We have a very elite public high school in my county. For 5 of its first 7 years, the US News high school ranking placed it #1 in the USA. It is now maybe #4, I’m not sure.
What has happened is that the local social engineers decided there were not enough minorities. They changed the admissions criteria to establish, in essence, quotas from each of the geographically (and socially-economically) diverse middle/feeder schools in the county. That backfired somewhat, as the number of Asian students accelerated to produce more than half of the past few incoming classes. It seems the Asian-Americans don’t cluster themselves in a single geographical area. har har!
I have faith that DeBlasio & Co. will figure out a way to screw up NYC’s elite schools.
Heh.