# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
When asked about school segregation in New York City, Mayor Bill de Blasio has said that schools are segregated because neighborhoods are: "We cannot change the basic reality of housing in New York City."

Now, as a debate about plans to integrate middle schools has engulfed one Manhattan district, a report released on Wednesday undermines that notion. It found that a full 40 percent of New York City kindergartners do not attend the nearby school to which they are assigned. That's a vast stream of 27,000 5-year-olds funneling through the city each day.

While parents of all races choose to send their children out of their zones, the overall pattern of their choices may make schools more segregated. It also concentrates the effects of poverty at zoned schools, the schools to which children are assigned based on where they live.

"I don't think anyone realized that number was so big," said Nicole Mader, the lead author of the paper, which was conducted by the Center for New York City Affairs at The New School. "If 40 percent of elementary school students aren't going to school where they live, how can residential segregation be the only factor driving school segregation?"

The schools they pick, the study found, tend to share two main features: They had fewer poor students than the zoned schools the families were leaving, and they had higher test scores.

As students move from lower-income schools to higher-income schools, the study found, they also tend to move toward the city's economic heart, tracking the subway lines from East New York to Crown Heights, or from Harlem to the Upper West Side. The students who leave are then replaced by children from lower-income neighborhoods.

We Want to Hear From You

Thank you for your submission.

John Taggart for The New York Times

School choice has been heralded as a way for all children to get a better education, allowing them a way out of failing schools. And indeed, the study found that for many students, choice allowed them to attend higher-performing schools. But its authors found that the choice came with unintended consequences: "The schools they leave behind face ever-greater challenges as they struggle to serve the city's neediest children."

The study looked at ten years' worth of data on kindergarten enrollment, starting in the fall of 2007 and running through the fall of 2016, during which time 715,000 students signed up for kindergarten. Using data from the city's Department of Education, the authors were able to determine whether each child attended their zoned school or went someplace else, like a charter school, a gifted and talented program, or a different zoned school outside the neighborhood.

Over the course of that time, the options available to those who wanted to avoid their neighborhood school grew: There were 567 zoned elementary schools and 196 other options at the beginning of the decade, and 491 zoned schools and 457 alternatives by the end.

The study does not deny that housing segregation exists, but it found that if everyone went to their zoned school, students would be "marginally" less segregated, racially and socioeconomically, than they are today.

Black children were the most likely not to attend their neighborhood school, with 59 percent of them going elsewhere last year, according to the study; 39 percent of Hispanic families also did not choose their neighborhood schools. (A small portion of each of these groups lived in school districts that did not have zones.)

The groups that were the least likely to leave their zoned school were white and Asian students, the study found, which ran counter to research elsewhere in the country, which has found that white families are most likely to exercise choice. That, the study's authors say, may be because in New York City, they are more satisfied with the schools in their neighborhoods, which tend to be higher-performing, so families have no reason to flee them.

But when white and higher-income families live in a "diverse" or gentrifying neighborhood, they are more likely to send their children to schools elsewhere. At some schools in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Harlem, Fort Greene and Crown Heights - all of which are historically black areas now in the midst of dramatic gentrification - fewer than 25 percent of children actually attend their assigned school.

"Zones provide families of means with exclusive access to the schools they like," the study, said, "while choice allows them to flee the ones they don't."

Take Public School 287, the Bailey K. Ashford school, which is perched at the northern edge of Downtown Brooklyn, not far from the waterfront. Standing in front of the school, the familiar brown brick of city housing projects stretches out in three directions. But about a block behind the building, new condo and rental buildings sprout like a thicket of new money.

Children from some of those buildings are zoned to attend P.S. 287, and overall, 28 percent of the school's zoned population is white. But no white children attend the school. While only 44 percent of students in the district are poor enough to be eligible for free lunch, all of the students who attend the school are.

Jasmine Sweeney has a daughter in the first grade at P.S. 287. They live across the street, and Ms. Sweeney said she chose the school because her niece attended. But she has not been satisfied.

"If I would have known, I would have never chosen this school," Ms. Sweeney said after picking up her daughter on a recent Friday. "The academics--" she added, and shook her head.

The study found that the families who exercised choice tended to have more advantages than those who did not, a pattern that was true nationally as well. "We know some parents are much more effective advocates than others," said Kevin G. Welner, the director of the National Education Policy Center, which is at the University of Colorado Boulder. "That's tied to parental education, that's tied to race, that's tied to wealth, that's tied to networks. And it's hard, given all of that, it's hard to avoid a rich-get-richer system."

The education department does not dispute the effects. "School choice on its own doesn't guarantee high-quality or diverse schools," Will Mantell, a department spokesman, said in a statement, adding that the city was trying to improve all schools.

After three years at P.S. 287, which her daughter entered in pre-K, Ms. Sweeney said that she was going to exercise choice as well: Her daughter is on the wait-list at several charter schools, including the Explore Charter School in Prospect Lefferts Gardens and the Compass Charter School in Fort Greene, and if she doesn't get in, her mother said she would try to enroll her at P.S. 11 in Clinton Hill.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Why Are New York's Schools Segregated? It's Not as Simple as Housing

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
When asked about school segregation in New York City, Mayor Bill de Blasio has said that schools are segregated because neighborhoods are: "We cannot change the basic reality of housing in New York City." Now, as a debate about plans to integrate middle schools has engulfed one Manhattan district, a report released on Wednesday undermines that notion.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Culturally Responsive-Sustaining education is intended to help education stakeholders create student-centered learning environments that affirm cultural identities; foster positive academic outcomes; develop students' abilities to connect across lines of difference; elevate historically marginalized voices; empower students as agents of social change; and contribute to individual student engagement, learning, growth, and achievement through the cultivation of critical thinking.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Culturally Responsive-Sustaining Education - Research - Metro Center

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Culturally Responsive-Sustaining education is intended to help education stakeholders create student-centered learning environments that affirm cultural identities; foster positive academic outcomes; develop students' abilities to connect across lines of difference; elevate historically marginalized voices; empower students as agents of social change; and contribute to individual student engagement, learning, growth, and achievement through the cultivation of critical thinking.

# data[].attributes.headline
Our Culture Our Schools Culturally Responsive Education in New York City

# data[].attributes.subject
Our Culture Our Schools Culturally Responsive Education in New York City

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Our Culture Our Schools Culturally Responsive Education in New York City

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
At a school in Oakland, California, students see themselves—and the broader world—in the books they read.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
By deferring decisions on desegregating schools, Mayor Bill de Blasio has pushed those choices onto his successor - and into the race to replace him.

The admissions process for elite schools like Stuyvesant High School has become one of the most fraught political issues in New York City. Credit... Christopher Lee for The New York Times

During a recent forum on education, a moderator asked the crowded field of Democrats running to be New York City's next mayor a question they may not have wanted to answer: How would they approach the fraught issue of admissions into the city's selective schools, where Black and Latino students are starkly underrepresented?

A few of the candidates' eyes widened when they heard the prompt, and some avoided furnishing a direct answer, resorting instead to vague language.

"There are a lot of things we need to do in this direction," said Andrew Yang, the former presidential candidate. Raymond J. McGuire, a Wall Street executive, noted that the issue had "historic significance."

Those halting responses illustrate just how incendiary school integration still is in this proudly liberal city. But with the Democratic primary just five months away, the candidates have little choice but to confront school segregation, which has divided New Yorkers for a half-century.

An influential activist movement led by city students is accelerating pressure on the candidates to make clear how integration would fit into their plans to reshape New York's public school system, the nation's largest. And a national reckoning over racism has forced the candidates to square the city's self-image as a progressive bastion with its unequal school system.

During the last few weeks alone, the candidates have been asked about their positions on radio and television interviews, in multiple forums, and in a series of New York Times interviews. Together, their responses revealed sharp differences in how they are approaching some of the most contentious integration policies.

