SHSAT Sunset

  • Three charter-school leaders for ending single-test high school admissions: Black and Latino kids can perform at the highest levels

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    Using a single test to determine admission to the most elite schools is not a sound way to select students. It’s an outdated process that leads schools to miss too many talented students, a single-measure notion that the best colleges don’t even use. The Specialized High School Admissions Test isn’t based on the middle-school curriculum…

  • Specialized high schools and race

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    Another overview.  Adds a DoE spokesperson quote. According to New York City Department of Education spokesman Will Mantell, the citywide average GPA of students in the top 7 percent of their classes is 94 out of 100, the same average GPA of students offered a spot at the elite high schools. Additionally, he said their…

  • Stuyvesant Principal Eric Contreras In Favor of ‘Mixed Metrics’ Assessment Instead of Only SHSAT

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    Principal Eric Contreras is stepping down, but is in favor of using multiple criteria for measuring merit, as opposed to the single roughly 100 math and English multiple-choice SHSAT. That makes both the principal and valedictorian of Stuyvesant pro-reform. Though Contreras told the Journal he is in favor of “mixed metrics” to be used in…

  • Questions raised about aptitude tests

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    Fox news interviews students and other stakeholders about the SHSAT “It’s not the right way to evaluate a student’s merit,” said Muhammad Deen, no other college uses one single test. Deen says he came just below the cutoff to get into Brooklyn tech and instead ended up attending a charter school. He and Morales support…

  • Should These Tests Get a Failing Grade?

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    SHSAT 1, NYTimes reporters and editors 0 But the problems I encountered when taking the SHSAT online demonstrate how even one standardized test question might derail a promising student’s future. In fact, I was thrown off by the very first question on the test […] Daniel Koretz, a professor at the Harvard Graduate School of…

  • 74 Analysis Shows Girls Already Outperform Boys at NYC’s Elite Schools Amid Fear That Opening Up Admissions Would Water Down Quality

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    With the city’s focus on improving STEM options for girls, the use of the SHSAT seems a bit hypocritical Perhaps, but the mayor’s initiative would also give more offers to a particular kind of student — one more likely to earn high GPAs, achieve college readiness on Regents exams, and graduate with top honors. That…

  • Union chief says de Blasio’s plan to scrap the SHSAT is going nowhere in Albany

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    It seems unlikely that Bill A10427 will succeed, according to Michael Mulgrew.  This has been our assumption from the beginning as well. “I don’t believe at this point in time it can pass in the next legislative session because it has been so highly politicized,” Michael Mulgrew, president of the United Federation of Teachers, said during a…

  • Nix this admissions test: A recent Stuyvesant grad makes the case against the SHSAT

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    Student argument against the SHSAT Defenders of the current system, hailing the test as establishing a level playing field, argue that if more black and Latino students truly wanted to attend specialized high schools, they could just study harder. I have repeatedly heard my classmates champion this mindset, implying that black and Latino students are…

  • In a wide-ranging interview, Carranza takes issue with admissions to New York City’s gifted programs

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    Chancellor Richard Carranza in a wide-ranging interview with Chalkbeat. “There is no body of knowledge that I know of that has pointed to the fact that you can give a test to a 4-year-old or a 5-year-old and determine if they’re gifted,” he said. “Those tests — and it’s pretty clear — are more a…

  • UFT: The Specialized High School Controversy is a Political Sideshow

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    UFT Michael Mulgrew’s opinion The United Federation of Teachers has made repeated suggestions for improving the admission process in the “exam” schools, including using multiple measures and prioritizing the highest-level performers from every middle school. But however that debate turns out, the real focus of the DOE and our local political leaders should be on…