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 153 articles on Hecht-Calandra, SHSAT, and related topics.

city-and-state-ny, interview, john liu, senate

Liu: No quick fix to specialized high schools entrance exam

Senator John Liu showed his hand and hinted that he plans to kill any SHSAT reform by languishing the decision in committee over the next few years. State Sen. John Liu said at City & State’s Education Summit on Thursday ...
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carranza, elsen-rooney, greene, holden, lobbying, lobbyists, ny-daily-news, vavruska

City Council staffer accused of stoking tensions at protests over DOE’s plans to diversify NYC schools

I've seen this man at just about every SHSAT demonstration I've attended. He's definitely one of its most prolific organizers. The man who’s been the loudest in the raucous movement to oust Richard Carranza is on the payroll of one ...
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first-hand, history, opinion, prep, rockawave, scott

The WAVE: School Scope – Those SHSAT Tests, Part 1

This opinion piece dates SHSAT test prep to the 1950s. Of course, the entrance exam was not called "SHSAT" back then, and there was one exam per school. When I was an 8th grade student in the 1957-58 school year ...
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lawsuit, nyclu, obrian, overview, video

NEW YORK’S SPECIALIZED HIGH SCHOOLS NEED MORE STUDENTS LIKE OBRIAN

Obrian was devastated when he found out he didn’t score high enough on the Specialized High School Admissions Test (SHSAT) to attend Brooklyn Technical High School, one of New York City’s most selective high schools. Unlike many of the students ...
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analysis, brookings, exam-schools, reform, statistics

Elite or elitist? Lessons for colleges from selective high schools

An in-depth report on the state of specialized high schools across the nation. NYC specialized high schools are the only "one-exam-only" admissions in the nation reformers might do better instead to look to Chicago’s use of area-based geographical tiers. One ...
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nyclu, obrian, overview, video

NYCLU: Paving the Way

Standardized test scores aren't a good predictor of whether a student will succeed.

No one knows that more than Obrian, an A-student, track star, and activist at Brooklyn Tech. Standardized test scores aren't a good predictor of whether a student will ...
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analysis, hannah-jones, integration, nonshsat, nytimes, podcast, segregation

The Myth That Busing Failed

“The school bus, treasured when it was serving as a tool of segregation, became reviled only when it transformed into a tool of integration,” Nikole Hannah-Jones writes in a news analysis. Podcast: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/18/podcasts/the-daily/busing-school-segregation.html ...
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education equity campaign, foy, kirkland, lauder, lobbying, lobbyists, politico, touré

Foes of de Blasio’s high school integration plan spent close to $1M to quash it

The Education Equity Campaign, a pro-test coalition which launched in February to counter the mayor’s plan, hired top firms Tusk Strategies, Bolton St. Johns and Patrick B. Jenkins & Associates to the tune of $80,000 total in May and June, according to ...
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gifted-and-talented, green, nonshsat, ny-daily-news, opinion

Thinking through gifted and talented education in New York City public schools: One parent’s reflection on the system

How does the process work? Four-year-olds take a nationally normed standardized test (actually, two tests, the NNAT and the OLSAT, which are supposed to measure reasoning ability and general intellectual aptitude). No bubble sheets: It’s administered in person by an ...
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first-hand, ny-daily-news, opinion, racism, stuyvesant

Being black at Stuyvesant: Two students on what it’s like for African Americans at the specialized high school

Just because students are intelligent enough to pass a test doesn’t mean they understand people who might be ethnically, racially or culturally different.
That’s what happened to Gordon in his freshman biology class when his lab partner blamed him for ...
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