Chalkbeat reports that the number of African American and Hispanic students offered admission to New York City’s elite high schools continued to be very low.
Admissions offers are based on the results of one test given on one day. No other factors are taken into account.
The statistics for next year’s freshman class show sharp disparities:
Only 4.5% of offers went to black students and 6.6% went to Hispanic students, virtually unchanged from last year. Citywide, black and Hispanic students make up almost 70% of enrollment.
Once again, a majority of offers went to white students (25.1%) and Asian students (54%).
The figures were a stark reminder that Mayor Bill de Blasio’s efforts to integrate the schools — which he’s dialed back this year — have failed to win support. In pushing for admission changes, the mayor unsuccessfully lobbied state lawmakers, who must approve any admissions changes to the city’s three largest specialized high schools, Brooklyn Tech, Stuyvesant, and Bronx Science.
At Stuyvesant, the most competitive of the specialized high schools, only 10 offers went to black students and 20 went to Latino students — out of 766 total offers. At Staten Island Technical, only one black student was offered admission, the same number as last year. The number of Hispanic students offered a seat at Stuy dropped to 20 from 33, and at Staten Island Tech, only eight Hispanic students received offers, from 11 the year before.
Mayor
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Clearly, we need some Nuremberg Race Laws which establish open racial quotas.
Or, to accomplish the same Progressive end, Blacks should get an automatic fifty percent increase in their scores. Hispanics a 25% increase.
Jews and Asians should get equivalent reductions.
This system should be extended to Nobel Prizes in science and medicine and to the Fields Medal in mathematics.
In the schools, the racist nature of science and mathematics should be taught … this has already begun but needs to be extended. Just look at the history of these subjects! All those white males! And the obviously racist emphasis on a ‘correct answer’, which can be derived by individuals working alone.
:Lots of work to be done to advance our wonderful state education system.
Mr. MAGA chimes in with a racist comment.
You don’t have any idea what you’re talking about–and you are clearly in over your head here.
Yes admission to high school is clearly just like the award of the Nobel Prize and Fields medal.
Ha ha ha
🙂
Give me a regular high school any day.
New York City has many excellent high schools that do not have test based admissions. But because of Bloomberg’s choice policy, all high schools are by choice, and every student makes 12 choices, and decisions are made by an algorithm. The most desired schools have thousands of applicants.
OMG. Thanks for this information, Diane.
Who thought of this convoluted system?
My parents would say, “Selecting a school is just … way too hard.”
I know my parents; they would have thought, “Ridiculous!”
Wonder how many parents are like mine would have been?
African Americans and Hispanics are just too dumb to get in, doncha know?
Test based exclusion of African Americans and other minorities has always been — and remains — quite valid.
Nothing here to see. Move along.
I don’t live in NY. My question would be what are the demographics of the feeder schools these African American and Hispanic children attended K-8? My bet is that the demographics of these few are in alignment with the demographics of the majority White and Asian students?
The whole test centered admissions policy is based on the idea that students who don’t have the “proper grounding” in science and math (as judged by the test) by 9th grade can simply not do the work at one of the elite high schools.
That’s just absurd. They might have to work harder to do it, but this ain’t rocket science we are talking about. It’s high school science and math.
It’s hard to avoid the conclusion that the elite schools just don’t want to be bothered with providing the help needed for some students to fill gaps and “catch up”, something that “ordinary” high schools regularly do.
The elite high schools don’t make the rules governing their admission policies.
The Legislature does. It contains graduates of these schools who are adamant about protecting the policy of test-based admissions, i.e., one test on one day is the sole criterion.
The principals of those schools may not make the rules, but they have an input and principals remaining silent says as much as being outspoken.
At least one former principal of Stuyvesant indicated precisely the concern that I suggested
“If the mayor’s proposal passes in the state legislature, she said, Stuyvesant would have to dramatically expand its academic intervention services for struggling students.”
https://www.wsj.com/articles/former-stuyvesant-principal-questions-proposed-changes-to-school-admissions-1531841841
So, Stuyvesant might have to provide some of the support services that “normal” high schools provide? What a crying shame.
That principal did have one legitimate concern , however
“Ms. Zhang expressed concern about how Stuyvesant’s faculty would handle a broader ability band. “I worry about their training for teaching a completely new population,” she said. “I don’t think the teachers in specialized high schools will be ready to adjust quickly.”
Yes, indeed, because it is easier to teach students who have already been exposed to (if not already know) the material than those who have not.
Are Asians a minority?
We have a two tiered system … those who have money and those who don’t.
Where’s the “democracy” part? i keep trying to find “democracy” in America.