New York City is home to one of the most segregated school systems in America, in part because of the city's labyrinth admissions process for selective schools. Housing segregation and school zone lines have produced a divided school system that has been compounded by competitive admissions that separate students by race and class as early as kindergarten.

Mayor Bill de Blasio recently announced a sweeping set of changes to how hundreds of racially segregated selective schools admit their students - but left most of the details up to the next administration.

Some of the mayoral hopefuls are in favor of addressing the extreme underrepresentation of Black and Latino students in selective schools by overhauling gifted and talented programs and changing admissions for competitive middle schools and elite high schools.

Others are offering less sweeping approaches. And several candidates declined to say anything definitive about those proposals, or said they would mostly maintain the existing system.

Image

Scott Stringer, the city comptroller, with his son Max. Mr. Stringer had previously avoided integration debates, but has recently moved to the left along with his party. Credit... Kholood Eid for The New York Times

The most progressive candidates, including Scott M. Stringer, the city comptroller, and Dianne Morales, a former nonprofit executive, are hoping to differentiate themselves from the pack by declaring their intentions to push potentially disruptive change that could spur integration.

There are subtle differences even within that lane: Maya Wiley, a former de Blasio administration official who has been a leading figure in the pro-integration movement, sometimes gave conspicuously broad answers to direct questions about the policies she would implement as mayor. Mr. Stringer, who had assiduously avoided integration debates even in his own neighborhood, has recently moved to the left along with his party.

Shaun Donovan, the former secretary of housing and urban development in the Obama administration, has released the most detailed education policy plan so far, saying he would eliminate most academic prerequisites for middle school admissions and add weighted lotteries to further integrate those schools.

More centrist hopefuls like Mr. McGuire, Eric Adams, the Brooklyn borough president, and Kathryn Garcia, a former sanitation commissioner, all promised to expand selective programs and schools, rather than fundamentally change them. That position is shared by Mr. Yang, the former head of a test preparation company, who declined an interview.

Some education experts believe that desegregation is one of the few remaining levers available for improving academic outcomes for the city's vulnerable students, many of whom have had little choice but to enroll in low-performing schools.

"The plainest way to think of integration is that it is a proven and effective school improvement strategy," said Matt Gonzales, the director of the Integration and Innovation Initiative at New York University's Metro Center.

Decades of research supports that view - not because there is alchemy found in diverse classrooms, but because integration redistributes resources, funding and power across schools. Mr. Gonzales said the candidates' positions on this issue are not merely a signal of their progressive bona fides, but an essential way of understanding their approach to education.

Mr. de Blasio's education agenda has largely not included desegregation measures, and he has left major decisions related to integration to the next mayor.

Dianne Morales, who is running to be the first Afro-Latina mayor, has among the strongest pro-integration positions of any of the candidates. Credit... Jose A. Alvarado Jr. for The New York Times

He has largely ignored a recommendation, made by a school integration group he convened, that the city should replace gifted and talented programs with magnet schools and enrichment programs. The next administration will likely have to respond.

Mr. de Blasio said this month that he would soon scrap the current gifted exam given to 4-year-olds against the advice of many experts, though the city's educational panel may force him to end the test immediately. But most of the candidates had already committed to changing that test, and will now have to determine whether to alter the program itself.

And last month, Mr. de Blasio paused the use of academic prerequisites for middle school admissions for at least a year because of the pandemic. That will leave it up to the next mayor to decide whether to make that policy permanent - or end it.

Ms. Wiley, who helped craft that proposal as a leader of the mayor's integration group, said she would end middle school screening, as did Ms. Morales.

Some candidates tried to find a middle ground: Mr. Stringer and Mr. McGuire said they would consider this year a pilot program, and make a permanent decision next year. Ms. Garcia said she would look at changes on a district-by-district basis, and Mr. Yang expressed skepticism about eliminating middle school screening during a recent forum.

Gifted education is a third-rail issue because the programs have long been seen as a way to keep white families in public schools, and have been embraced by some middle-class families of color as alternatives to low-performing neighborhood schools.

But some experts have argued that gifted schools have created a two-tiered system that caters to families with the resources to navigate it. Roughly 75 percent of students in gifted classes are white or Asian-American.

Mr. Stringer said that his own children, who are in gifted programs, had benefited from a flawed system because of their parents' privilege. "I recognize as a parent, I'm going to do everything I can to do the best for my kid," he said. "But as mayor, I have to do what's best for every child."

Mr. Yang offered a starkly different message in a recent forum, arguing that some parents would flee the city without gifted classes. "Families are looking up and saying, 'Is New York where my kids are going to flourish?'"

Mr. Adams and Ms. Garcia said they would create more gifted classes in low-income neighborhoods, the favored policy position of many supporters of gifted programs. Activists have said that expanding gifted would only contribute to an inherently unfair system. Mr. McGuire said he would not "dismantle the programs, but I'd take a close look to make sure it's fair and achieving its purpose."

Some candidates seemed eager to please all sides on the contentious if narrow issue of the entry exam for eight elite high schools, which is partially controlled by the State Legislature.

In 2018, Mr. de Blasio started a campaign to eliminate the test. His effort failed after many low-income Asian-American families, whose children are overrepresented in the schools, mounted a massive effort to oppose the city's plan.

"I support efforts to desegregate the schools," Raymond McGuire said in an interview. "This is basic equity, and it needs to happen." Credit... Krista Schlueter for The New York Times

Mr. Adams' record on the issue demonstrates why so many politicians have tried to avoid staking out a position on the test.

The borough president had long opposed the exam, and compared the specialized schools to "a Jim Crow school system." But just a few weeks after he appeared at a news conference to trumpet the mayor's plan, Mr. Adams reversed course following an outcry from some parents, particularly Asian Americans.

Ms. Wiley has been a consistent critic of the exam, which she called discriminatory, but did not say exactly how she would approach the issue as mayor. Ms. Morales, Mr. Stringer and Brooklyn City Councilman Carlos Menchaca said that they would eliminate the exam.

Ms. Morales graduated from Stuyvesant High School in the 1980s, and has watched with despair as the number of Black and Latino students at the school has dwindled. She said that going through the admissions process with her own children felt like an "obstacle course of barriers, targeted toward the people who are best positioned to overcome them."

Ms. Garcia, Mr. McGuire, Mr. Adams and Mr. Yang have said they would keep the exam in place, but promised to build additional specialized schools. That strategy was already tried by former Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, but has not led to greater diversity. The candidates have mostly not provided specifics for how their approach would differ.

That came as no surprise to Christina Greer, a professor of political science at Fordham University, who expects the candidates to remain vague to avoid offending voters.

"A lot of liberals like integration in theory, as long as it doesn't touch their children at all," she said. "For a lot of politicians, integration is a no-win."

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
New York Schools Are Segregated. Will the Next Mayor Change That?

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
By deferring decisions on desegregating schools, Mayor Bill de Blasio has pushed those choices onto his successor - and into the race to replace him.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Nearly one month ago, we Zoomed into our respective graduations, officially closing the books on our experience with the New York City public school system. It was a milestone, to be sure. Not only are we both heading off to college, but we had persevered our way through one of the nation's most segregated school systems.

We experienced this failure firsthand, both as students attending segregated schools and as activists committed to building a better future for Black and Brown communities.

The experience, though difficult, taught us a few key lessons.

The problem is systemic

Welcome to New York City's great catfish: an " open choice" school system in which students can apply to any high school in the city, regardless of where they reside. The idea sounds strong in theory, but in practice? In New York City public schools, 74.6% of Black and Latinx students attend a school with less than 10% white students. In fact, some of New York's "best schools" are less Black than the populations of states like Idaho.

