Each year, when the NYC Department of Education releases admissions data for specialized high schools, the press and elected officials highlight the low enrollment of Black and Hispanic students.
No, the left will never acknowledge & address the racial disparities in chronic absenteeism of black & Hispanic students. The same way they refuse to acknowledge blacks and Hispanics are disparately large percentage of the school discipline cases. President Obama threatened schools with federal prosecution if principals did their job and disciplined students for bad behavior and it only got worse since.
The headlines are obnoxious. They should congratulate the 8th graders who read and do math at an 11th grade level.
Blaming the test is ridiculous. There aren't enough G&T programs, and the squeaky wheel gets the grease, meaning that all the "teach to the middle and don't separate by ability" administrators rule the roost and get their way in low income neighborhoods. THAT is systemic racism and THAT is what needs to change.
Modifying admissions to schools with college level STEM programs and prep school level humanities programs will result in a lot of dropouts or a watering down of the programs. And the gap between the prepapred and unprepared students is three or more YEARS, not three months. Summer enrichment won't close that.
Fix K-5, add more G&T, and more screened / magnet middle schools in lower income districts.
Also, new SHSs that emphasized foreign language or other academic areas would be a positive change.
Not about "prepared" vs "unprepared" students. All about students of adequate intellectual ability to handle academic work vs those without. Your terminology suggests the "gap" can be closed with additional "preparation." It cannot.
The gap between the top 1-2% of students and the next 98-99% of students in terms of being able to succeed at what is basically a mid-level college STEM program combined with a college prep level Humanities program at Stuy or Science cannot.
The gap between the top 1-2% of students who have been prepared via G&T programs and attended Lower Lab and the top 1-2% of students in, say, Mott Haven or East New York, can, and it is closed via preparation - Mott Haven has a charter school that is doing just that. But the establishment here opposes Charter and G&T. The parents of kids in the UES, UWS, and a few other neighborhoods can push and can holler at their council members to try to maintain G&T, and it is maintained in those neighborhoods to an extent, though it's always a battle. That battle is rarely won in low-income neighborhoods.
What is obnoxious about the headlines is that they take away from the accomplishments of the students, and they present the problem as the test being racist, which makes no sense - it's race blind, race neutral, and the students from demographic groups that statistically do best on the test often speak another language at home. Those households also tend to be low income, but they live in mixed-income communities that offer their own, privately funded, tutoring, test prep, and more importantly, their own math schools that keep them a few years ahead. That's great for them and enables them to bypass the inadequacies of their taxpayer funded education. But this path is not available to students in the groups that are underrepresented at the top schools. The problem is not that the test itself is racist, or that students' melanin content or countries of origin somehow relate to their intelligence - otherwise Thomas Sowell wouldn't have graduated from Stuy and Neil DeGrasse Tyson wouldn't have graduated from Science. What works is to separate students within age groups based on ability and readiness to handle school, and provide many entry points to the advanced programs, for students who have the intelligence but lack discipline - or provide a separate program for intelligent and curious but undisciplined students. Certain districts do more of what works, and certain districts do not, and that explains the difference in acceptance rates to the top screened high schools, be they schools with admissions that are SHSAT-based or based on grades and state test scores. The anti-SHSAT articles also leave out that there are more non-SHSAT screened schools than SHSAT schools, and that there is a very high overlap between the top students in the top middle schools and the students who ace the SHSAT - and they gloss over the fact that once you're AT a SHS other than LaGuardia, you take a lot of tests, so test anxiety ridden but intelligent students are still not a great fit for Stuy or Science, and have plenty of good options available - it isn't "one test deciding your future."
In short, there absolutely IS systemic racism in our education system. But it's not a matter of dollars per pupil (which have skyrocketed, especially in the inner cities) and it's not a matter of a test being racist or math being racist or merit being some kind of code for racism - it's that kids in some parts of town are not given the same program in K-5 as kids on other parts of town and then are left unable to make the cut for the magnet programs at the 6-8 or 9-12 levels. Almost all kids, of any demographic, will fail to get into Stuy and Science, and most will fail to get into any of the SHSs. But the reason the top students from some parts of town fail is that they are not prepared, and there is no other word for that but racism. It's a different form of racism than the one that is often blamed, but it is racism. It's people who think they're well-meaning but believe that math and objectivity and facts and logic and the scientific method and competition and merit are "white" concepts - which is to say that "non-white" people cannot navigate them just as well as anyone else. That is nonsense. Of course they can. Every time they're allowed to, they do, and when they're children, every time they're enabled to, they do. We effectively have a different program for different children based on neighborhood, a difference which corresponds to demographics. One program works, the other doesn't. That's racism. There's no other word for it.
SHSs don't place the students as well as they should- though to the extent of my knowledge, which admittedly is anecdotal, the graduates perform very well in college. Top 40% of Stuy snd Science grads are the equivalent of Valedictorian at most US high schools.
I was having coffee with a friend whose son had graduated from a CUNY after barely getting thru Stuyvesant. Self inflicted problems combined with a nasty commute. He has a great job with a major bank so he is doing fine, but I remember asking his mom" We know that his classmates went to college; we do not know who got a degree!"
This man walk over, apologizes for eavesdropping and says he went to Brooklyn Tech and half his SUNY and CUNY classmates never finished college. That is pure anecdote but I would love to know this data.
Tech isn't Stuy or Science.... not to sound like a ---- But there's also a lot of burnout from the rigor aat most of these schools - I wouldn't have been able to handle it. I went to Central Catholic-more of a renaissance man school run by Marists. I do think though that the problem with the schools isn't funding or tests but the fact that what works isn't accessible to enough students. That's definitely systemic racism. Taking what works away from everyone isn't the answer.
