A Test Isn’t Racist. Assumptions About Black Kids Can Be.
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It has become a summer rite to bemoan how few Black students are admitted to Stuyvesant and other highly competitive public high schools in New York City. And the numbers are unpleasant. This year only three of 777students admitted to Stuyvesant are Black. Last year it was eight out of 781.
Since about one in five public school students in New York City is Black, many see the paucity of Black students at what are called specialized high schools as evidence that their admission standards must be unfair. “There needs to be a real, independent investigation into the admissions process,” the Queens borough president, Donovan Richards Jr., said after the latest results were released. Many have demanded the elimination of the Specialized High School Admissions Test — the sole measure of whether a student will be admitted (except at the LaGuardia performing arts school, which uses an audition process).
Is the problem the test, or what happens before the test?
Black students often attend poorly performing schools, but so do the sons and daughters of Asian immigrants, even if undocumented, who are admitted at far higher rates than even white students.
In New York City, growing up poor or working class has never barred a child from educational excellence. Poverty rates for Black, Latino and Asian New Yorkers are not that different. But Asian students of modest means are getting into the selective high schools in healthy numbers.