There are many policy failures at play here, but chief among them is the fact that New York City is home to some of the most competitive admissions screening programs in the country. Academic screens are the criteria that schools use to determine admittance, such as a student's state test scores, grades, attendance, auditions, interviews, or portfolios. With little oversight, supposedly public schools are able to curate their student body, weeding out those whom they deem unfit. For instance, Eleanor Roosevelt High School ( ranked among the top 20 schools in New York State) gives priority admissions to students who reside on the Upper East Side, one of the city's wealthiest districts, so it is no surprise that 3% of their student body is Black.

We can also look to New York City's coveted specialized high-school system: a combination of eight schools whose sole admission criteria is a single test, along with LaGuardia High School of Music & Art, which admits students through auditions. It is the only system in the entire country that uses a single test for admission, and the results have been dire: In 2019, the city's most selective high school admitted just seven Black students out of 895 spots.

Reminder: These are public schools, but the process favors students who have high grades and state test scores, with families who have the time and resources to invest in navigating complex admissions criteria. Of the 30 most academically selective high schools, 27 are majority white and Asian in a broader public school system that's less than one-third white and Asian. While many Asian students are not similarly situated to their white counterparts economically, none of these 30 schools approach the system average for economic need. Meanwhile, hundreds of unscreened schools are at least 85% Black or Hispanic and 85% low-income.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
'OK Boomer' Captures the Fight to Desegregate New York City Schools

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Nearly one month ago, we Zoomed into our respective graduations, officially closing the books on our experience with the New York City public school system. It was a milestone, to be sure.

# data[].attributes.headline
The Enduring Problem of School Segregation

# data[].attributes.subject
The Enduring Problem of School Segregation

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
The Enduring Problem of School Segregation

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Brownstone Brooklyn's Racial Divide: Why Are the Schools So Segregated?

# data[].attributes.headline
NYC Alliance for Integration and School Integration

# data[].attributes.subject
NYC Alliance for Integration and School Integration

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
We, the students, are the best experts on the impacts of this segregation and inequality. At IntegrateNYC, we are also designers of solutions, advocates for transformative policy, and visionaries for a more just future.

We have learned from the past, and we do not want to stop at desegregation. True, meaningful integration requires a transformation in our school system that centers students and communities of color. We have developed and are advocating for 5Rs of Real Integration to create lasting, revolutionary change in our school system.

We also stand for Real Representation of young people in decision making at local, city, state, and federal levels.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
We, the students, are the best experts on the impacts of this segregation and inequality. At IntegrateNYC, we are also designers of solutions, advocates for transformative policy, and visionaries for a more just future. We have learned from the past, and we do not want to stop at desegregation.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
New York City schools employed a larger percentage of teachers of color than elsewhere in the state, according to preliminary data the state education department released Tuesday. But that number did not match the diversity of the student body of the five boroughs- and the teaching force actually became less diverse in Manhattan and Brooklyn, the findings from the 2016-17 school year showed.

Students of color are more likely to have negative perceptions of school when they don't see themselves reflected in their teachers and are more likely to be subjected to discriminatory discipline practices, according to research cited by state education department staffers. Because of these issues, the state legislature ordered the state education department to study teacher diversity. A finalized report is expected in the next few weeks.

School districts across the state saw disparities between teaching force demographics and student population, according to the preliminary findings presented to the state Board of Regents during their November monthly meeting.

An estimated 80% of teachers were white, with 200 districts across the state reporting no teachers of color. Meanwhile, New York state students have become less white and more racially diverse from 2010 to 2016. The number of Hispanic, Asian, and multiracial students have gone up, while the number of black students has dropped. Together these students accounted for more than half of the state's student population.

While the Regents called out familiar suggestions to improve teacher diversity, such as helping prospective educators pay for certification exams, frustration bubbled up about the data.

"It's tragic when we look at these numbers," said Vice Chancellor T. Andrew Brown, noting that the Regents routinely have this conversation without finding concrete solutions. "What's even more tragic is that over the last eight or nine years, the numbers have gone down."

Gov. Andrew Cuomo and the legislature should invest in boosting existing programs that "recruit, train, and graduate excellent educators of color," said Paula White, director of Educators 4 Excellence, a teacher advocacy group that has been following the issue closely.

For the city's part, Mayor Bill de Blasio and Chancellor Richard Carranza should recruit people from universities and teacher prep programs that have a "known record" of supporting prospective teachers of color, White said in a statement.

Here are a few highlights from the draft report.

What does New York City's teaching force look like?

Teachers of color represented 42% of New York City's teaching force, the draft report said. That was the highest share of anywhere in the state. (Yonkers came in second with 28% of non-white educators.)

Still, more than 80% of New York City's students are black, Hispanic, and Asian.

Meanwhile, teaching pools in Manhattan and Brooklyn have become less diverse from 2011 to 2017, the presentation showed, though Tuesday's highlights did not have exact numbers. In that same timeframe, a higher percentage of teachers of color staffed schools in Queens, Bronx, and Staten Island.

City education department spokesperson Danielle Filson said her department "will continue to focus on increasing the diversity of our teachers." She pointed to NYC Men Teach, a program focused on boosting the number of male teachers of color, and teacher pathway programs for paraprofessionals as city efforts to improve teacher diversity.

"Our schools, including our teachers, should reflect the diversity of the city," Filson said.

How about gender?

A quarter of teachers in New York state were men, according to gender data that was only provided on the state level.

Men made up 75% of career and technical education teachers, 45% of those who teach physical education, and a third of social studies instructors. But "very few men," according to the presentation, taught those learning English for the first time, gifted and talented programs, or early childhood education.

Though the state presentation did not provide a racial breakdown of male teachers, city data showed that just 8% of teachers were black, Hispanic, or Asian in the 2015-16 school year. At that time, Mayor Bill de Blasio launched the NYC Men Teach program, which the state education department highlighted on Tuesday. The program exceeded its goal to put 1,000 more men of color "on course" to becoming teachers, according to a city education department spokesperson.

Why aren't there more teachers of color?

High college costs can be a barrier to choosing teaching as a profession, especially when the field has lower salaries that grow at a slower rate than other jobs, according to the education department. People of color are more likely to have higher college debt and owing more over time, state education department staffers said.

Student teachers of color have reported feeling a lack of diversity among their peers, based on literature the department collected and conversations at a recent New York State Association of Teacher Educators conference. Some student teachers felt that their instructors are biased and perceive their racial, ethnic, and linguistic differences as barriers to teaching and learning effectively.

Even when teachers of color are hired, they report feeling like they must be the disciplinarians because of the color of their skin, or that they should be the leaders of culturally responsive education.

What could help?

There were "limited" efforts to entice young people into the teaching profession and too few programs that support students, such as ones that help candidates earn a stipend while they study for their certification - one of the noted barriers to getting into the field - according education department staffers.

Regent Kathleen Cashin said the report was all the more reason to have the state cover the hundreds of dollars it costs to take a certification exam for all applicants. (The state already offers vouchers to economically disadvantaged applicants.) That idea, she suggested, should be on the Regents' budget wishlist for Governor Andrew Cuomo and state lawmakers. The city has nine state-funded programs to boost teacher diversity, by pairing new teachers with mentors or helping teachers earn a salary while earning their certification, according to the state education department.

New York City also has partnerships with universities, such as the historically black schools Howard University and Morehouse College, and targets teachers of color through career fairs, webinars, newsletters, and social media, a city department spokesperson said.

"Failure by this generation of elected leaders to prioritize this issue robs future generations of students of color of the benefits of having role models of color leading their classrooms," White, from Educators 4 Excellence, said in her statement.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
NYC has the most diverse teaching force in the state. But it still doesn't match the student body.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
New York City schools employed a larger percentage of teachers of color than elsewhere in the state, according to preliminary data the state education department released Tuesday. But that number did not match the diversity of the student body of the five boroughs- and the teaching force actually became less diverse in Manhattan and Brooklyn, the findings from the 2016-17 school year showed.

