New York City's specialized high schools accommodate the region's best and brightest students. While intelligence was never a problem, the same cannot be said about diversity.
According to the recent data from the U.S. Department of Education via Capital New York, only 3 and 5 percent of black and Latino students who took the specialized high school exam were admitted to either Stuyvesant, Staten Island Tech, Brooklyn Tech, Brooklyn Latin, Bronx High School, Queens High School, The High School of American Studies and The High School for Math, Science and Engineering.
In stark contrast, 34 percent of Asian students and 29 percent of white students who took the exam were admitted to one of the aforementioned schools. This meant black and Latino students only accounted for 12 percent of all specialized high school exam passers.
Huffington Post cited exorbitant test preps as one of the major factors causing the lack of diversity in specialized high schools. Test preps are very helpful since the content of the SHSAT test is totally different from the Common Core State Test by the DOE.
Having said that, test preps are just too pricey and most minority families aren't really aware of this information in the first place. When some of them do get informed, their children are usually already behind with the test preps.
"It's important that our City's specialized high schools reflect the diversity around them, and we are committed to achieving that without impacting rigorous standards," said Carmen Fariña, New York City's schools chancellor. "We know that the best way to promote diversity at these schools is to ensure that every student gets a high-quality education starting in pre-K."
A small band of elected officials and schools administrators are calling on the state legislature to make necessary changes to the SHSAT test. The potential reform has drawn the ire of specialized school alumni groups who claimed the schools' academic quality would greatly suffer from such changes.
