Category: interview

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

July 26, 2021
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. “It seemed like kids were either automatically intimidated by me, or they immediately undermined me.”

Wint attended Stuyvesant when she was a student in the late 2000s but left the school her junior year, a decision she attributes to the overt racism she experienced there.
Her breaking point came when the school organized a day during Spirit Week called “Ghetto Fabulous Day.” Although the school changed the name of the event after the Black Student Union noted the implicit racism, students still dressed inappropriately, in what Wint said “could only be called a Minstrel show.”

https://ny.chalkbeat.org/2021/6/21/22544027/she-got-into-one-of-nycs-top-high-schools-four-years-later-she-wishes-she-hadnt

June 21, 2021
Chancellor Carranza’s NYS 2021 Budget Comments on Repealing Hecht-Calandra

Chancellor Carranza gives the New York State Assembly and Senate a great summarized argument for repealing the Hecht-Calandra Act.

Also at this hearing, Senator John Liu brought up the question of decertifying the 5 most recent SHSAT schools…

February 15, 2020
Andrew Yang: Admission to elite schools shouldn’t just be about tests

This is a courageous and commendable stance from Mr. Yang.

“I think we should de-emphasize them. If they are going to be used and they should be used in conjunction with more holistic practices,”
Andrew Yang on Standardized Testing

https://nypost.com/2019/10/21/andrew-yang-admission-to-elite-schools-shouldnt-just-be-about-tests/

October 22, 2019
Program Aims To Level Playing Field For Testing Into NYC’s Specialty High Schools

Parents spend thousands of dollars, students “study to the test” for years. The most popular ( largest ) SHSAT prep program ( Kahn’s Tutorial ) reportedly charges about $2,500 for an 11-month course.

Michelle Zhang, a freshman at Stuyvesant High School, knows first hand.
“I was in test prep for the SHSAT for three years from when I was in 5th grade to the test,” she said.

Zhang’s parents spent thousands of dollars for her private tutoring, a benefit many students living in majority minority neighborhoods can’t afford.

https://newyork.cbslocal.com/2019/10/17/education-equity-nyc-specialty-high-schools-stuyvesant-brooklyn-tech/

October 18, 2019
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 that he doesn’t expect any major changes to come out of Albany for at least several years as lawmakers and stakeholders figure out the best way to address racial disparities at the city’s specialized schools. The Queens lawmaker said that he does not yet know the best path forward, adding that he and his colleagues in the state Legislature don’t want to act hastily in response to results from the Specialized High Schools Admission Test.

For Senator Liu, this continues a pattern of not addressing specific issues around testing and admissions but rather simply declaring other proposals won’t work.

Senator Liu has yet to propose a single proposal of his own. A common practice among SHSAT supporters, as their goal is to protect the status quo as is.

https://www.cityandstateny.com/articles/policy/education/john-liu-no-quick-fix-specialized-high-schools-entrance-exam.html

August 16, 2019
Video: New York City Students and Alumni on the Specialized High School Test

Powerful testimony on the effect’s of a NYC’s single-measure, high-stakes admissions system.

And how the pressure affected the mental health of a group of 12 year-old students.

May 31, 2019
Toward a Black education agenda

“We have 5,000 applicants every year for these schools and NYC is the only school system that uses a single test as the only criteria for admission. All other schools in the nation have multiple measures for admission into specialized schools. They look at what the student has done all year, their GPA, their development. Not a single test that require eighth-graders to go to expensive private cram schools because the curriculum doesn’t include any of the material. Our children are less than 10 percent of the specialized high school student population while Asians are 67 percent.”

Dr. Bernard Gassaway said, “The system is designed to fail our children. There are 17 members of the New York State Board of Regents. It is more diverse now than it’s ever been. But they’re not doing anything demonstrably to change the system. So you put people who look like us on the Board of Regents, but then they begin to conform to the ways of the people who are perpetuating the demise of our children. It’s clear the policies are what’s destroying our children and you are the policymaking board. You were put on that to Board to represent us, but yet you’re failing to do that. The problem is, they’re not being called out on that.”

http://amsterdamnews.com/news/2019/apr/18/toward-black-education-agenda/

April 19, 2019
Video: EdCast on the SHSAT: Biased Barrier or Objective Opportunity?

Part II

Part III

March 31, 2019
Stuyvesant Has 29 Black Students Out of 3,300. How Do They Feel?

The students — members of the school’s Black Students League and Aspira, the Hispanic student organization — recalled painful memories of having heard racist comments behind their backs at school. They reflected on their shared sense of alienation. They said they worried that adults would allow inequities in the system to persist.
“It’s frustrating to see that nobody wants to do anything, until it’s like, ‘Oh no, nobody got it in,’” said Katherine Sanchez, 17, whose parents are from the Dominican Republic. “But it’s like, ‘well you didn’t try to make anyone come in, you didn’t do anything about it.’”

Katherine and some of the others noted how strange it was to leave their mostly black and Hispanic neighborhoods to make lengthy commutes to Tribeca, where the school takes up most of a city block. Katherine, the oldest of four siblings, said she was the first person in two decades to go to Stuyvesant from her middle school in Morris Park, in the Bronx.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/22/nyregion/stuyvesant-high-school-black-students.html

March 22, 2019