# data[].attributes.headline
Does teacher diversity matter in student learning?

# data[].attributes.subject
Does teacher diversity matter in student learning?

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Research shows that students, especially boys, benefit when teachers share their race or gender. Yet most teachers are white women.

Image

Zara Gibbon helps a new sixth grader at Animo Westside Charter Middle School in Los Angeles. A majority of teachers in American schools are white women. Credit... Reed Saxon/Associated Press

The homogeneity of teachers is probably one of the contributors, the research suggests, to the stubborn gender and race gaps in student achievement: Over all, girls outperform boys, and white students outperform those who are black and Hispanic.

The effect is stronger on boys. Research has found that boys, and particularly black boys, are more affected than girls by disadvantages, like poverty and racism, and by positive influences, like high-quality schools and role models. Yet they are least likely to have had a teacher that looks like them.

Teachers' gender does not necessarily have a big effect during elementary school but seems to make more of a difference when children are older. Then, girls do better with a female teacher and boys with a male one, said Thomas Dee, a professor of education at Stanford.

In high school and college math and science courses, studies have shown that when women have a female instructor, they get higher grades, participate more in class and are more likely to continue to pursue the subject.

Researchers say it's not entirely clear why teachers' gender and race make a difference; it's likely to be a combination of things. Students tend to be inspired by role models they can relate to. Same-race teachers might be able to present new material in a more culturally relevant way. Also, teachers sometimes treat students differently based on their own backgrounds and stereotypes. Social scientists call this implicit bias, when stereotypes influence people's thinking, often unconsciously.

A variety of research, for instance, has shown that teachers tend to assess black students differently from white students. Preschool teachers judge black children more harshly for the same behavior. White teachers are less likely than black teachers to assign black students to gifted and talented programs even if their test scores match those of white students. When black students had both a white and black teacher, the black teachers consistently had higher expectations for the children's potential.

Sharon Contreras, the superintendent of Guilford County Schools in High Point, N.C., with Cameron Pryor on the first day of school this year. Research has shown that black children perform significantly better when they have black teachers. Credit... Laura Greene/The High Point Enterprise, via Associated Press

It's surprisingly effective and simple to do, social scientists have shown. One study found that merely informing teachers about their stereotypes closed gaps in grading. An hourlong online tutorial for teachers has halved suspension rates for black students, after training educators on how to value students' perspectives and view misbehavior as a learning opportunity.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Does Teacher Diversity Matter in Student Learning?

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Research shows that students, especially boys, benefit when teachers share their race or gender. Yet most teachers are white women. The homogeneity of teachers is probably one of the contributors, the research suggests, to the stubborn gender and race gaps in student achievement: Over all, girls outperform boys, and white students outperform those who are black and Hispanic.

# data[].attributes.headline
Now students of color in NYC specialized high schools feel

# data[].attributes.subject
Now students of color in NYC specialized high schools feel

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Members of Stuyvesant High School's Black Students League and Aspira, the Hispanic student organization, met in Battery Park after school on Wednesday. Credit... Christopher Lee for The New York Times

[What you need to know to start the day: Get New York Today in your inbox.]
Sarai Pridgen had just gotten home from debate practice on Monday evening when she opened her laptop to find her Facebook feed flooded with stories about a staggering statistic: only seven black students had been admitted into Stuyvesant High School, out of 895 spots. The number was causing a wrenching citywide discussion about race and inequality in America's largest school system.

Sarai said she felt sickened by the statistic - yet unsurprised. A 16-year-old sophomore, she is one of just 29 black students out of about 3,300 teenagers at Stuyvesant.

"I go to this school every day, I walk through the hallways of this school, and I don't think I see a black person usually through my day," said Sarai, who lives in Park Slope, Brooklyn. "It wasn't shock that I felt, it was the same wave of disappointment I feel every time I look at the demographics of this school."

New York is being roiled by a fight over the future of its selective schools, but at Stuyvesant, the admission statistics were especially piercing. For students, it is hard enough being a teenager, balancing grades and homework with social pressures and a barrage of Instagram Stories.

But imagine being one of the few black and Hispanic students at one of the country's most selective public schools.

The nine black and Hispanic students who gathered for an interview after school on Wednesday said the sobering statistics had energized them to be even more vocal in the discussion regarding the city's elite schools, and to make Stuyvesant a more welcoming place for future students like them.

Image

Sarai Pridgen, a Stuyvesant sophomore, lives in Park Slope, Brooklyn. Credit... Christopher Lee for The New York Times

The students - current and former members of the school's Black Students League and Aspira, the Hispanic student organization - recalled painful memories of having heard racist comments behind their backs at school. They reflected on their shared sense of alienation. They said they worried that adults would allow inequities in the system to persist.

"It's frustrating to see that nobody wants to do anything, until it's like, 'Oh no, nobody got it in,'" said Katherine Sanchez, 17, whose parents are from the Dominican Republic. "But it's like, 'well you didn't try to make anyone come in, you didn't do anything about it.'"

Listen to 'The Daily': Why Did New York's Most Selective Public High School Admit Only 7 Black Students?

The latest admissions numbers at Stuyvesant High School offer a stark picture of the persistent racial divide in America's largest school system.

Back to The Daily

transcript

Listen to 'The Daily': Why Did New York's Most Selective Public High School Admit Only 7 Black Students?

Hosted by Michael Barbaro, produced by Jonathan Wolfe, Rachel Quester, Theo Balcomb, Andy Mills and Jessica Cheung, and edited by Paige Cowett

The latest admissions numbers at Stuyvesant High School offer a stark picture of the persistent racial divide in America's largest school system.

michael barbaro

From The New York Times, I'm Michael Barbaro. This is "The Daily."

Today: Nearly 900 students have been offered admission to New York City's most elite public high school. Just seven of those students are black.

It's Tuesday, April 2.

[music]

eliza shapiro

In 2013, Bill de Blasio -

eliza shapiro

- runs for New York City mayor -

eliza shapiro

- on this promise that he's going to vanquish inequality in every part of city life.

eliza shapiro

And his number one priority -

eliza shapiro

- is to tackle decades of inequities that have been built into America's largest public school system.

eliza shapiro

He wants to end a system in which there's this understanding that there's good schools and bad schools.

eliza shapiro

And really what he's talking about here is the fact that middle-class white students have often gone to the quote, unquote, "good schools" - the most funding, the best resources, the highest-quality teachers - and low-income black and Hispanic students have gone to schools with the poorest performance and the least resources for decades.

[music]

michael barbaro

Eliza Shapiro covers education in New York City.

eliza shapiro

So five years in to de Blasio's term -

eliza shapiro

- he's trying to get the rest of the city, and, really, the rest of the country to pay attention to inequality in this massive public school system.

eliza shapiro

And then a few weeks ago -

[music]

eliza shapiro

- these numbers come out.

eliza shapiro

At New York City's most elite public high school, out of 900 seats, only seven were offered to black students.

michael barbaro

So that's less than 1 percent admissions.

eliza shapiro

That's right. And it's actually getting worse.

eliza shapiro

The percentage of black and Hispanic students at these schools has gone down year after year. And now, we've basically reached rock bottom.

archived recording 1

It's abysmal. You know, I would dare say an atrocity was happening in terms of education.

archived recording 2

It's absolutely abhorrent and unacceptable.

eliza shapiro

So many people were asking, how could we have allowed this to happen?

eliza shapiro

Just as we've been talking about with the college admissions scandal -

eliza shapiro

- and -

eliza shapiro

- the affirmative action case at Harvard -

eliza shapiro

- and this number went into the center of that storm.

michael barbaro

And so what are these elite public schools you're referring to in New York that have admitted so few black students?

