What are the solutions for reducing disparity? The main focus is on the test. With the stroke of a pen, Mayor Bill de Blasio could change the admission criteria for the five elite schools created by former Mayor Michael Bloomberg (Stuyvesant is not one of them). Mr. de Blasio said that option would create a confusing two-tiered system. He wants state lawmakers to change the rules for all the elite high schools. But that path is all but dead in Albany, where the focus is on more popular progressive issues. Carl Heastie, the Assembly speaker, previously said his conference had not raised the matter because it was divisive: The schools’ alumni organizations and Asian-American families had argued that any change would undermine academics or discriminate against the low-income Asian-Americans who attend the specialized schools in large numbers. (On Tuesday evening, Mr. Heastie wrote on Twitter that the Assembly might hold hearings on the issue in May.) Is “just fix the K-8 schools” a possibility? This is what every leader in New York City has tried to do for the last 70 years. It’s not as if the city isn’t trying to improve all schools. That’s the explicit goal of the Department of Education. That is the work that is going on every hour of every day. “Fix the education system” is not the whole story. What would any changes to admissions criteria be trying to achieve? More racial diversity at elite high schools. This is a question about who deserves the scarcity of these excellent seats, and how you determine that. And whatever changes are made, Asian-Americans stand to lose a large number of the seats they hold. Might this be an issue in the 2021 mayoral election?<doc-sep>michael barbaro From The New York Times, I’m Michael Barbaro. This is “The Daily.” Today: Nearly 900 students have been offered admission to New York City’s most elite public high school. Just seven of those students are black. It’s Tuesday, April 2. [music] archived recording (bill de blasio) Hi, I’m Bill de Blasio. I’m an outer-borough working dad and proud public school parent. eliza shapiro In 2013, Bill de Blasio — archived recording (bill de blasio) I’m currently serving as New York City public advocate, and I’m running to be your mayor. eliza shapiro — runs for New York City mayor — archived recording (bill de blasio) Right now, we’re living a tale of two cities — one where the rich keep growing richer, while middle-class New Yorkers struggle, and nearly half our city lives at or near the poverty line. eliza shapiro — on this promise that he’s going to vanquish inequality in every part of city life. archived recording (bill de blasio) Without a dramatic change of direction, generations to come will see New York as little more than a playground for the rich. eliza shapiro And his number one priority — archived recording (bill de blasio) Each and every child deserves a future that isn’t limited by their zip code. eliza shapiro — is to tackle decades of inequities that have been built into America’s largest public school system. archived recording (bill de blasio) The answer is to fix the entire system. eliza shapiro He wants to end a system in which there’s this understanding that there’s good schools and bad schools. archived recording (bill de blasio) We have to work from the assumption that we will save every child, that we will reach every child, that no system is actually working unless every child has opportunity. [APPLAUSE] eliza shapiro And really what he’s talking about here is the fact that middle-class white students have often gone to the quote, unquote, “good schools” — the most funding, the best resources, the highest-quality teachers — and low-income black and Hispanic students have gone to schools with the poorest performance and the least resources for decades. [music] michael barbaro Eliza Shapiro covers education in New York City. archived recording (bill de blasio) [APPLAUSE] Now, to all the educators in the room, I hope you’re going to be proud of this next one. eliza shapiro So five years in to de Blasio’s term — archived recording (bill de blasio) We set the all-time record for graduation rate in New York City. [CHEERING] eliza shapiro — he’s trying to get the rest of the city, and, really, the rest of the country to pay attention to inequality in this massive public school system. archived recording (bill de blasio) That number was less than 50 percent not long ago in this town, before we had mayoral control of education, which created real accountability. eliza shapiro And then a few weeks ago — archived recording Well, now, to those disturbing admissions numbers in New York City’s elite public high schools — a new report is intensifying the debate of racial disparity. [music] archived recording Only a handful of black and Latino students are getting into some of New York City’s elite high schools compared with other ethnic groups. eliza shapiro — these numbers come out. archived recording Only seven black students were offered admission to Stuyvesant High School’s freshman class of 895 students. And the numbers are similar for other elite schools that use entrance exams to determine who gets in. eliza shapiro At New York City’s most elite public high school, out of 900 seats, only seven were offered to black students. michael barbaro So that’s less than 1 percent admissions. eliza