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.
Tag: budget
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Push to digitize NYC entrance exam for specialized high schools reignites equity debate
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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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IBO: Eliminate “Specialized Academic” Bonus to 13 Screened and Specialized High Schools
Previously, the NYC Independent Budget Office (NYC IBO) noted that the NYC SHSAT Exam costs the city at least $8M per year in direct costs. This does not include proctors and other indirect yearly costs.
NYC IBO SHSAT Exam Annual Cost Now, the independent department goes further to explain how the Specialized high schools are given an advantage over other public schools in a new recommendation.
Every year, the New York City Department of Education allocates additional funding to 13 public high schools with “supplementary instruction and assessments, including higher course/credit loads and AP courses.” These 13 schools include the eight specialized high schools where students are admitted based on the results of the Specialized High School Admissions Test (SHSAT): The Bronx High School of Science, The Brooklyn Latin School, Brooklyn Technical High School, High School for Mathematics, Science and Engineering at City College of New York, High School of American Studies at Lehman College, Queens High School for the Sciences at York College, Staten Island Technical High School, and Stuyvesant High School. The remaining five high schools receiving this allocation use other academic screens to admit students selectively: Bard High School Early College, NYC iSchool, Millennium Brooklyn High School, Bard High School Early College Queens, and Townsend Harris High School.
This “Specialized Academic” allocation is a component of the Fair Student Funding (FSF) formula, which funds schools based on a weighted per-pupil basis designed to provide additional funding to students with greater need and is the largest source of discretionary dollars for schools. Through the FSF formula, the 13 schools listed above are set to receive an additional $1,055 per student for the 2021-2022 school year (the amount is the same at all 13 schools).
Typically, this allocation represents about 16 percent of the total FSF allocations received by the 13 schools.
Based on school enrollment from the 2020-2021 school year, the total amount these schools would receive for the current school year is just over $20 million, ranging from $6 million for Brooklyn Tech to $400,000 for the High School of American Studies at Lehman College. The value of the academic bonus has been relatively stable over the years, with per-student allocations increasing slightly from $1,021 in the 2017-2018 school year to $1,055 in 2021-2022. Total
enrollment at the 13 eligible high schools has grown by an average of 1.0 percent annually between 2016-2017 and 2020- 2021, with 19,471 students enrolled in 2020-2021.
NYC IBO ReportThe report continues
Proponents might argue that most of these schools are already well-resourced, having experienced teachers and well-connected parents and alumni. Some, like Brooklyn Tech, Bronx Science and Stuyvesant, boast significant endowments to help fund extracurricular activities. Given that these 13 high schools are not the only schools which educate/enroll academically well-prepared students with advanced curricula and/or AP courses, this is an inequitable use of funds. Proponents might also argue that this allocation is inequitable because of the disproportionately low number of Black students and Hispanic students enrolled in these 13 schools. Further, this funding is for supplemental enrichment rather than student need, although the latter is the primary focus of FSF.
NYC IBO ReportThe full report can be found at https://ibo.nyc.ny.us/cgi-park3/home/
ibo-savings-2022-april-allAnd here’s an older article on the special award: https://www.wnyc.org/story/mysterious-bonus-makes-rich-nyc-schools-richer-critics-say/
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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…
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NYC Will Spend $15 Million To Increase Diversity At Elite Public Schools
In 2014, Mayor de Blasio was among those calling for change: he said that “the specialized high schools are the jewels in the crown of our school system, but they don’t reflect this city,” and said that he would create a system “of multiple measures to actually understand who are the kids with the greatest potential—and they come from every zip code, every neighborhood—and that’s what our specialized schools will look like in the future.” Today, de Blasio joined the Department of Education in championing its new, test-focused initiatives, none of which expand admissions criteria, and called them “an important step forward” in diversifying the schools.
https://gothamist.com/news/nyc-will-spend-15-million-to-increase-diversity-at-elite-public-schools
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City Announces New Initiatives to Increase Diversity at Specialized High Schools
In 2016 Mayor de Blasio tried a variety of approaches to get more Black and Latinx students into specialized high schools. This included tutoring and outreach costing $15M over 5 years.
None of these initiatives worked in the end. One reason for this is that city tutoring would end up competing with an increasingly aggressive private tutoring industry. NYC’s DREAM tutoring claimed a 10% success rate, but so did the larger tutoring services with thousands of students.
“In my district, many parents pay top dollar for test prep programs, an option lower income families do not always have. Each child has a right to be prepared for this exam regardless of socio-economic status, race or ethnicity,”
Senator Toby Ann StaviskyThe problem with the senator’s logic is that NYC’s DREAM only caters for a few hundred of the city’s 30,000 students who take the exam. But even then it costs millions.
“Our specialized high schools need to better reflect the diversity of our neighborhoods and our City while maintaining their high standards, and this strong package of reforms is an important step forward,” said Mayor Bill de Blasio. “This is a matter of fairness – we have to ensure that high-performing students who are black and Latino, and who come from low-income neighborhoods, have the same opportunities to enroll and thrive in these schools.”
“These new initiatives are an important step towards more diverse specialized high schools,” said Schools Chancellor Carmen Fariña. “This is about equity and excellence for all of our high-performing middle school students, regardless of their zip code or background. We’re going to increase diversity without lowering any standards; to the contrary, greater diversity will help all our students succeed.”