eliza shapiro

So they were created at the beginning of the 1900s. And the idea was that these schools would offer students who could have never afforded a fancy private school the same rigorous academics and extracurriculars and resources that their wealthier, more privileged counterparts get. The idea was that you didn't have to be anyone's son. Your parents didn't have to give a donation. This was a meritocracy. And the meritocracy was based on the idea that you passed one test and you got in.

michael barbaro

So a single test is all you need to get in.

eliza shapiro

A single test.

michael barbaro

And who's getting into these schools at this point?

eliza shapiro

So in the '20s and '30s and '40s, the schools were mostly attended by immigrants from all over Europe, Jewish immigrants in particular. And these students are going on to win Nobel prizes in physics and chemistry, become famous authors and writers and academics. And the schools are really seen as the way out of poverty - really, this golden ticket. So over the years, these schools really become household names in New York City. You have Stuyvesant High School. You have Bronx High School of Science. You have Brooklyn Technical High School. And they seem to be working the way they were designed to work.

eliza shapiro

But in the 1960s, in New York City, as school segregation became the biggest boiling point in the city -

eliza shapiro

- some black and Hispanic educators and parents were beginning to wonder why their kids weren't getting into these mythologized schools.

eliza shapiro

And they were wondering, can we change something about this admissions process to help our kids get into these schools and have their own path into the middle class? And that's where things started to get really contentious.

[music]

So there was this seed of a plan to say, can we think about a different way to offer kids admission beyond this one standardized test? And there was this immediate backlash from the alumni of the schools, from the leaders of the schools, to say, our schools are under threat, and we need to do something to protect them.

michael barbaro

What happens?

eliza shapiro

So these groups who want to keep the test rush up to Albany -

michael barbaro

Our capital.

eliza shapiro

Our capital. And they lobby politicians to make the test a law. And just a few months after this debate begins, in the spring of 1971 in Albany, a law is passed. The only way to get in is by taking the test. And that's been our system ever since.

michael barbaro

And what becomes of these schools once this single-test admission system is codified in the law?

eliza shapiro

So their stature only grows. They continue to churn out generally extremely accomplished alumni.

michael barbaro

Mm-hmm.

eliza shapiro

But now that this test is part of the state law, there's this growing obsession with this exam. How do you ace this exam to get your way out of poverty? So as the years go on, we see this enormous rise in an industry to prepare for this test. And then in the 1970s, as we see this new wave of immigration from Asia, where there is a very strong culture that tests can determine your future, a lot of Asian immigrants say, we want these schools to propel our kids out of the poverty we found ourselves in after we came to America.

michael barbaro

And did they succeed?

eliza shapiro

They did. So the schools, in the decades since, have become, instead of mostly white and Jewish, mostly Asian-American. But the percentage of black and Hispanic students has only shrunk. And that's where we are today.

michael barbaro

Help me understand those statistics. What exactly are they? And how do they reflect the city's actual population?

eliza shapiro

So these elite schools are about 60 percent Asian-American. The city school system as a whole is about 16 percent Asian American.

michael barbaro

Wow.

eliza shapiro

These elite schools are about 10 percent black and Hispanic, but the system is 70 percent black and Hispanic.

michael barbaro

Eliza, how do we explain these numbers? Why aren't black and Hispanic public school kids getting into these elite schools?

eliza shapiro

So this is really complicated. But it all starts with the fact that a lot of these black and Hispanic students don't know these schools exist in the first place. And they definitely don't know this test exists that they have to prepare for.

michael barbaro

And how can that be, that they don't know? You, just a few minutes ago, said that the city is kind of obsessed with the tests.

eliza shapiro

So in some schools that are really underperforming, I've just heard from students that this is not a top priority.

eliza shapiro

For some of them, it was this one teacher who tapped them on the shoulder and said, you're doing really well in school. You should think about these elite public schools.

eliza shapiro

And I had students say to me, all of the kids at my mostly black or mostly Hispanic middle school were smart. But I'm the only one who got tapped on the shoulder.

eliza shapiro

And that shows just how uneven just the knowledge of this system really is throughout the city.

student

So I took the test. I think a handful of other students in my grade took the test. But since I had been the only one preparing for it, I was only one who got in.

eliza shapiro

Right.

student

So it's just like, you can't aim for something if you don't know it exists.

michael barbaro

How have Asian students that you've spoken to explained their awareness of the test?

eliza shapiro

So I've spoken to many Asian-American graduates of these elite schools who said, from the earliest age they can remember, their parents and their teachers were encouraging them to study and prepare for this test.

eliza shapiro

And the week the admissions letters would come out, everybody in their community in Chinatown, in Flushing, in Asian-American neighborhoods all across New York City, this is all anybody was talking about. So there's this awareness piece. And then we get to preparation for the test. This test is really hard. It really helps kids to prep for it. And some kids, particularly white and Asian-American students, will prep for months, if not years.

michael barbaro

How do you prep for years for a test like this?

eliza shapiro

There are summer academies all the way through middle school where students are taking practice tests every single day, five days a week, hours a day.

michael barbaro

And I assume that that costs a decent amount of money.

eliza shapiro

Right.

michael barbaro

So does all that suggest that this has a lot to do with income?

eliza shapiro

So it's really much more complicated than that. New York City schools are overwhelmingly attended by poor students. But poverty doesn't mean the same thing for every student and in every neighborhood. There are low-income Asian-American students whose parents have said they scraped together every last dollar for test prep. But there are also poor students in black and Latino neighborhoods for whom the test is not this be-all, end-all. And so within this basically impoverished school district, we have some really different realities on the ground.

michael barbaro

It sounds like you're saying in certain, for example, Asian communities in New York City, that this test is just known. And people are talking about it, and they are preparing for it. You almost can't avoid the subject of the test. Whereas in other communities - black, Latino communities - that may not be the case, for whatever reason.

eliza shapiro

Absolutely. And remember, these schools were created to find the diamonds in the rough, the kids who needed a push into a better life. And one big concern here is that black and Hispanic students who are brilliant and would do wonderfully at these schools don't even know that they're an option for them.

michael barbaro

That actually feels like a pretty solvable problem. Why not just tell everybody in New York City public middle schools, make it mandatory - they have to know about the test, and they have to take the test? How much has that been seen as part of a solution to the problem?

eliza shapiro

So the city has been trying for decades - first, under Mayor Michael Bloomberg, now under Bill de Blasio - to raise awareness and to provide, actually, free test prep for kids who would have problems affording it. But I've found that even when all of those things technically go right, they'll show up to test prep day one, take a practice test, and realize that the test is quizzing them on concepts they've never learned.

michael barbaro

Why would that be the case for some students more than others, that they're arriving at a test, and it's all new concepts?

eliza shapiro

So this gets back to this huge question of quality. There's this huge discrepancy in quality among these hundreds of middle schools in New York City. So in some schools, you might be taking an advanced geometry course. And in some schools, you might be really still on the basics. So when you show up and take this practice test, it can be a really harsh dose of reality for some of these kids.

eliza shapiro

And I spoke to some students who had an experience like that.

michael barbaro

So in a sense, this test to get into these elite high schools, they may actually be assessing how good your middle school was.

eliza shapiro

Exactly.

eliza shapiro

So for all of these reasons -

eliza shapiro

- the mayor, Bill de Blasio, the guy who ran on this platform of tackling inequality, is basically saying, time's up.

archived recording (bill de blasio)

Time for a change?

archived recording

Yes.

archived recording (bill de blasio)

Time for a change?

archived recording

Yes.

archived recording (bill de blasio)

Time for a change?

archived recording

Yes.

eliza shapiro

It's time for a much more radical solution.

eliza shapiro

Scrap it altogether, and replace it with a system that would automatically give seats to the top students at every city middle school. And the impact of that change would be that the schools' racial and ethnic makeup would be transformed overnight.

