Effort to save the SHSAT gets deep-pocketed allies
By
Reema Amin,
Christina Veiga - April 22, 2019
A well-funded new group revealed plans Monday to fight the mayor’s push to scrap the specialized high schools admissions exam, advocating instead to broaden access to test preparation and gifted programs.
Dubbed the Education Equity Campaign, the
coalition is led by minister and Brooklyn Tech alumnus Kirsten John Foy and is backed by multiple community groups, according to its
website. While an exact number wasn’t revealed, the group has raised seven figures in funding, with big names behind the initial dollars: Robert Lauder, chairman of the Clinique Laboratories and a
Bronx Science alumnus, and former Time Warner CEO Richard Parsons, according to a spokesman.
Education Equity’s genesis turns up the pressure on the debate over the test and Mayor Bill de Blasio’s proposal to eliminate it in order to boost diversity at the schools. His plan has drawn sharp blowback, particularly from alumni and some Asian-Americans, who this year
earned 51 percent of offers to specialized high schools. Foy described the mayor’s plan as a “politically expedient shortcut” that is “morally questionable” because he believed it pitted the Asian, black and Hispanic communities against each other.
“Quite frankly, we have all been in agreement that the test is an indicator of the problem — it is an indicator of what is wrong with the elementary and middle school educational systems,” Foy told Chalkbeat. “And that is not a reflection on the professionals; it is a reflection on the bureaucracy.”
From town halls and rallies to lobbying, Foy said the new coalition will arrange a “very robust and sophisticated” advocacy effort to build support for a wish list of policies:
adding two new specialized high schools in each city borough; guaranteeing free Specialized High School Admissions Test prep for every city student; ensuring all students have access to gifted and talented programs from a young age; asking every eighth grader to take the SHSAT (with the option to opt-out); and “dedicating the resources necessary to improve our city’s struggling middle schools” — which a spokesman said was related to curriculum.
The group’s asks echo many of the counter-proposals that are consistently floated by supporters of the single-test admissions standard, but it’s
unclear how effective they would be. Some observers shared skepticism and disappointment about the group’s efforts, including former deputy mayor Richard Buery who
tweeted, “I don’t understand why these folks would spend their time and energy to exclude Black and Latinx students from the specialized high schools.”
A spokeswoman for City Hall said the mayor will continue to call for changes to the admissions system, which was enshrined in state law almost 50 years ago after the schools chancellor at the time moved to investigate the lack of diversity at the schools.
you telling me all the smart black & hispanic kids in the entire city and you only hand literally 7 of them the rest are white and asian???
that doesn't look suspicious to you???