In response to a reporter asking how the wealthy are getting access to coronavirus testing so easily while others are finding that tests are unavailable, the president’s answer was, “That’s the story of life.’ That’s the answer you get from a racist, elitist.” https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2020/3/18/1928719/-Let-them-eat-coronavirus-Trump-says-wealthy-getting-tested-first-is-just-the-story-of-life
Folks interested in the demographic makeup of Stuyvesant High might look here: https://www.publicschoolreview.com/stuyvesant-high-school-profile
About 44% of students at Stuyvesant are eligible for free or reduced price lunch. While below the state average, this compares reasonably well to other nearby schools. IS 289 has about 43% of students eligible for free or reduced price lunch (https://www.publicschoolreview.com/stuyvesant-high-school-profile), PS 89 has 2% of students eligible for free or reduced price lunch (https://www.publicschoolreview.com/p-s-89-profile/10282), PS 150 has 8% of students eligible for free or reduced price lunch (https://www.publicschoolreview.com/p-s-89-profile/10282), PS 234 has about 4% of students eligible for free or reduced price lunch (https://www.publicschoolreview.com/p-s-234-independence-school-profile). Broome Street Charter Academy High School, however, has 64% of students eligible for free or reduced price lunch, above the state average (https://www.publicschoolreview.com/broome-street-academy-charter-high-school-profile)
I worked at the High School of Economics & Finance in Lower Manhattan for a little over ten years. In that time, innumerable students told me that they didn’t choose the school, but, rather, were simply sent there. One student I served rode in from the end of the A-Train line at Ozone Park, Queens; she was spending, depending on service, up to three hours a day on trains.
The high school system in New York is monumentally dumb and inefficient.
A consequence of a policy that ends up excluding identifiable students is that those in society who identify as a part of that group take the exclusion as proof that thee is inherent bias toward their group. I does not matter if there is or is not; that will be one perception.
Even if this perception is incorrect, which those against quotas and alternative admissions procedures often argue, it undermines the idea of fairness where opportunity is concerned. We cannot afford this. The waiting lists that Diane cites above should be motivation to create more schools of this caliber, or to reject the idea altogether and serve the excellent student within more extant institutions. We cannot expect participation in a representative government by those who feel shut out of it.
While the Buffalo Public Schools isn’t nearly the size of NYC Schools, the students theee also have to apply to the various high schools, several requiring testing as a condition for entrance. City Honors is the most prized choice and there have also been complaints of the ratio of white/minority although the numbers aren’t nearly as lopsided as those of the schools mentioned in the above article,
There is a test (for entrance for grades 5-12) plus an essay and questionnaires for parents and teachers. I’ve participated in the scoring and we have no idea the name/background of the individual child. The written test is not based on knowledge, but instead focuses on reasoning skills. Children from all over the city (and even outside the city) sit for the exam.
There are also other good schools in the city, but it is a lot of pressure on a thirteen year old who is devastated when they don’t get into their first choice.
I worked at the Gifted and Talented School whose students also tested into the program beginning in pre-school which included a one on one interview with the gifted and talented teachers and a psychological exam. While 70% tested into the elementary/middle school program, 30% were neighborhood kids. For the most part it worked and the population was diverse. By High School, however, the standards were “high” and while students who were doing well were allowed to continue into grade 9, those who were on the border line (or new students who wanted to apply) had to take a test focusing on creativity (although academics, recommendations, and assessments were also taken into account). On occasion, teachers went to bat for a student they thought showed a potential not indicated by their current grades. There is also a population of special needs students along with several kids on the spectrum who attend this school (actually all public schools).
The upshot is that acceptance into either program, City Honors or Olmsted, does not guarantee success. The pressure to achieve can be detrimental to certain students. If they don’t have the drive, let alone the ability, they fail (even when given extra help).
While I’m sure there are many minorities in NYC who would thrive at those select schools, admission solely based on race could backfire. However, in my experience, acceptance into such a program is often a close call with numerous students with similar results vying for a limited number of slots. In this case, perhaps a minority student could be given an edge (although I know that a policy such as this will raise an uproar from those “entitled” majority families who have groomed their children from birth for admittance into a top school.) Successful minority students will reinforce the concept that they belong there just as much as the others.
i attended a selective school in Philadelphia many years ago. They did not try to balance the school by race, but they did try to accept a few students from almost every attendance area in the city. Since neighborhoods tend to be segregated, this practice resulted in a more diverse student body with minority students at about 20%.
I would wonder if Stuyvesant would choose to offer its most advanced courses if the number of students in those courses dropped significantly. Both Complex Calculus and Multivariable Calculus are year long courses taught to students after taking AP Calculus.