michael barbaro

How much?

eliza shapiro

The schools that are now about 10 percent black and Hispanic would become about 45 percent black and Hispanic. That's because most middle schools in New York City are mostly black and Hispanic. So if you take the best students in every single middle school, that's what these elite schools are going to look like.

eliza shapiro

The mayor is saying -

eliza shapiro

- not only is it clear that this test is missing some of the brightest black and Hispanic kids in the system, but that diversity is in and of itself a value and something that will make these beloved schools even better and stronger.

michael barbaro

You told us earlier that when this test was challenged several decades ago, there was an incredible amount of pushback. So what is the reaction this time to de Blasio's plan to get rid of it?

eliza shapiro

So I have never seen such a vitriolic reaction to a proposal out of City Hall.

archived recording 1

[CHANTING] A group of protesters gather in front of New York's City Hall.

archived recording 2

They chanted.

archived recording 3

Keep the test!

archived recording 4

And they marched, hundreds of them, across the Brooklyn Bridge to City Hall.

eliza shapiro

There are parents and alumni of these schools who are saying this proposal would all but destroy these schools.

speaker 1

There's absolutely no doubt that once this door is open, who your father is is going to make a difference as to which school you get into.

speaker 2

Everyone has an opportunity to sign up to take the test. If you step forward and you sign up, then you're up for the challenge. If you didn't, then you didn't want to be challenged.

eliza shapiro

They would water down their academics. And they would let in kids who simply can't cut it at the expense of kids who are acing this test that they revere.

eliza shapiro

And then you have Asian-American families who feel that the mayor is discriminating against them.

eliza shapiro

They would lose half of their seats in this system under the mayor's plan.

eliza shapiro

And they know the history of these schools. They know these schools were built to propel immigrant and poor kids out of poverty.

eliza shapiro

And they're saying, what about us? We are immigrants. We need these schools.

eliza shapiro

And losing our seats would be a profound loss, and something that really, really, really feels painful for these parents.

michael barbaro

I mean, given those numbers, this argument from Asian-American families would seem to be quite compelling, right? Why should some kids who are clearly bright, who have aced these tests, lose their seats in the name of diversifying the entire schools?

eliza shapiro

Absolutely. But the flip side of this is I think we need to recognize that the best public high school in the city doesn't seem to need to be diverse in order for us to consider it -

michael barbaro

The best.

eliza shapiro

- the best. And I think, for 50 years in this city, we've said segregation is simply a fact of life. And there's not much we can do about that. And I think right now in New York City, we are in this really intense moment of reckoning with whether that's really true, and whether that's going to change. And it's these elite schools that are in the middle of that shift.

michael barbaro

All this is making me wonder what these elite public schools are actually like for the students who attend them. What is it that makes them so special?

eliza shapiro

So what I hear over and over again from alumni and from students is that it's all about the other kids. There's this magical quality in these schools of - you're around all the kids who want to study as hard as you do, who love math and English and environmental science as much as you do. And it's this really safe place for smart kids. It's cool to be smart there. And that can feel really, really special.

michael barbaro

Right. And I guess the question is, if you change the admissions process in the name of that diversity, does that magic you just described of being in these schools surrounded by only the best who have aced this test, does that go away somehow?

eliza shapiro

I think that's the fear. But I think the argument against that is, could these schools change, but actually become something better? Could these schools become more vibrant, more special if they were more diverse, and if they looked more like the city in which all these kids live?

michael barbaro

I'm curious about this very small number of black and Hispanic students at these schools. How do they feel about being deemed the best and the brightest, but also about being such a tiny minority there that's now at the center of this big debate?

eliza shapiro

So the day after this number came out, I went down to Stuyvesant. And I spent a late afternoon in the park next to the school with a group of nine black and Hispanic students. And we spent a long time talking about what it's like for them.

eliza shapiro

I heard a lot of pain and anguish about that number.

eliza shapiro

And I was talking to one of these students who remembered that his mom said to him, you're going to be one of the only black students at this school. You're going to have to put on your armor every day.

eliza shapiro

And I also just saw, in this time we spent together, this really profound sense of camaraderie - that they'd gotten themselves through Stuyvesant together as a group.

michael barbaro

Eliza, thank you very much.

eliza shapiro

Thank you.

[music]

michael barbaro

We'll be right back.

Here's what else you need to know today. On Monday, a House committee released testimony from a whistleblower who said that the Trump administration had granted security clearances to at least 25 people who were previously denied such clearances because of concerns about their background. The whistleblower, a manager involved in White House hiring, told a House committee that the original denials had been based on a variety of factors, including conflicts of interest, financial problems, drug use and criminal conduct. The White House is allowed to overturn denials of security clearances. But the whistleblower said she was alarmed by the frequency of the practice in the Trump administration, which she said was not always acting, quote, "in the best interest of national security."

And that's it for "The Daily." I'm Michael Barbaro. See you tomorrow.

Katherine and some of the others noted how strange it was to leave their mostly black and Hispanic neighborhoods to make lengthy commutes to Tribeca, where the school takes up most of a city block. Katherine, the oldest of four siblings, said she was the first person in two decades to go to Stuyvesant from her middle school in Morris Park, in the Bronx.
[Times columnist Ginia Bellafante writes: Stop fixating on Stuyvesant. There are bigger problems.]
William Lohier, 17, whose father is black and whose mother is Korean-American, said the numbers had made him feel both angry and committed to improving the school culture.

"I have so much trouble believing that of all of the top students in New York City who are able to change the world, and are able to perform the best in this really rigorous environment, that only seven of them are black," said William, who spoke quietly and seriously throughout the meeting while wearing a Black Students League T-shirt. Last year, William was the city's youth poet laureate.

"It's just wrong."

After that comment, the teenagers let out a collective sigh. Then they smiled and nodded in agreement.

Still, Sarai acknowledged that other students' comments had occasionally made her question her place at the school.

"I've been told that the only reason I got into Stuyvesant is because I'm black, even though the test doesn't even factor that in," said Sarai, whose father is black and grew up in New York City and whose mother is from Spain. "Not only is that discouraging and alienating, but it makes you feel like maybe you don't deserve your spot, even though I know that I work just as hard as every other sophomore in my class."

The students said they hoped that the state's politicians would listen to their opinions and experiences and then make a determination about how to diversify the school: by expanding gifted and talented classes, which many of them had benefited from, to low-income neighborhoods and by tackling the entrenched segregation they had endured throughout their younger years. They had already collaborated with the Stuyvesant administration to bring in more racial sensitivity training for teachers and seminars for incoming freshmen.

[ Eliza Shapiro answered reader questions about black admission at Stuyvesant.]

And the teenagers hoped they could expand the conversation beyond Stuyvesant, which is just one of the city's roughly 600 high schools.

Last year, Mayor Bill de Blasio unveiled a controversial proposal to eliminate the admissions exam - the sole means of entry into the city's eight so-called specialized high schools - and replace it with a system that offers seats to the top performers at every city middle school. The plan has little if any chance of passing in Albany because it has faced opposition from the schools' alumni and Asian-American groups.

Asians make up roughly 73 percent of Stuyvesant's 3,300 students, while white students are about 20 percent of the school. Hispanic students make up another 3 percent, with black students just under 1 percent. The city school system is nearly 70 percent black and Hispanic with white and Asian students making up roughly another 15 percent each.

But the black and Hispanic teenagers interviewed said they considered themselves proof that there is no disparity of effort or talent - just an imbalance of opportunity.

Venus Nnadi, 18, a Stuyvesant graduate who is a freshman at Harvard, said she remembered when a fifth-grade teacher pulled her aside at her Catholic middle school in Queens Village and encouraged her to consider an elite public school.

