More Black and Latino Students Admitted to New York’s Elite High Schools
The New York Times
The percentage of Black and Latino students in the eight schools increased to 12 percent, the highest since 2013, but still far below the overall percentage of those students in schools.
More than 12 percent of offers to New York City’s most prestigious high schools went to Black and Latino students this year, education officials announced on Tuesday, the highest number since 2013.
At those eight schools, known as the specialized high schools, acceptance is determined by a single entrance exam. Major racial and ethnic gaps still exist in which students are admitted, an issue that has sparked years of painful debate over how city leaders should respond.
Across the public school system, 24 percent of students are Black and 41 percent are Hispanic. But at Stuyvesant High School in Manhattan, often viewed as the city’s most competitive high school, 10 of the 744 offers made this spring went to Black students while 16 went to Hispanic students. Asian students were offered 496 spots, and white students were offered 127.
At some schools, the disparities had not changed from prior years: At Staten Island Technical High School, one Black student and eight Hispanic students were offered a spot. Nine Black and Hispanic teenagers received seats last year.
The limited gains in offers across the schools, however, may offer a bright spot in the heated debates that annually rage over the schools’ admissions process. Other selective high schools across New York also remained more racially and economically representative of the system than before the pandemic, data released Tuesday shows.
New York’s specialized schools educate about 5 percent of the city’s high school students, and it’s unclear whether students receive a measurable academic boost from attending them.
