Minority groups clash over elite NYC high schools

NEW YORK — A plan to diversify New York City’s most-elite public high schools is drawing fire from the minority group that has come to dominate the schools in recent years: Asian-Americans.

Mayor Bill de Blasio announced last weekend that he wants to scrap the test that governs admission to eight specialized high schools, including Stuyvesant High School and the Bronx High School of Science, calling the test “a roadblock to justice, progress and academic excellence.”

Fewer than 10 percent of students who score well enough to gain admission to the schools are black or Latino; those two groups make up two-thirds of the Asian-American students make up the largest number of testtakers seeking entry into one of New York City’s eight specialized high schools, and they have the highest acceptance rate. A diversity plan would scrap the test. These students were at Stuyvesant High School in 2015.

city’s 1 million public school students.

“It’s not fair. It’s not inclusive. It’s not open to all,” de Blasio said.

But such a change might

mean fewer seats for AsianAmerican students, who make up 62 percent of the pupils.

“This policy causes chaos in the Asian-American community, and we’re here to reject this policy,” said John Chan, head of the Coalition of Asian-Americans for Civil Rights.

Opponents of the proposed change accused the mayor of pitting minority groups against one another.

“For many of these Asian-American families I represent, they’re mostly new American families, new immigrants who came here,” said Assemblyman Ron Kim, a Queens Democrat. “They’re just following the rules that were set. For the chancellor to imply they own the admissions test, I think it’s completely uncalled for. They didn’t create this system.”

Tough entrance standards, a rigorous curriculum and a reputation for graduating some of the world’s top scholars have made the city’s exam schools highly desirable among high-performing students.

The Bronx High School of Science has graduated eight Nobel Prize winners. Stuyvesant High has had four.

In 2018, about 28,300 middle-school students took the test to get into the eight specialized schools. About 5,000 were offered seats.

Asian students made up the largest number of testtakers, about 8,800, and had the highest acceptance rate, with 29.7 percent of the students getting an offer. In comparison, 3.6 percent of the 5,730 black students who took the test were accepted, and 26.2 percent of white students were.

Overhauling the specialized high school admissions process entirely would require action by the state legislature, which won’t vote on the plan until 2019 at the earliest.