Over the almost 50 years of Hecht-Calandra act being law, we now have decades of research detailing the problems with high-stakes testing as the sole measure of student ability. Yet Hecht-Calandra and the exam it authorizes continue to be New York State law.

Denying the harm in using a single multiple-choice exam as the sole measure of a child’s academic worth with the mountains of scientific evidence we now have is similar to denying global warming.

No other district in the nation uses a single exam for screening a public high school. No red state or GOP-led State has a single-measure entrance exam.

Replace Hecht-Calandra act to allow modern psychometric testing practices that aren’t subject to the above issues.

How you can help

We have a hard time getting NY Assembly and Senate elected members to give on-record opinions on the test.  Call your Assembly and Senate representatives to ask for their opinion on the test.  And let us know their opinion.

Posts, News & Articles

Interested in learning more? We’ve collected 222 articles on Hecht-Calandra, SHSAT, and related topics.

law, law, paper, weishart

Separate But Free

separate is inherently unfree. As this Article uniquely clarifies, segregation deprives schoolchildren of freedom to become equal citizens and freedom to learn in democratic, integrated, and transformative settings. We must name and reclaim these positive, social, emancipatory freedoms—envisioned by the ...
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law, law, lawreview, research

Constitutional Diversity in New York’s Specialized High Schools: The SHSAT, the Discovery Program, and the Fourteenth Amendment

Even if the SHSAT was an educational necessity, it would still violate disparate impact regulations if there was an alternative available that achieved the same objective with a less discriminatory impact. The NAACP LDF found that a multi-measured approach to ...
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chalkbeat, first-hand, opinion, student

My SHSAT scores didn’t show what I could achieve at Brooklyn Tech

Although I am about to enter my senior year and doing well at Brooklyn Tech, I don’t think my eligibility for getting into any school should be based on one test. In fact, I excel in community leadership and have ...
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abc, integratenyc, law, lawsuit

What to know about suit challenging alleged ‘racist’ education system in NYC

"The system reproduced by the New York City public schools is fundamentally one of caste: an artificial, graded 'ranking of human value that sets the presumed supremacy of one group against the presumed inferiority of other groups on the basis ...
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1966, bronx science, carmichael, interview, stokely, video

Stokely Carmichael interviewed by Mike Wallace discusses the SHSAT Exam

Almost 60 years ago, civil rights leader Stokely Carmichael calls out the inequitable SHSAT admissions process ...
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boston, boston latin, exam-schools, nonshsat, nytimes

Boston Overhauls Admissions to Exclusive Exam Schools

The new admissions system will still weigh test results and grades, but, following a model pioneered in Chicago, it will also introduce ways to select applicants who come from poor and disadvantaged neighborhoods.Under the new system, the applicant pool will ...
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aapi perspective, first-hand, opinion, student, xinshengproject

Why I Support Reforming New York City’s Elite High School Admissions

The usage of examples of Asian success to justify our current high school system harms all communities of color. This rhetoric reduces the Asian American community to a monolith by focusing on a subset of its population. Educational inequity affects ...
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exam-schools, nonshsat, tjhsst, virginia, washingtonpost

After admissions changes, Thomas Jefferson High will welcome most diverse class in recent history, officials say

Brabrand said the more-representative nature of TJ’s newest class will have everyday benefits as students interact in classrooms, in hallways and on the playing field, learning to understand and love people different from themselves. And, he added, these advantages will ...
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chalkbeat, first-hand, integration, interview, racism, student

She got into one of NYC’s top high schools. Four years later, she wishes she hadn’t

“I started to slowly realize that a lot of these kids had kind of been sheltered from other races of people to the point where they didn’t really know how to be racially sensitive,” said Yarde, 17, who graduated Monday ...
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AFT, algar, news, nypost

Teachers union chief cites Stuyvesant HS in ripping standardized testing

American Federation of Teachers president Randi Weingarten critiqued standardized testing Thursday — and specifically cited the racial makeup of heavily Asian Stuyvesant High School as an example of what’s wrong with the system.“If you need proof of the limitations of ...
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