In 2019, the city’s Department of Education central office called me. They wanted to make sure I was informed about the specialized high school admissions process because my child had scored very high on the state tests that year. They told me about upcoming information sessions — one of which was in my neighborhood.
The session I attended explained the specialized high school application process and also provided students with free Specialized High School Admissions Test (SHSAT) practice tests and materials. Those who score well on the test are able to attend one of the nine top specialized schools — some of the top high schools in the nation — such as Bronx Science or Stuyvesant.
Out of curiosity, I asked three of the other families also attending how they had heard about the session. Two Black families told me they had gotten a call from the DOE. A white family told me that they had learned about the information session from a flyer at the library. My child is Black.
Black children are underrepresented at these schools relative to their population in the public school system. Perhaps the DOE has identified one of the reasons: a lack of information about the SHSAT. So they are making sure to reach out early to parents of Black children who are skilled test-takers.
And when I say early, I mean early. In 2019, when the DOE called me, my son was in 5th grade.
Now it is 2022 and my son is in 8th grade and applying to public NYC high schools. I have read many articles claiming how inequitable the SHSAT is, especially for Black children like mine, but if you consider clarity and transparency a form of equity, the SHSAT has been the most equitable part of the entire process.
Here’s the specialized high school admissions process: Register to take the test. Report to your test location at the assigned time with a #2 pencil. Take the test. Wait for results. The end.
As for the application process for the non-specialized schools, well, if someone had deliberately tried to make a more maddening process, I don’t know if they could. It’s been a mess of incomplete, conflicting and repeatedly changing information from the DOE. I’ve spoken to many families who have gone through the admissions process before and they have told me that this year is the worst ever.
This Kafkaesque high school admissions process is the result of the DOE’s clumsy attempts to make the high school admissions process “more equitable.”
Whatever your position on the debate about screening students for high school placement, I think we can all agree that withholding information until the last minute and then creating an unnecessarily complex screening system is not the path to equity.
All along the SHSAT process has remained unchanged. It has been clear and consistent and easy to follow. The SHSAT is not the part of high-school admissions that is unfair to my child. What is unfair is implying that admissions screens must be lowered because Black children are incapable of the same levels of academic achievement as white or Asian kids.
Publicly announcing that the only way to increase Black and Latino enrollment at competitive high schools is to lower admissions standards is a denial of DOE’s failure to prepare Black children to meet those standards. It is also a slap in the face to hard-working Black and Latino children.
Furthermore, it communicates to white and Asian students that Black and Latino children are not their intellectual equals, and communicates to teachers that Black and Latino children are not to be held to the same academic standards as white and Asian students.
High academic expectations are not the problem. On the contrary, in a report published by TNTP, our current First Deputy Chancellor Dan Weisberg’s former organization, one of the main hurdles to Black children receiving a quality education is low academic expectations.
“It doesn’t cost one penny more to have higher expectations for kids, to actually believe that kids–low-income kids, kids of color, English-language learners–can succeed,” Weisberg said in a 2018 interview.
Black children can achieve just as much academically as white or Asian children. Black children do not need the high school admissions bar lowered. They need the K-8 education to clear the bar.
In 2019, the year the DOE called me, 14,199 Black 5th graders took the math state test; 1,654 scored a 4 or above (4.5 is the top score). If the DOE actually called 1,654 Black families to make sure that high-achieving Black children are informed about the test, that is to be commended.
But outreach to top-scorers will not solve the demographic disparities at specialized high schools, because also consider this: in 2019, 6,751 Black 5th graders scored a 1. That is, nearly half of the Black 5th graders in New York City public schools got the lowest possible score — there is no zero on this test.
There is no amount of SHSAT prep that can correct for this. This is not about test-taking skills — this is about children not learning basic academic skills in our public schools.
Meanwhile, 3,491 Black students scored a 2. Not as bad as a 1, but still below grade level (a score of 3 means “meets-standards.”)
This test is not a ranked test where children are compared to one another. In a functioning education system, 100% of children would score a 3 or 4. These results mean that nearly three-quarters of Black 5th graders in New York City public schools cannot do basic 5th-grade math.
This is a tragedy, and engineering a more complicated high school admissions process will not change the fact that our schools are failing to prepare many students to do high school level academic work.
I have heard people say that the problem with the SHSAT is that the results don’t reflect the demographics of our school system. But the truth is that they do reflect the demographics of our school system in that few Black children are getting a quality education in our K-8 schools. The DOE wants to pretend that the fault is with the test, but the results of the test are merely the symptom.
So instead of actually educating our children, the DOE creates complicated admissions Rube Goldberg machines to try to engineer racial diversity.
Families are busy trying to identify “good” schools that our children are eligible to apply to, and then we’re busy figuring out how to apply. Parents don’t have the energy to ask questions like, why aren’t all the DOE schools good schools?
Competitive high school admissions is not the problem. A K-8 school system that prepares only some of the children to compete is the problem. If the DOE fixes that, they won’t need to worry about “fixing” high school admissions.
Laura Powell is a New York City public-school parent.
