Author: siteadmin
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Stop relying on just one test: Mayor de Blasio is right to try to want to turn away from the SHSAT high school admissions exam
I was the valedictorian of my eighth-grade class and earned a special honor for never missing a day of school, but that wasn’t enough to help me, or others like me, gain admission into schools like American Studies. Instead, a single specialty test was used to gauge my intelligence, work ethic and worthiness. The mayor’s…
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CEC District 2 SHSAT Resolution Response
Update: Happy to report that District 2 CEC decided against passing this resolution. Personally, I believe that was very brave of them as they had to stare down a large group of very angry people in doing so. 3 CEC District 2 members recently released a resolution proposal titled: “Resolution: In Support of Comprehensive Community…
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Test prep is a rite of passage for many Asian-Americans
Non-SHSAT article that discusses the intersection of culture and single-measure testing. Related to the Harvard case, test scores for all students should be considered with a grain of salt. Yes, high scores are impressive, but they should be understood in the context of opportunity. It’s also important to note that strong scores are the norm…
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NAACP 2012 Case: New York City Specialized High School Complaint
In school districts across the nation, talented African Americans and other students of color are denied a fair opportunity to gain access to the life-changing educational experiences provided by specialized schools for high-achieving students and gifted/talented education programs. As a result, elite public schools and programs, which provide key pathways to college and then to…
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Parents Mull Suit Over City Plan to Boost Diversity at Elite Schools
Vito LaBella, president of the Christa McAuliffe Parent Teacher Organization, said that if parents decide to forge ahead, the federal suit would challenge this set-aside plan. “It’s discriminatory,” he said. “I do believe our children would no longer be allowed to partake in Discovery.” Currently the small Discovery program is available to disadvantaged applicants citywide.…
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The Education Exchange: Making Exam Schools More Diverse in Boston
In Boston, nearly 25% of public middle and high school students attend exam schools, but these schools are much less diverse than the school district as a whole. A new study looks closely at the entrance exam used to select students for these schools and at ways the admissions process could be changed to to…
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Overemphasizing a Test, Oversimplifying Our Children: An APA Perspective on Specialized High School Reform towards Educational Equity
The SHSAT is misperceived as an objective, and “colorblind” tool to measure merit. However, an expansive body of research reveals that school screening policies that do not consider race or socioeconomic status do not reduce, but rather contribute to further “stratification by race and ethnicity across schools and programs.” […] In the field of testing,…
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Highly skilled black, Latino students face admission barriers to exam schools, study finds
Black and Latino students who do as well as their white and Asian peers on the MCAS exam nonetheless have a much lower chance of being admitted to Boston Latin School and the city’s two other exam schools, according to a Harvard report being released Tuesday. Their path is hindered by a separate test —…
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Social Justice Was Always Essential to NYC’s Public High Schools
But here’s where Blumenstein and other critics get it wrong because, although Bronx Science founder Morris Meister was a firm believer in merit-based admissions, it was in the context of seeing science education as integral to a democratic social and political vision. Criticizing reforms intended to make the city more democratic by fossilizing Meister’s original…