Only 23% of high school graduates met the standards for college preparation in 2009 in NYC. In spite of these seemingly terrifying statistic we are still better than off than many other urban districts such as Buffalo, Syracuse, Rochester and Yonkers. See article below from NYtimes.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/08/nyregion/08regents.html?_r=1&scp=9&sq=students&st=cse
This seems to be a system disorder and if the system disorder doesn't get better then we will loose our competitiveness internationally. According to the article, the "readyness" for college rate is much higher in wealthier districts than in more poor districts. Perhaps a solution would be to let the student and family decide what high school to go to rather than being assigned the closest one. In this case we would force all the public schools to get better.