shapiro That’s right. And it’s actually getting worse. archived recording The numbers at Stuyvesant are not a surprise. Last year, 10, and 13 the year before. eliza shapiro The percentage of black and Hispanic students at these schools has gone down year after year. And now, we’ve basically reached rock bottom. archived recording 1 It’s abysmal. You know, I would dare say an atrocity was happening in terms of education. archived recording 2 It’s absolutely abhorrent and unacceptable. eliza shapiro So many people were asking, how could we have allowed this to happen? archived recording And now to the latest scandal rocking the halls of academia. eliza shapiro Just as we’ve been talking about with the college admissions scandal — archived recording 50 people have been charged in a nationwide admissions scam, many of them well-to-do parents trying to get their kids into some of the highest profile schools in the country. eliza shapiro — and — archived recording Harvard systematically raises the bar for Asian-Americans and systematically lowers it for whites, African-Americans — eliza shapiro — the affirmative action case at Harvard — archived recording Whether or not you support affirmative action, I think it’s an important time to be critical of Harvard and to look at how affirmative action policies have impacted or discriminated against Asian-American communities. eliza shapiro — and this number went into the center of that storm. michael barbaro And so what are these elite public schools you’re referring to in New York that have admitted so few black students? eliza shapiro So they were created at the beginning of the 1900s. And the idea was that these schools would offer students who could have never afforded a fancy private school the same rigorous academics and extracurriculars and resources that their wealthier, more privileged counterparts get. The idea was that you didn’t have to be anyone’s son. Your parents didn’t have to give a donation. This was a meritocracy. And the meritocracy was based on the idea that you passed one test and you got in. michael barbaro So a single test is all you need to get in. eliza shapiro A single test. michael barbaro And who’s getting into these schools at this point? eliza shapiro So in the ‘20s and ‘30s and ‘40s, the schools were mostly attended by immigrants from all over Europe, Jewish immigrants in particular. And these students are going on to win Nobel prizes in physics and chemistry, become famous authors and writers and academics. And the schools are really seen as the way out of poverty — really, this golden ticket. So over the years, these schools really become household names in New York City. You have Stuyvesant High School. You have Bronx High School of Science. You have Brooklyn Technical High School. And they seem to be working the way they were designed to work. archived recording All we want is equal education. That’s all — equal education. eliza shapiro But in the 1960s, in New York City, as school segregation became the biggest boiling point in the city — archived recording Our hope is that the Board of Education will decide to come up with a really comprehensive plan for citywide school desegregation. eliza shapiro — some black and Hispanic educators and parents were beginning to wonder why their kids weren’t getting into these mythologized schools. archived recording Freedom! Now! eliza shapiro And they were wondering, can we change something about this admissions process to help our kids get into these schools and have their own path into the middle class? And that’s where things started to get really contentious. [music] So there was this seed of a plan to say, can we think about a different way to offer kids admission beyond this one standardized test? And there was this immediate backlash from the alumni of the schools, from the leaders of the schools, to say, our schools are under threat, and we need to do something to protect them. michael barbaro What happens? eliza shapiro So these groups who want to keep the test rush up to Albany — michael barbaro Our capital. eliza shapiro Our capital. And they lobby politicians to make the test a law. And just a few months after this debate begins, in the spring of 1971 in Albany, a law is passed. The only way to get in is by taking the test. And that’s been our system ever since. michael barbaro<doc-sep>Schools Only 7 Black Students Get Into NYC's Most Elite High School Some 895 eight-graders were offered seats at Stuyvesant High School. Only seven of them are black. Reply A smaller number of black and Latino students got into eight of the city's specialized high schools this year. (Photo from Shutterstock) NEW YORK — A smaller number of black and Latino eighth-graders have secured seats at some of New York City's most elite high schools this year, new Department of Education figures show. Some 4,798 students got offers Monday to attend specialized high schools based on their scores on the controversial Specialized High School Admissions Test, the DOE said. Only 506, or about 10.5 percent, of them were black or Latino even though those ethnic groups account for about two thirds of the city's student body, the figures show, down from 527 last year. Of the 895 students offered seats at Stuyvesant High School, generally considered the city's most competitive public high