Ms. Nnadi, the daughter of Nigerian immigrants, had never heard of Stuyvesant, but she bought a test preparation book and started taking practice exams. She thinks often of her classmates who didn't have the same guidance.

"I had a lot of friends in my middle school who were just as smart as me, and who I know could be thriving at Stuyvesant if they had known it existed," said Ms. Nnadi, who was a standout on Stuyvesant's track team.

It was much the same for Hanna Gebremichael, the daughter of Eritrean immigrants, who found out the test existed three months before taking it - by Googling phrases like "best New York City high schools."

She crammed practice exams into her schedule and took a test preparation course at the last minute.

"It ended up working out, but a lot of the time it doesn't, and I can see why," said Hanna, a 17-year-old senior who grew up in Harlem and on the Upper West Side.

Eugene Thomas, who is now a 19-year-old freshman at Yale, said that when he found out about specialized high schools from his seventh grade classmates, he saved up money from his job as a pharmacy delivery boy to pay for test preparation.

Mr. Thomas, who is black and Puerto Rican and grew up in a housing project in Chelsea, remembered that his tutor gave him a steep discount, in part because he lived with a single mother who is disabled.

Yet even after acing the exam, the students' moments of triumph were tempered by fears about being one of the few black or Hispanic students at Stuyvesant.

"I remember my mom telling me, 'You're going to have to put on your armor every day,'" William said.

Once they got to Stuyvesant, the students said they sometimes felt misunderstood by their white and Asian-American classmates.

When Ms. Nnadi found out last April that she had been accepted into all eight of the Ivy League colleges, her first reaction was to keep the news quiet. She said she feared that her peers would make snide comments.

Ms. Nnadi's classmates had previously told her that she did not have to worry about her grades because, as a black girl, she was basically guaranteed entry into the college of her choice.

"To have all my hard work, and all the work I've done throughout the years invalidated simply because I'm black, that hurt a lot," she said.

Mr. Thomas was grateful to have Asian-American friends rush to his defense after some students gossiped that he got into Yale only because he is black and Hispanic. (There are currently 100 Hispanic students at Stuyvesant.)

Ultimately, all the students agreed that they had made the right choice in going to Stuyvesant.

Yajaira Rodriguez, a 17-year-old Mexican-American senior who lives in Corona, Queens, got to take a camping trip that bolstered her passion for environmental science.

Bryan Monge Serrano, a 16-year-old Salvadoran-American junior who lives in Flushing, Queens, said he never would have fallen in love with computer science if it wasn't for the high-level classes at Stuyvesant.

As the sun began to set, the teenagers zipped up their coats and got ready to trek to their respective corners of the city to start their homework. They said they were grateful to have spent another afternoon together.

Falina Ongus, a 15-year-old sophomore who was born in Kenya, said, "We all help each other through."

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
How the Few Black and Hispanic Students at Stuyvesant High School Feel (Published 2019)

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
What you need to know to start the day: Get New York Today in your inbox .] Sarai Pridgen had just gotten home from debate practice on Monday evening when she opened her laptop to find her Facebook feed flooded with stories about a staggering statistic: only seven black students had been admitted into Stuyvesant High School, out of 895 spots.

# data[].attributes.headline
Debate Over Specialized High School Admission Exam

# data[].attributes.subject
Debate Over Specialized High School Admission Exam

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Last week, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio proposed a drastic change in the way students are admitted to the city's elite high schools.

Students gain entry to one of these eight "specialized" schools by scoring high enough on a single exam called the Specialized High School Admissions Test (SHSAT). De Blasio has called for phasing out the exam and instead admitting the top students from each middle school.

This has prompted protests from Asian Americans who feel this policy disproportionately hurts them, as well as hand-wringing from graduates of these schools, who believe the move will lower the quality of the education at these institutions.

For decades, these elite schools have been a prime example of what a great secondary education could offer - but also a symbol of how rigged the system is. Since the 1970s, students, school officials, and even the US Office of Civil Rights have said that the admissions process hurts students of color.

Today, about 70 percent of New York high schools are black and Hispanic - but they account for just 10 percent of students in New York's specialized high schools.

By phasing out the test, de Blasio's plan starts a process that would eventually make these schools about 45 percent black and Hispanic - much closer to citywide demographics.

And the city predicts it will offer fewer seats to white students - but also significantly fewer seats to Asian students.

For many Asian Americans, the entrance exam represents their best bet to get a fair shot. You don't need connections, you don't need to be socially adept, and you aren't judged by vague and subjective standards. Ace this test and you're in.

But it's tough to argue the current admissions process is fair - and not only because of the disproportionate demographics. Testing may seem like an objective process, but it often replicates the inequalities that public education is supposed to remedy. Indeed, the current system was put into law in the 1970s when white parents urged the state to institute a test-only system - a campaign that itself was pushing back against proposed changes to the process that would have admitted more black and Puerto Rican students to the schools.

This tension often hides in the subtext of political debates. Now it's being spoken out loud.

"[De Blasio] never had this problem when Stuyvesant [High School] was all white. He never had this problem when Stuyvesant was all Jewish," Kenneth Chiu, the chair of the New York City Asian-American Democratic Club, told NY1. Stuyvesant is one of New York's eight specialized schools.

"All of a sudden, they see one too many Chinese and they say, 'Hey, it isn't right.'"

The implications of the "Asians work harder" argument

Until now, the affirmative action debate has been squarely focused on elite college admissions.

For decades, Asian Americans have been accusing top colleges of imposing illegal quotas on Asian students, limiting the number of spots for them even as those institutions sought to bring in more black and Hispanic students. Opponents of affirmative action have used these grievances to challenge the law. There is currently a lawsuit against Harvard University, as well as a Justice Department investigation into this matter.

The accusations that colleges have quotas often come with the complaint that it means Asian Americans have to compete for a set number of seats among themselves. But applicants don't know everyone else who is applying to Harvard or Yale, and it's hard to pin down where you are on that totem pole.

With de Blasio's plan, however, students will know exactly whom they're competing against, and exactly how the ranking system works.

First, de Blasio wants to reserve 20 percent of seats in specialized schools for students from high-poverty schools who didn't meet the exam cutoff. In the next three years, he wants to phase out the entrance exam entirely and grant admission to students who are in the top 7 percent of each middle school's graduating class, as determined by a combination of grades and state standardized tests.

The plan integrates schools by taking advantage of New York's highly segregated geography.

Students in poor, segregated neighborhoods wouldn't compete against students in rich neighborhoods; instead, they'd compete against their neighbors, which guarantees a certain number of seats for each middle school. This is similar to the way the University of Texas has achieved diversity goals, which survived Supreme Court scrutiny in 2016. The change would also end up capping the number of students from any given school.

All of this is by design - and, in fact, it's the narrow way in which the Supreme Court said districts could pursue diversity.

In recent years, the number of Asian-Americans students has grown sharply at specialized schools, and it's left fewer seats for black and Hispanic students. This plan would push back against that trend.

When New York City's new chancellor, Richard Carranza, was asked whether this plan pits minority groups against each other, he said, "I just don't buy into the narrative that any one ethnic group owns admission to these schools."

But Asian-American leaders who oppose de Blasio's plan insist their presence in specialized schools isn't a sign of privilege.

Soo Kim, president of the Stuyvesant Alumni Association, told the New York Times, "Stuyvesant is an option for those who have no option. They don't know how to interview or influence their way into the right public schools or the right private schools."

One specialized high school student told the New York Times in 2012, "Most of our parents don't believe in 'gifted.' It's all about hard work."

This narrative is one that so many immigrants children have heard. It's about being told to work harder than everyone else, because we are perpetual foreigners who will never be gifted anything. It's why an exam-only process is so appealing; there are no subjective judgments of character or culture - just right or wrong answers no one can dispute. It's the context behind the growth of test prep services.

