7% plan for HS diversity
TOP STUDENTS from every public middle school would be admitted to the city’s specialized high schools under a plan Mayor de Blasio is pursuing to overhaul admissions and increase diversity at the elite schools.
De Blasio and city Schools Chancellor Richard Carranza revealed details of the plan Sunday as they launched a push to get rid of the single test that now determines who gets into the schools.
The eight schools — the best known of which are Stuyvesant, Bronx Science and Brooklyn Tech — are now only 10% black and Latino, a massive gap considering 70% of all public school students are black and Latino. Currently, who gets in is determined by scores onthe Specialized High School Admissions Test.
De Blasio’s plan, which requires state legislation, would get rid of that test — and instead admit the top 7% of kids at every public middle school, determined by their grades and state standardized test scores.
“Unfortunately, the message for thousands and thousands of students across New York City is that these schools aren’t for you. That’s the message they’ve been receiving,” de Blasio said at a news conference in Brownsville, Brooklyn, before forecasting opposition to his plan.
“I can already read the script. Somehow these wonderful and prestigious schools won’t be the same, they won’t be just as good if they look different,” he said. “Anyone who’s thinking that, that’s an un-American thought. That’s an unfair thought.”
The top students from each public middle school would together get 90% to 95% of the seats. The rest would go to students from private schools, newcomers to the city and public school kids who meet a grade point average requirement but don’t make the top 7% cut. Qualifying students in those groups would be chosen by lottery.
Hizzoner’s proposal would be phased in over three years, in the first year admitting the top 3% of every middle school class and using the test for the rest, and gradually reducing its importance. But the plan is likely to hit roadblocks in Albany, where the Republican-controlled Senate is unlikely to approve it. De Blasio is hoping the Senate will flip to Democratic control after this year’s election.
Many alumni of the schools are fierce defenders of the test, calling it the only way to make sure students are chosen purely on merit and the academic rigor of the schools stays high.
“We firmly oppose the amended bill that completely eliminates the test and substitutes unnamed subjective criteria,” the Stuyvesant and Brooklyn Tech alumni associations said in a joint statement, calling the proposed system “an exceedingly complicated admissions formula that does not address educational disparities across NYC middle schools.”
They also slammed the plan for being unfair to students from private and religious schools, who currently take the test and compete on equal footing with everyone else.
Asked about the plan, Gov. Cuomo called it a “very important issue” but did not take sides.
If all the changes go through, the city estimates 45% of offers for the specialized schools would go to black and Latino students.
The admitted students would also shift from mostly male to mostly female, and the Bronx would see the biggest boost in the numberof kids accepted.