City rapped over hiding HS test info

Critics are blasting the city for burying the results of an official study that throws cold water on Mayor de Blasio’s favored tactic for desegregating elite public high schools.

De Blasio seeks to admit more black and Hispanic students to the city’s world-famous specialized high schools by killing the Specialized High School Admissions Test, used for admissions by the group of eight elite schools, including Stuyvesant High School, Bronx High School of Science and Brooklyn Technical High School.

The mayor wants to combat extreme racial imbalances at the schools, where just a handful of black and Hispanic kids are admitted each year, with a plan that would take top students from all of the city’s middle schools, rather than relying on the test.

But a study commissioned by the city in 2013 found the test was an accurate predictor of students’ academic success in the schools.

The city refused to reveal the findings of the study until Friday, when it was first reported by the education site Chalkbeat.

Critics say the city has been hiding those results in an effort to foist de Blasio’s controversial plan on the public.

“The New York City Department of Education should be ashamed of themselves for concealing this important 2013 study on the Specialized High School Admissions exam, which validates the need to keep the test,” said state Sen. Tony Avella (D-Queens).