But the test helped drive sharp racial and economic segregation: In 2020, the last year it was administered, just 12% of kindergartners in gifted programs were Black or Latino.
After the city nixed the test, the demographics began to change.
In the 2023-24 school year, 30% of kindergartners in gifted programs were Black or Latino, officials said at a recent City Council hearing. The share of students from low-income families in gifted programs citywide rose to 47% last year, up from 34% in 2019, according to Education Department data.
Category: news
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Mamdani wants to rethink gifted and talented in NYC. The program has already seen big shifts.
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Should NYC’s specialized high school test come in other languages? Manhattan parent council says no.
Last school year, just four of the nearly 16,000 students enrolled in the eight specialized high schools, or 0.03%, were classified as English learners, according to city data. That’s in a school system where roughly 148,000 students, or 16.3% of the population, are learning English — a share that’s been growing as the city absorbs tens of thousands of migrant families.
Last year, roughly 900 English learners took the specialized high school test, and fewer than six got in. (The Education Department suppresses data for groups that small, so the precise number isn’t shared.)
It wasn’t immediately clear how many current specialized high school students were considered English Learners at one point in their school career and have now tested out of that designation. About 47% of specialized high school students last year spoke English as a home language, compared to about 52% of all city public high school students, according to a Chalkbeat analysis of city data.
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New York City Approves New Contract for Specialized High School Test
According to the D.O.E., approximately 30,000 eighth graders and 5,000 ninth graders take the test each year. Major racial gaps have persisted in the admissions process, with 12 percent of spots last year offered to Black and Latino students — the highest number since 2013 and up from 10 percent the year before.
The meeting agenda for Wednesday night acknowledged that the D.O.E. was aware of 19 investigations into Pearson for workplace discrimination but said that 16 of those cases had been closed or dismissed.
But the department did not address a string of issues involving Pearson’s testing over the years. Testing errors led the New York State Education Department to end its contract with Pearson in 2015.
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/18/nyregion/specialized-high-school-test-new-york.html
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Push to digitize NYC entrance exam for specialized high schools reignites equity debate
n panel documents, it reported receiving two bids during a request for proposals from Pearson, which has historically provided the exam, or a competitor, Educational Testing Services. After negotiating the contract down with Pearson, education officials said the cost of their product was 19% lower than switching vendors, and urged panel members to vote it through.
“This would be the sole means of providing an exam,” First Deputy Chancellor Dan Weisberg told the panel on Wednesday night at its monthly meeting, the second consecutive forum where the test was included but later removed from the agenda. “So if we don’t have this contract in place, the current contract will expire. There will be no contract of paper and pencil to continue.”
The tests will continue to be administered in school for eighth graders, with weekend testing available for ninth graders and students from private, religious and charter schools at central locations, according to education officials. Paper versions would remain available for students with disabilities who need accommodations. The changes would go into effect next fall.
In a statement, State Sen. John Liu (D-Queens), the chair of the upper chamber’s committee on New York City education, reiterated state law requires the exam for admission to specialized high schools, with no indication that he would push for changes in Albany.
“While the single test is not perfect, it is still the most objective assessment for admission to these specialized high schools,” Liu told The News.
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NYC eyes $17 million contract to create computer-based Specialized High School Admissions Test
This year’s eighth graders could be the last class that takes the Specialized High Schools Admissions Test with paper and pencil. A New York City education panel is slated to vote on a roughly $17 million contract later this month that would transition the test to a computer-based model.
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More Black and Latino Students Admitted to New York’s Elite High Schools
Across the public school system, 24 percent of students are Black and 41 percent are Hispanic. But at Stuyvesant High School in Manhattan, often viewed as the city’s most competitive high school, 10 of the 744 offers made this spring went to Black students while 16 went to Hispanic students. Asian students were offered 496 spots, and white students were offered 127.
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Stuyvesant High School Admitted 762 New Students. Only 7 Are Black.
Gaps at many of the other schools were also stark: Out of 287 offers made at Staten Island Technical High School, for example, two Black students were accepted — up from zero last year — along with seven Latino students.
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/02/nyregion/stuyvesant-high-school-black-students.html
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NYC’s specialized high schools continue to admit few Black, Latino students, 2022 data shows
While the share of Black and Latino students taking the test increased this year by more than five percentage points, to almost 47% of test-takers, that did not translate into more students earning a score high enough to qualify for admission. (There is no cut-off score for admission. Rather, offers are based on ranked scores, starting with those earning the highest marks.)
Almost 28,000 students took the entrance test this year — 4,000 more than last year.
https://ny.chalkbeat.org/2022/6/15/23169817/nyc-specialized-high-school-admissions-offers-2022
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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 standardized tests, consider that of the 750 students admitted to New York Citys acclaimed Stuyvesant High School this coming fall, only eight are Black and 20 are Latino,” she said during an address. “Similar trends are seen at other selective public high schools requiring admissions exams.”
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Stuyvesant students say the crushing workload is hurting their mental health. Here’s what they’re doing about it.
Homework for regular classes is supposed to be capped at an hour over two days, or two hours for Advanced Placement classes, Giordano explained.
Much of the discussion about the path forward has often been mired in the debate over academic standards.
“It often comes down to this zero sum game, that in order to support students’ mental health that we need to give a little on the academics,” he said. “I think they’re both possible. They both need to be possible.”
But they haven’t always felt possible. When English teacher Mark Henderson started working at Stuyvesant about 15 years ago, the principal at the time would tell students they could only choose two of the following: friends, sleep, or grades.
https://ny.chalkbeat.org/2021/3/12/22328382/stuyvesant-high-school-mental-health