As Washington Post columnist Richard Cohen puts it, "They study. They study hard."

This way of thinking, of course, implies everyone else isn't working hard enough - and that's why everyone else isn't getting ahead. And this test affirms that belief.

What does this test measure?

It's worth taking a step back and remembering that there really is something awry with the admissions process at specialized schools.

Not only does the data clearly show that the test-only system created a subset of highly segregated, elite schools, but this system was put into law by white leaders who specifically wanted to limit the number of black and Puerto Rican students.

So, as Nikole Hannah-Jones argues, if we believe that black and Hispanic children are just as intelligent as white and Asian children, what exactly does this test measure?

One answer is that it measures who has the resources to prep for this test. Schoolwork isn't enough to prepare you. A large portion of Asian-American students take courses to optimize their scores on the SHSAT, and later they will likely take prep courses for the SAT. This, of course, takes money, time, and access. (These critiques almost invariably lead to other microaggressions against Asians - that we are too focused on tests and academics, and it doesn't make us well-rounded. Of course, that's exactly what the system incentivized.)

The broader answer is that the test measures how American policies have engineered these racial dynamics.

American policies segregated black and brown families into poor neighborhoods and inadequate schools - and they continue to do so today. These policies have also fueled a massive racial wealth gap that continues to widen.

American policies also created a relatively new Asian-American population. Before the 1960s, US immigration policy was largely anti-Asian. But as the US became more receptive to Asian migration, it favored certain people: relatives of US residents, those with specialized skills, and refugees.

Most of these immigrants couldn't be considered wealthy by any means - especially in New York, where Asians have the highest poverty rate of any racial group.

But most of our families weren't subjected to the same discriminatory policies that have kept black and Hispanic families in intergenerational poverty.

This test, like so many others, appears to disproportionately measure these engineered gaps.

There are other good schools. Why is this fight so charged?

There are eight specialized schools in New York City that base admission solely on the SHSAT score, the most well-known of which are the Bronx High School of Science and Stuyvesant High School.

Together, these eight schools educate just 5 percent of New York City's 310,000 high school students. There are plenty of other great high schools.

But the fight about affirmative action, especially around elite schools, gets so charged because it's not just about education. As Harvard education professor Natasha Warikoo wrote in her recent book The Diversity Bargain, "[These schools] are especially important for our understanding of meritocracy, because many see admissions to those universities as the ultimate demonstration of merit."

Of course, merit is a completely made-up standard. It's not an objective metric; rather, it reflects our ideals.

After all, in the 1970s, white leaders defined merit to limit the number of nonwhite students at the specialized schools. They believed not abiding by these definitions of merit would "destroy the quality and special character of the institutions," according to a 1971 New York Times story.

And this same rhetoric is being used today.

But as Politico's Eliza Shapiro reports, the city's analysis shows that this new system wouldn't dramatically change the average test scores or GPAs for specialized school students. In other words, it won't lower the quality of the student body.

Removing the test, however, will change the definition of merit to reflect more equitable ideals.

For decades, New York's elite schools used an exclusionary system to define merit - and Asian Americans have been wildly successful within this system.

Now, for the better - but without their consultation - the definition of merit is changing.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
The fraught racial politics of entrance exams for elite high schools

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Last week, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio proposed a drastic change in the way students are admitted to the city's elite high schools. Students gain entry to one of these eight "specialized" schools by scoring high enough on a single exam called the Specialized High School Admissions Test (SHSAT).

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
A Tale of Two Teachers | Melissa Crum | TEDxColumbusWomen

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
A Look at Implicit Bias and Microaggressions

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
A primer on the impact of implicit biases in schools and how they can be expressed by students and faculty.

# data[].attributes.body
The work that we are reading this week presents the concept of culture of power. We may use our knowledge of the culture of power to design culturally relevant language and literacy instruction.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
The DOE uses an educational strategy that embraces students' identities. We call it "culturally responsive-sustaining education (CR-SE)." It is a way of seeing diversity as a source of knowledge.

With CR-SE, students use their own identity to get education. They learn using aspects of their race, social class, gender, language, sexual orientation, nationality, religion, or ability.

Studies show that students learning with CR-SE are more active in class. They graduate more often, with better grades. Their self-esteem improves, and they become better citizens.

New York City is a diverse and inspiring city. But it, like much of America, is rife with bias and inequality. We want to give students mirrors that reflect the greatness of who their people are, and windows into the world that allow students to connect across cultures.

To give all students both windows and mirrors, we will adopt a culturally responsive approach throughout all major policy areas.

For more, view the NYC DOE Definition of the proposed policy for Culturally Responsive-Sustaining Education in Schools, below.

Our Approach

CR-SE requires schools and districts to:

See and value the background, views, and needs of all students. This includes experiences related to race, culture, language, or ability.

Be aware of past and present forms of bias and oppression.

Identify and stop practices that boost historically advantaged groups at the expense of marginalized students.

Use teaching methods that are challenging, but honor students' diversity. Students' lives and identities should connect to their education. They should become critical thinkers and feel the agency to end inequality.

Employ staff with high expectations for all students. They must be able to examine their own personal beliefs around identity, while giving professional learning and support.

Build strong connections with students. Understand their lives, backgrounds, and identities.

Build partnerships with families and communities. These bonds can be a source of knowledge, and help shape school priorities.

Create emotional safe spaces and foster trust among students. In a conflict, use restorative practices to reconcile both sides. Nurture students' identities and give them a sense of ownership and belonging.

Our Definition

New York City students live in a diverse, vibrant and inspiring city -a city that also reflects the complex system of biases and inequities deeply rooted in this country's history, culture and institutions.The DOE commits to culturally responsive-sustaining education (CR-SE), a cultural view of learning and human development in which multiple forms of diversity (e.g., race, social class, gender, language, sexual orientation, nationality, religion, ability) are recognized, understood,and regarded as indispensable sources of knowledge for rigorous teaching and learning.Culturally responsive-sustaining education uses educational strategies that leverage the various aspects of students' identities, including the rich cultural, racial, historical, linguistic characteristics of students to provide mirrors that reflect the greatness of who their people are and windows into the world that allow students to connect across cultures.Numerous studies across the country show that CR-SE increases student participation, attendance, grade point averages, graduation rates, civic engagement, self-image, and critical thinking skills.To give all students both windows and mirrors, we will adopt a culturally responsive approach throughout all major policy areas.

What is CR-SE

Engaging in the work of CR-SE ensures that all students learn at high levels by requiring that schools and districts:

Value and affirm the varied experiences, perspectives and needs that students bring into the classroom - whether they be connected to racial/cultural background, language, disability or other - as essential assets and resources for learning, and meet students there;

Foster critical consciousness about historical and contemporary forms of bias and oppression;

Identify and interrupt policies and practices that center on historically advantaged social/cultural groups and lead to predictable outcomes of success or failure for historically marginalized students;

Use curricula and pedagogy that are academically challenging, honor and reflect students' diversity, connect learning to students' lives and identities, challenge students to be critical thinkers, and promote student agency to end societal inequities;

Improve classroom and institutional practice through a mindset of high expectations for all students and deep examination and knowledge of one's personal beliefs, assumptions, experiences and identities through ongoing professional learning and support;

Build strong connections and relationships with students, which requires understanding their lives, backgrounds and identities;

Develop close partnerships with families and communities as sources of knowledge, experience and skills, and leaders in shaping school priorities and deepening learning;

Develop restorative practices in schools, including using restorative justice as a response to harm, fostering trusting relationships among students, creating emotional safe spaces that recognize and nurture students' identities, and giving students a sense of ownership and belonging in the school.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Learn how the DOE uses an educational strategy that embraces students' identities called culturally responsive-sustaining education or CR-SE, and how diversity can be a source of knowledge.