New York City is overhauling its controversial high school admissions process in order to emphasize good grades, following pandemic-era policy changes that some families said hurt high achievers.

Schools Chancellor David Banks on Thursday introduced the new policy, which goes back to prioritizing academic achievement when screening applicants to some of the city’s most selective public high schools.

“We do believe in high standards,” Banks said at a news conference. “We do believe that there are academically talented students who are achieving at a high level at schools all across the city.”

Eight graders in the top 15% of their class — or across the city — will be given “first access” for seats, and will need a 90-average or above to qualify for this top tier. 

Roughly 20% of students will fall into that category, compared to 60% last year — when all students who earned an 85 or above were grouped together then selected by a lottery, said Sarah Kleinhandler, chief enrollment officer at the Department of Education.

Seats not filled by those students will open up to the next tier — for five tiers in total, to be randomly chosen within each group. Students will not be evaluated on state test scores, a measure used in admissions pre-pandemic. 

The announcement marked a shift from the contentious policy rolled out last year under the administration of former mayor Bill de Blasio that put less of a premium on good grades. Officials said the changes aimed to recognize that usual metrics used in the admissions process, like attendance and test scores, had been impacted by COVID-19 school closures.

Critics said it resulted in students being placed in schools not matched with their abilities — and sometimes far away from their homes and across boroughs.

Advocates, however, said the changes contributed to the integration of black and Latino students at top schools. For instance, black and hispanic students received 23% of offers to Townsend Harris High School last year, up from 16% the year before, while at Millennium Brooklyn High School the offers jumped from 20% to 43%.

“At first glance the DOE’s plan appears to edge away from that widely loathed lottery, and place greater emphasis on academic diligence and achievement,” said state Sen. John Liu, chair of the NYC Education committee, who’s advocated for overhauling the process, in a statement.

Liu, in a letter to the chancellor last week, cited DOE data showing Asian students fared the worst in the city — with only 70% securing one of their top five picks.

Overall, half of applicants received an offer to their top choice high school last year, up from 46% the year before. Three quarters of them received an offer to one of their top three choices, before waitlists.

Banks last winter expressed interest in revisiting admissions protocols. The current schools chancellor even extended the application deadline for that reason, according to Liu — but ultimately, the DOE decided to stick with the approach, citing a time crunch for any major changes.

On Thursday, Banks announced the highly anticipated changes to both high and middle school admissions.

“For decades, parents have called out about how confusing and complicated it can be to enroll in New York City public schools, especially at the high school level,” Banks told reporters.

“This is just the beginning. But it represents a significant step forward in making admissions to our public school accessible and fair.”

For the first time since the pandemic, screening will be re-implemented at middle schools where superintendents so choose, based on feedback from parents and schools. Prospective middle schoolers will be ranked based on a composite of their fourth-grade marks.

Those determinations will need to be made quickly, as applications open on October 26. 

“In the end, this is a community decision that will be led by the community,” Banks said.

Many high-performing students and their parents were devastated this spring after receiving high school admission letters in June — blasting the revamped system.

Some parents, led by the group Parent Leaders for Accelerated Curriculum and Education, rallied against the policy — including a petition-writing campaign that garnered close to 4,200 signatories at the time of the Thursday announcement.

Yiatin Chu, the group’s co-founder, said in a statement Thursday that the continued use of a lottery within tiers of students is “not ideal.” 

“But the DOE has recalibrated the tier criteria, which is helpful in reducing the negative effects and a step in the right direction,” added Chu, who went through the process with her now-sixth-grade daughter last year. 

But families who favored the pandemic-era policy said it gives “every applicant an equal chance of acceptance” and “resulted in diverse student populations,” according to an action letter against rigorous middle school admissions that received close to 20,000 signatures. Another online petition was signed by 469 people and 45 organizations.

“It has also led to a simpler and easier admissions process for families, who no longer had to navigate a complex system with multiple admissions criteria that differed from school to school,” it read.

“Most importantly, 9-year-olds are not judged based on their test scores, grades or attendance,” it added.

The DOE is making no changes to the specialized high schools process, though which 8th graders take the SHSAT to gain access to several high-achieving schools, including Bronx Science and Stuyvesant High School. The test will again be offered during the school day in students’ classrooms — on November 17 — rather than at certain sites over the weekend. 

The new rules also do not apply to screened high schools that have their own program-based assessments. 

But the city agency is opening three new “accelerated learning academies” in the South Bronx, Ocean Hill-Brownsville and Southeast Queens, with geographic priority for the students who live there. The schools will welcome first classes in fall 2024. 

The DOE is also rolling out some practical changes for families to make the famously convoluted process of applying to schools more straightforward.

Applications will open earlier this year, so that offers can be released in March for high schools and April for middle schools. Last year, high school offers went out in June.

The agency will also introduce a central calendar for school open houses, and share the number of waitlist offers programs have made in the past — so families can better sense their chances of getting in through that process.

The announcement received a mixed response on Thursday, from families who wanted to see the DOE go further to undo pre-pandemic policy to other parents who hoped Banks would bring back more of the old protocols.

“It’s certainly an improvement, but more should be done,” said Oksana Londorenko, a parent of two kids in Brooklyn. One did not get into his top choice schools last year, and will try his hand again this year with the SHSAT. The other will apply next year.

Londorenko shared concerns about grade inflation with The Post, adding that policy should make admissions more fair.

“There must be a more reliable criteria for selective schools, possibly factoring in state tests,” she said.

Nyah Berg, executive director of New York Appleseeed, was likewise concerned the changes won’t level the playing field — but for opposite reasons. 

At the high school level, Berg said in a statement that the policies will “undoubtedly result in less diverse schools.” 

Berg also worried that the few weeks superintendents have to iron out middle school policies will prove too short a time period for parent engagement.

“It was and continues to be unjustifiable and fundamentally unsound to measure the educational attainment of a student as young as 9 years old,” she said.