It seems that schools get the credit when is very likely that it is the parents ( doing **tons** of afterschooling in the home ) are doing 99.999% of the really hard grunt work..
NYC public schools are notoriously lousy in many ways. Teachers pass anyone and everyone, rampant crime, bad behavior, and no accountability or discipline whatsoever. Unless one lives on the Upper East Side, students do not get the attention they should from teachers and the administration, and the emphasis on learning is much less as compared to these eight elite schools. The elite schools emphasize academics. They do not stress sports or clubs. Students who go there are almost guaranteed to get accepted to MIT, Harvard, Stanford, etc. It is a great way for students of modest means to excel. As a student, you are surrounded by other kids who want to learn. These schools even have dress codes, enforce attendance rules, and have PhDs teaching the classes. The atmosphere is equivalent to that of an affluent, suburban school district where the school and home environment are in sync. NYC public schools are just not like that.
Back in the 1970s, as a parochial/private school student, we were often harassed by the “public school kids” who acted like feral animals. It was common to see those kids ripping up and throwing their text books out of the school bus windows, picking fights with the uniform-wearing kids, and getting into trouble with the police. Fast forward to today, and things are far worse than I ever saw. Now these same feral animals just shoot people. Back then, guns were harder to come by. Brass knuckles and switchblades were the rave.