Single Digit Percentage of Black and Latinos Accepted to Specialized High Schools Calls for a New Program

The headline reads “More Blacks and Latinos Admitted to Elite New York High Schools.” This is certainly newsworthy. The statistics reported by New York TImes writer Fernanda Santos on the first round, including the eight specialized high schools admittance and F.H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts, showed “historic enrollment figures” and “the number [of black and Latino students admitted in the first round to the eight specialized high schools] was 14 percent higher.” http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/01/education/more-blacks-and-latinos-admitted-to-elite-new-york-high-schools.html?ref=nyregion

This sounds praiseworthy, especially after a week of negative media about the released statistics of some teachers from a possibly inclusive study with even Bill Gates http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/23/opinion/for-teachers-shame-is-no-solution.html?scp=3&sq=bill%20gates&st=cse chiming in, “As a harbinger of education policy in the United States, it is a big mistake.” These new statistics about more black and Latino students receiving acceptance letters to specialized high schools that accept solely on an admittance examination should be breaking news. Only though when realizing it just a mere 730 black and Latino students scoring well enough to be accepted into any which of the specialized high schools that it can be understood why this is not front cover news. Yes, as the title of the articles read, more blacks and Latinos than normal, and even at “historic” numbers were accepted into these so-called elite public schools but the percentage is still minute. “Black students received 6 percent of the offers, while Latinos accounted for 8 percent.”

These two single digit numbers should be embarrassing to many if not all. Officials who make it their duty to allow students to rise through New York City’s public education system should be ashamed. Activists who have fought for generations to desegregate schools only to see that blacks and Latinos do not reach the requirements to get into these “elite schools.” In addition, head representatives at these specialized high schools should be disappointed in their efforts to recruit and make know that this test exists. There must be something that can be done so that minorities like blacks and Latinos make up more than 730 of a graduating class of kids from eight select schools. Many NYC public high schools have more students than that number in one grade. In contrast to this demographic, a resounding 72.5 percent of the students at Stuyvesant high school are Asian while only 1.2 percent of the 3,300 students are black according to Santos. Schools need to recruit students to apply to specialized high schools. More so, like in my middle school, there was a Specialized High School Admissions Test (SHSAT) test prep class that met biweekly after school to prepare students, free of charge for the test. If there was a program in place for each public middle school in new york city, regardless of the demographic of students, that at least gave students some exposure to the exam prior to taking it, there should be an increase in diversity in specialized high schools.