[Un] Correct New York Podcast: Can Diversity At The City’s Specialized High School’s Improve?

[un]correct NY
Co-Founder & Publisher of Kings County Politics, Stephen Witt
KCP Senior Editor & Reporter, Kelly Mena
Tom Russotti
Co-Founder of Kings County Politics, Tom Russotti

On this week’s episode of [Un] Correct New York, Stephen Witt, Kelly Mena and Tom Russotti talk about the controversial Specialized High School Admission Test (SHSAT). Recent data revealed that low numbers of Black and Latino students were accepted into New York City’s eight elite schools including Stuyvesant and Brooklyn Technical High School, has many parents worried about the lack of diversity and access to a quality education across the five boroughs.

At Stuyvesant High School, one of eight schools that base admissions solely on a single standardized test, only seven black students were offered admissions to the incoming freshman class this year, compared to 10 students last year. The number of Latino students accepted increased slightly this year, to 33 from 27. The number of white students went up to 194 students from 151 students. The number of Asian students admitted to the school declined to 587 this year compared to 613 last year.

Overall, for all the specialized high schools, 51.1 percent of offers went to Asian students, compared to 51.7 percent last year; 4.0 percent went to black students, compared to 4.1 percent last year; 6.6 percent went to Latino students, compared to 6.3 percent last year; and 28.5 percent went to white students compared to 26.5 percent last year.