No, the left will never acknowledge & address the racial disparities in chronic absenteeism of black & Hispanic students. The same way they refuse to acknowledge blacks and Hispanics are disparately large percentage of the school discipline cases. President Obama threatened schools with federal prosecution if principals did their job and disciplined students for bad behavior and it only got worse since.
Actually the problem doesn't start in kindergarten, it starts about 5 years + 9 months earlier.
The headlines are obnoxious. They should congratulate the 8th graders who read and do math at an 11th grade level.
Blaming the test is ridiculous. There aren't enough G&T programs, and the squeaky wheel gets the grease, meaning that all the "teach to the middle and don't separate by ability" administrators rule the roost and get their way in low income neighborhoods. THAT is systemic racism and THAT is what needs to change.
Modifying admissions to schools with college level STEM programs and prep school level humanities programs will result in a lot of dropouts or a watering down of the programs. And the gap between the prepapred and unprepared students is three or more YEARS, not three months. Summer enrichment won't close that.
Fix K-5, add more G&T, and more screened / magnet middle schools in lower income districts.
Also, new SHSs that emphasized foreign language or other academic areas would be a positive change.
Not about "prepared" vs "unprepared" students. All about students of adequate intellectual ability to handle academic work vs those without. Your terminology suggests the "gap" can be closed with additional "preparation." It cannot.
The gap between the top 1-2% of students and the next 98-99% of students in terms of being able to succeed at what is basically a mid-level college STEM program combined with a college prep level Humanities program at Stuy or Science cannot.
The gap between the top 1-2% of students who have been prepared via G&T programs and attended Lower Lab and the top 1-2% of students in, say, Mott Haven or East New York, can, and it is closed via preparation - Mott Haven has a charter school that is doing just that. But the establishment here opposes Charter and G&T. The parents of kids in the UES, UWS, and a few other neighborhoods can push and can holler at their council members to try to maintain G&T, and it is maintained in those neighborhoods to an extent, though it's always a battle. That battle is rarely won in low-income neighborhoods.
What is obnoxious about the headlines is that they take away from the accomplishments of the students, and they present the problem as the test being racist, which makes no sense - it's race blind, race neutral, and the students from demographic groups that statistically do best on the test often speak another language at home. Those households also tend to be low income, but they live in mixed-income communities that offer their own, privately funded, tutoring, test prep, and more importantly, their own math schools that keep them a few years ahead. That's great for them and enables them to bypass the inadequacies of their taxpayer funded education. But this path is not available to students in the groups that are underrepresented at the top schools. The problem is not that the test itself is racist, or that students' melanin content or countries of origin somehow relate to their intelligence - otherwise Thomas Sowell wouldn't have graduated from Stuy and Neil DeGrasse Tyson wouldn't have graduated from Science. What works is to separate students within age groups based on ability and readiness to handle school, and provide many entry points to the advanced programs, for students who have the intelligence but lack discipline - or provide a separate program for intelligent and curious but undisciplined students. Certain districts do more of what works, and certain districts do not, and that explains the difference in acceptance rates to the top screened high schools, be they schools with admissions that are SHSAT-based or based on grades and state test scores. The anti-SHSAT articles also leave out that there are more non-SHSAT screened schools than SHSAT schools, and that there is a very high overlap between the top students in the top middle schools and the students who ace the SHSAT - and they gloss over the fact that once you're AT a SHS other than LaGuardia, you take a lot of tests, so test anxiety ridden but intelligent students are still not a great fit for Stuy or Science, and have plenty of good options available - it isn't "one test deciding your future."
In short, there absolutely IS systemic racism in our education system. But it's not a matter of dollars per pupil (which have skyrocketed, especially in the inner cities) and it's not a matter of a test being racist or math being racist or merit being some kind of code for racism - it's that kids in some parts of town are not given the same program in K-5 as kids on other parts of town and then are left unable to make the cut for the magnet programs at the 6-8 or 9-12 levels. Almost all kids, of any demographic, will fail to get into Stuy and Science, and most will fail to get into any of the SHSs. But the reason the top students from some parts of town fail is that they are not prepared, and there is no other word for that but racism. It's a different form of racism than the one that is often blamed, but it is racism. It's people who think they're well-meaning but believe that math and objectivity and facts and logic and the scientific method and competition and merit are "white" concepts - which is to say that "non-white" people cannot navigate them just as well as anyone else. That is nonsense. Of course they can. Every time they're allowed to, they do, and when they're children, every time they're enabled to, they do. We effectively have a different program for different children based on neighborhood, a difference which corresponds to demographics. One program works, the other doesn't. That's racism. There's no other word for it.
Very true. I asked a DOE official a few years ago 'how many SHS graduates are at Binghamton?" and they replied 'more than 1,500'.
What we do not do is ask how many of these students get a bachelor's degree.
SHSs don't place the students as well as they should- though to the extent of my knowledge, which admittedly is anecdotal, the graduates perform very well in college. Top 40% of Stuy snd Science grads are the equivalent of Valedictorian at most US high schools.
I was having coffee with a friend whose son had graduated from a CUNY after barely getting thru Stuyvesant. Self inflicted problems combined with a nasty commute. He has a great job with a major bank so he is doing fine, but I remember asking his mom" We know that his classmates went to college; we do not know who got a degree!"
This man walk over, apologizes for eavesdropping and says he went to Brooklyn Tech and half his SUNY and CUNY classmates never finished college. That is pure anecdote but I would love to know this data.
Tech isn't Stuy or Science.... not to sound like a ---- But there's also a lot of burnout from the rigor aat most of these schools - I wouldn't have been able to handle it. I went to Central Catholic-more of a renaissance man school run by Marists. I do think though that the problem with the schools isn't funding or tests but the fact that what works isn't accessible to enough students. That's definitely systemic racism. Taking what works away from everyone isn't the answer.