal essay in the New York Times Magazine about enrolling her daughter, Najya, in a high-poverty and mostly Black school in Brooklyn to challenge the city’s segregated public school system.

Now in high school, Najya thinks her mom made the wrong choice — a reality Hannah-Jones confronts in a powerful New York Times Magazine follow-up story.

For high school, Hannah-Jones allowed her daughter to choose her own path: a screened school in a more affluent neighborhood with predominantly white and Asian students. The transition was jarring. Despite being a high performer, Najya faced deep academic gaps. (In fourth grade, for instance, her mom discovered that her daughter’s math assignments had gone ungraded and uncorrected.)

Unlike her previous high-needs elementary and middle schools, her high school had the resources and bandwidth to provide support. With teacher help alongside tutoring, Najya caught up, arriving at a sobering conclusion: “These students weren’t smarter or even necessarily better behaved than the kids she had gone to school with before; they just had more.”

For Chalkbeat readers who have followed our years of reporting on the debates over NYC integration — the school system’s diversity initiatives, tweaks to screened admissions, and neighborhood district battles — Hannah-Jones’ reflections offer a deeply personal window into the school system’s profound inequities. It’s an essential read for understanding NYC public schools today.

Let us know what you think: [email protected].

P.S.: AI is moving into schools fast. So is the backlash to screen time. Join Chalkbeat reporters Lily Altavena and Alex Zimmerman on Oct. 1 for a members-only conversation about this tension and the technology choices schools are making right now. This event is for Chalkbeat members. Donate any amount to become a member, support Chalkbeat’s independent education journalism, and reserve your spot. We hope to see you there!

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