UFT President Michael Mulgrew, joined by State Sen. Adriano Espaillat, Assembly Member Karim Camara and Assembly Member Ron Kim, announced on June 9 the introduction of bipartisan legislation whose prime Senate sponsor is State Sen. Simcha Felder, that is designed to increase fairness in admission to New York City’s specialized high schools.  

The proposed legislation would mandate the use of multiple academic measures to evaluate student applicants, rather than the single multiple-choice test that now governs admissions to Stuyvesant, Bronx Science and Brooklyn Tech high schools, along with five other specialized schools.  

The legislation (S7738/A9979) also calls for additional steps by the city’s Department of Education to expand the number of applicants, and the revival of a summer program that offers intensive help to students who score just short of admission.

President Mulgrew said:  “The nation's elite colleges - from Harvard and Princeton to Columbia and New York University - use multiple measures to evaluate students as part of their admission process.  But New York City continues to rely on a single, outmoded multiple-choice test for admission to its top academic high schools.  Under the current admission system, black and Hispanic students who represent 70 percent of our student body make up a tiny and declining proportion of the students in the three traditional ‘exam’ schools.”  

“No one with real experience in New York City schools believes that out of roughly 52,000 black and Hispanic eighth graders, only 28 are worthy this year of a Stuyvesant education.”

Sen. Felder, prime sponsor of the legislation in the State Senate, said, “As a parent and Chair of the New York City Education Subcommittee, I share the concerns of other New York City parents about the current admission policies in place in our city’s top high schools. While the SHSAT provides some measure of assessing a student’s academic strength, it does not speak to the talents and abilities of the whole child. This legislation is a first step in correcting this disparity.

Sen. Felder added, “I wholeheartedly believe that other factors such as a student’s extra-curricular activities, community service, and personal interview should also be considered in making an offer of admission. Testing and assessments alone are insufficient, and cheats our youth of the best educational opportunities to which they are entitled.”  

Sen. Espaillat said, "New York's top high schools need an admissions policy based on intelligence, hard work and achievement - not an arbitrary high stakes test that penalizes young people of color. What does a single multiple-choice test prove, other than some students knew the testing strategies better than others? It is time to make a change, and we have an opportunity to create a system that is fair and accessible to all students. We owe our children nothing less."

Assembly Member Camara said, “One of the best things about going to public school in New York City is the great diversity in the classroom. Not only do students get to learn the three R’s but they learn about other cultures in an egalitarian way. That should be the case in our specialized highs schools as well. Unfortunately, students at those schools see very little diversity while they earn their top notch education.  With the passage of this bill, specialized high schools will be more available students who demonstrate academic promise of without lowering the level of academic excellence at these fine institutions.”

Assembly Member Kim said, “A number of leading academic and psychological experts have proven in recent years that individuals become successful in life due to non-cognitive skills like grit, determination, and being able to collaborate with others. In order to close the education achievement gaps at the local and global levels, we must find a way to factor in these non-cognitive skills and re-formulate how we measure and advance our students. This legislation is getting us one step closer to accomplishing this goal.”

Background

A single score on a multiple choice test currently determines admission to eight elite New York City high schools:  Bronx High School of Science; Brooklyn Latin; Brooklyn Technical High School; High School of Mathematics, Science and Engineering at City College; High School of American Studies at Lehman College; Queens High School for the Sciences at York; Staten Island Technical High School and Stuyvesant High School. 

State law (the Hecht-Calandra act, passed in 1971) specifically governs entrance requirements to Stuyvesant, Bronx Science and Brooklyn Tech through a single test, known as the Specialized High School Admissions Test (SHSAT). Admissions to the five other schools have been guided by the law in practice.

According to the city’s Department of Education, the SHSAT was taken by 27,817 students for 2014-15 school year. Some 5,096 won admission to the eight schools based on their ranked scores.

Of the eight schools, Brooklyn Tech offered admission to 127 black and 130 Latino students for the coming school year; Bronx Science to 18 black and 50 Latino students and Stuyvesant to 7 black students and 21 Latino students. (The five remaining schools together have only about 3,000 seats, about the same as Bronx Science, the smallest of the three traditional ‘exam’ schools.)

The average percentage of blacks and Hispanics in Stuyvesant, Bronx Science and Brooklyn Tech is now about 11 percent, down from an already low 14 per cent in 2007.  These school registers are dominated by Asian and white students. 

Broadening the definition of academic success

The legislation calls for the city to expand its definition of academic success by following the lead of elite colleges and broadening the criteria for admission beyond a single test score. 

The city should create an admission “power score” that would factor in a student’s grade point average, school attendance and state exam scores. These factors, combined with his or her score on the current admission exam, would better capture a student's entire academic career.

Expanding the pool of applicants

A dwindling number of city middle schools account for the vast majority of applicants and admitted students to the specialized high schools, in part because many students  never hear of this option at their middle school. 

The legislators and the UFT urge an aggressive program to increase the numbers of eighth-grade students taking the test. The city should also offer free exam prep materials on-line to help level the playing field for students who cannot afford the expensive private test prep courses that have sprung up around the current admission process. 

Restore summer program

Each of the eight schools should also re-start a Discovery program, which provides intensive summer instruction for students just shy of admission, with the possibility of a seat in the fall class on successful completion of this summer program. 

The Discovery program was part of the original legislation, and permitted the schools to admit as many as 14 percent of their incoming classes from those who concluded it successfully. However, it has been allowed to lapse.