The beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic forced former Mayor Bill de Blasio and other government officials to reconsider New York City’s public school admissions policies. In the spring of 2020, public schools froze letter grades to accommodate students, attendance was eliminated as an admissions criterion and standardized state tests were canceled. In the wake of an anti-racist movement in America, many hoped for reforms that would create more equitable admissions processes.
I attended high school at The Bronx High School of Science, a specialized high school in the north Bronx with a student body that is 63.5 percent Asian, 22.7 percent white, 7 percent Hispanic, 2.7 percent Black and only .7 percent for both Pacific Islander and Native American. On the other side of the track and field behind our school, where I spent afternoons at track practice, sat DeWitt Clinton High School, a nonspecialized high school where minority enrollment is 96 percent of the student body. To gain admission to The Bronx High School of Science, students admitted in 2021 had to score above 517 on the Specialized High Schools Admissions Test (SHSAT) — a test reminiscent of the SAT — that acts as the sole entry criterion for all nine New York City specialized high schools.
The SHSAT and other stringent admissions screenings have played a large role in making the New York City school system the most segregated in the nation, favoring students whose parents can afford to send them to test preparation courses or whose elementary and middle schools devoted resources to preparing students for exams and interviews. Segregated high schools are also offshoots of elementary and middle schools, which are racially stratified due to zoning policies that carry residential segregation into schools, “gifted and talented” programs that separate kindergarteners and admissions screens that limit enrollment in elite middle schools.
In high school, I participated in protests and attended government panels run by Teens Take Charge, a student-run organization fighting for integration in New York City public high schools by advocating for the abolishment of admissions screenings and the repeal of the 1971 Hecht-Calandra Act that originally designated the SHSAT the sole criterion for entrance to New York City specialized high schools. Local policymakers and citizens have continued this effort, but its success is hard to predict, with a bill sponsored by the state Assembly in 2019 dying quickly.
However, segregation in New York City schools is a deeply nuanced issue, and one that does not have a clear solution. In 2018, many wealthy white parents expressed anger at de Blasio’s plan to turn away some high-scoring students from well-performing elementary and middle schools in order to admit some students who scored within the lower two quartiles on standardized state tests. Additionally, Asian American parents, whose children make up the large majority of students at specialized high schools, have argued that abolishing admissions screenings would unfairly penalize low-income Asian families who devoted hard-earned resources to preparing their children for entrance examinations and other academic opportunities.
What makes segregation in New York City’s public schools such a complex issue is that admissions policies perpetuate larger existing institutional inequality in New York City. Ayaan Ali, a senior at Brooklyn Technical High School, says, “abolishing the [SHSAT] is like putting a Band-Aid over a gunshot wound.” The root issue is the socioeconomic inequality and residential segregation that plagues New York City, which has been carried into public schools through parent funding and admissions screens, among other pipelines. The goal should be a future in which there are no specialized schools, but every public school is adequately funded to obtain necessary resources so that students are given the same opportunities to succeed academically and professionally. However, while New York City is in need of policies and movements that address larger issues like school funding reallocation and residential discrimination, we cannot afford to allow for generations of students to continue being enrolled in segregated schools and be denied educational opportunities. Creating more holistic admissions processes and increasing educational opportunities for Black and Hispanic students is urgent.
New York City’s official education plan, announced in December, saw de Blasio reverse his promise to eliminate admissions preferences based on zoning after parents voiced concerns about lengthy commutes. Fortunately, middle schools will be testing out the lottery system this year. There is also a new platform called MySchools being implemented to streamline the admissions process to elite New York City public high schools, meaning schools will no longer be allowed to run admissions processes themselves. MySchools also eliminates attendance and state test scores as application criteria. Unfortunately, because the Hecht-Calandra Act has not been repealed, the SHSAT will still be the only criterion considered by specialized high schools, so it will not be eliminated from this platform.
Although new reforms offer hope, the future of New York City public school admissions practices remains uncertain, especially as Eric Adams was sworn in as the new mayor on Jan. 1. Adams had previously said that, if elected, he would work to implement more selective high schools and gifted programs. However, past efforts at expansion, including former Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s implementation of five more specialized high schools in the early 2000s, have failed. Adams also voiced that he would not eliminate the SHSAT or the ridiculous test that many New York City toddlers take to gain admission to gifted and talented elementary programs. Additionally, de Blasio’s plans to shift responsibility of the school safety division from the New York Police Department (NYPD) to the education department will now be passed on to Adams, a former police officer of 22 years who has made clear he wants NYPD-sponsored safety personnel to remain in schools despite saying there should not be “police culture” in schools.
Although admissions screens prevent access to well-funded schools for many, the underlying problem is the inequality of resources among schools. However, in the immediate future, government officials and policy makers must do what they can to mitigate segregation and inequity in New York City schools by revising admissions policies to be more holistic. New York City’s school system can no longer continue to perpetuate a cycle of residential and socioeconomic segregation in one of the most diverse cities in the world. I hope Adams and New York City government officials will listen to the experiences and demands that students, teachers, parents, activists and officials have been voicing for years to work toward a just and equitable education system.
Doris Turkel is an undeclared sophomore and is Assistant Opinions Editor.