school, 33 are Latino and just seven — or about one in every 128 — is black, DOE figures show. And only a single black student got a seat at Staten Island Technical High School, where a total of 304 were admitted. The numbers point to a continued struggle with racial diversity in the specialized high schools despite Mayor Bill de Blasio's recent push to better integrate them. He wants to phase out the exam that has long served as the sole basis of admission for most of the schools. The city is "once again confronted by an unacceptable status quo at our specialized high schools," Chancellor Richard Carranza said in a statement. "We need to eliminate the single test for specialized high school admissions now." About 17 percent of the roughly 27,500 eighth-graders who took the three-hour test this year got an offer to attend a specialized high school based on their score, according to the DOE. Eight schools use the exam to determine admission while a ninth, Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts, uses an audition and academic review. The majority, or about 51 percent, of the students offered seats at the eight testing schools are Asian, while 28.5 percent are white, the DOE's figures show. While the raw number is smaller, the proportion of seats offered to black and Latino students is roughly the same as last year's 10.4 percent, according to the DOE. De Blasio has pushed the state Legislature to scrap the controversial test while also planning to set aside 20 percent of seats at the schools for disadvantaged but talented students who miss the cutoff score through the so-called Discovery program. The DOE said students will receive offers to the program later this spring. But the proposals have drawn sharp criticism from the schools' alumni and Asian-American parents. Opponents have argued the mayor's chosen plan for eliminating the test could place unprepared students in rigorous courses. And some filed a lawsuit in December arguing changes to the Discovery program will disproportionately harm Asian-Americans.<doc-sep>
“We’re … once again confronted by an unacceptable status quo at our specialized high schools,” Richard Carranza, the chancellor of the New York City public-school system, said in a statement. “We need to eliminate the single test for specialized high-school admissions now.” The public schools in New York State are the most segregated in the country, according to a 2014 study from the Civil Rights Project at UCLA. That’s largely driven by New York City. The selective high schools are by no means the only places where inequality exists in the system, but they are the most visible, the easiest apple to pick. The black enrollment at Stuyvesant peaked in 1975, according to state records highlighted in a 2012 profile in the Times, when there were 303 black students out of 2,536 total. “In 1980, there were 212 black students; in 1990, 147; in 2000, 109; and in 2005, 66.” Last year, there were 24 black students, according to city data. The SHSAT was introduced as the sole admissions criterion for the school in 1972. Rudi-Ann Miller, a black woman who attended Stuyvesant and whom the Times followed for the 2012 story, had her five-year high-school reunion last year. In an interview on Wednesday, she told me that she was the only black student who showed up. Even though there were a handful of black students in her class, “it wasn’t an experience that they wanted to go back and celebrate,” she says. Stuyvesant is diverse, she says—among the Asian population, in particular—but the low number of black and Latino students made her experience difficult. “I’m not going to sugarcoat my experience and say it was lovely and great and this amazing intellectual challenge,” she says. “There were also a lot of social issues to deal with.” Still, she added, it was the “best educational opportunity in the city.” Last year, when I interviewed Carranza for a profile examining the city’s efforts to desegregate the public schools, he reflected on his career. “Everywhere I’ve ever lived and worked, there are systems and structures that promulgate certain outcomes,” he told me. “The systems and structures give you what you get. And what I’ve found is that what you get is low performance for kids of color, low opportunities for kids of color, poor kids, kids that have historically been underserved.” Miller says that she was the only student in her majority-Latino middle school who planned to take the selective high-school placement test. Many of her fellow students didn’t know about it, she says. The city has expanded efforts to inform more students about the test, and provide preparatory tutoring for them, but the needle still has not moved on black enrollment. Miller isn’t sure that getting rid of the test altogether is a good idea, but she is concerned that the test can be gamed. She took a prep course, and she heard of several other people who took three or four. Some students can learn how to take the test and get a leg up; others think the odds are so stacked against them that it isn’t even worth it to try. It is likely that next year the internet will be shocked once again by the staggering disparity in black enrollment at Stuyvesant, and there will be another conversation about what needs to happen to fix it. And then it’s likely to happen again the year after that.