On 6/4/18 3:38 AM, BurfordTJustice wrote:
NE ********.

De Blasio wants to scrap admissions testing for elite high schools

Mayor de Blasio unveiled a plan Saturday to boost black and Latino
enrollment at the city's eight specialized high schools - and he wants to
scrap admissions tests outright.

In an op-ed for education-news site Chalkbeat, de Blasio announced that 20
percent of seats at those eight schools would be reserved for low-income
applicants.

Kids in the Department of Education's Discovery Program who score just below
the admissions cut-off would be given one of those saved seats, according to
the plan.

De Blasio said he will fight to eventually replace the single-test system
with new admissions criteria based on middle-school class rank and state
test scores.

"The Specialized High School Admissions Test isn't just flawed - it's a
roadblock to justice, progress and academic excellence," he wrote. Hizzoner
said his proposals, if fully realized, would eventually induce a massive
demographic shift at the specialized high schools.

"With these reforms, we expect our premier public high schools to start
looking like New York City," he wrote. "Approximately 45 percent of students
would be Latino or black."

Under the current system, Asian kids predominate at the city's top high
schools. They make up 74 percent of the population at Stuyvesant, 66 percent
at Bronx Science and 61 percent at Brooklyn Tech. At Queens HS for Science
at York College, 82 percent are Asian.

Alumni have long argued that the current merit system guarantees academic
rigor. But de Blasio undercut that notion in his op-ed.

De Blasio has attributed racial disparities to the accessibility of
test-prep classes and tutors to economically advantaged families.

"A single, high-stakes exam is also unfair to students whose families cannot
afford, or may not even know about, the availability of test-preparation
tutors and courses," de Blasio wrote.

But Brooklyn Tech Alumni President Larry Cary has said, "The solution isn't
to kill the test. It's to improve the quality of education offered in
African-American and Latino communities."

State Sen. Toby Ann Stavisky, a former Brooklyn Tech teacher, ripped de
Blasio's plan.

"To assume African-American and Latino students cannot pass the test is
insulting to everyone and educationally unsound," she said. "Many
Asian-American students come from families who live in poverty."

At least 60 percent of kids at three of the specialized schools are eligible
for free or reduced-price lunch, according to DOE data.


This has affected your life how? Has it cost you any money? Have your
rights been taken away? Do you think you're going to die at any moment
because of it? Are you frightened?