{"id":624677,"date":"2026-03-01T13:44:04","date_gmt":"2026-03-01T13:44:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/624677\/"},"modified":"2026-03-01T13:44:04","modified_gmt":"2026-03-01T13:44:04","slug":"theres-a-solution-to-nycs-specialized-high-school-controversy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/624677\/","title":{"rendered":"There’s a solution to NYC’s specialized high school controversy"},"content":{"rendered":"

This week<\/a>, 26,000<\/a> anxious eighth graders will learn their fate: Did they get into one of New York City\u2019s eight specialized high schools?<\/p>\n

The admission process couldn\u2019t be more straightforward, thanks to the 1971 New York State Hecht-Calandra<\/a> Act which mandates that admission to the schools is solely by the academic, objective, competitive Specialized High School Admissions Test.<\/p>\n

Applicants rank their\u00a0top\u00a0choices, take the test and line up by score for\u00a0available seats.<\/p>\n

The keyword is \u201cavailable.\u201d Fewer than 5,000 seats \u2014\u00a0 just 5% of the city\u2019s ninth-grade slots \u2014 are offered.<\/p>\n

This week, 26,000 anxious eighth graders will learn their fate: Did they get into one of New York City\u2019s eight specialized high schools like Stuyvesant in Lower Manhattan? Helayne Seidman<\/p>\n

Inevitably, the overwhelming majority of applicants face rejection. Thus, the annual battle returns.<\/p>\n

On one side are the usual critics, who blame the \u201cracist\u201d SHSAT for denying<\/a> black students access to specialized high schools and for admitting too many . . . Asians<\/a>.<\/p>\n

To them, standardized testing shows, once again, how capitalists hoard<\/a> coveted resources with their fear-mongering scarcity mindset<\/a>.<\/p>\n

On the other side are mostly struggling immigrant families.<\/p>\n

Logically, these immigrant families should also complain. While most accepted kids are their children, so are most rejected kids \u2014 and the rejected far outnumber the accepted.<\/p>\n

Instead, they defend these schools fiercely<\/a> because, as newcomers without wealth, power or influence, all they have for their children is the meritocratic SHSAT.<\/p>\n

They ask: What\u2019s wrong with admitting students purely by academic tests, regardless of race or ethnicity, privilege or status?<\/p>\n

Some critics blame the \u201cracist\u201d Specialized High School Admissions Test for denying black students access to specialized high schools and for admitting too many Asians. NYPJ<\/p>\n

They ask: if the SHSAT is racist, how could Brooklyn Tech, by far the largest SHS, have had a majority black and Hispanic student body for 20 straight years<\/a>, from the mid-1970s to mid-1990s?<\/p>\n

Both sides are dug in. But there is a solution.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s wrong is not the SHSAT, but the completely self-inflicted, unnecessary constraint of too few seats.<\/p>\n

The city can expand SHS seats to 26,000 to match demand, so that everyone who takes the SHSAT gets a seat.<\/p>\n

The SHS critics would achieve their goal \u2014\u00a0no more of what they see as capitalist hoarding, artificial scarcity or denial of access to anyone who wants a specialized high-school seat. Plus, the racial demographics of the schools would be exactly that of the students who want to attend these schools.<\/p>\n

And immigrant families would get to keep their SHSAT to help achieve the American Dream for their children.<\/p>\n

To cynics who say this is like giving every student As just to declare them all top-of-class, rest assured: This is no exercise in Potemkin equity.<\/a><\/p>\n

Fewer than 5,000 seats \u2014\u00a0 just 5% of the city\u2019s ninth-grade slots \u2014 are offered at specialized high schools. Bloomberg via Getty Images<\/p>\n

Even today, some specialized high schools are already more rigorous than others. There\u2019s no one-size-fits-all \u201cSHS curriculum.\u201d<\/p>\n

Using average SAT score as a blunt metric for school excellence<\/a>, Brooklyn Latin boasts an impressive 1380<\/a>, but Stuyvesant posts an awesome 1500<\/a> \u2014\u00a0a huge 92nd-to-98th percentile<\/a> difference and a gap encompassing more than 100,000 students<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Students taking the SHSAT know this. Pretending that everyone is top-of-class is neither what they seek, nor what these schools promised them, which is an academic peer group<\/a> who shares the ethos to study hard, embrace brutally honest feedback from objective measures \u2014 such as the SHSAT \u2014 and keep trying harder.<\/p>\n

That promise appeals only to certain students (those taking the SHSAT) and that promise would remain true with expansion. Cynics are correct that academic-level differences between specialized high schools will expand, but they miss the point: Kids who want sorting by SHSAT will make the schools as rigorous as they can, with the same determination and self-discipline they applied to preparing for the test.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s the magic of peer effect<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Mayor Bloomberg more than doubled the city\u2019s number of specialized high schools, from three to eight<\/a>. They differ substantially in academic levels, orientations and character, but are all challenging and eagerly sought-after.<\/p>\n

There is a solution to the issue of not enough seats at specialized high schools for all applicants: The city can expand SHS seats to 26,000 to match demand, so that everyone who takes the SHSAT gets a spot. Paul Martinka<\/p>\n

This happens when you don\u2019t curate for equal outcomes, real or fraudulent, but reward demonstrated self-discipline in the pursuit of academic excellence. The outcomes will take care of themselves.<\/p>\n

As for implementation, the expanded admission process requires no change; just run the city\u2019s current algorithm, but for more students.<\/p>\n

Managing physical capacity will require school reconfigurations and phase-in, but that\u2019s not a deal-breaker.<\/p>\n

After all, it\u2019s just the same students in the public school system, occupying different seats.<\/p>\n

Legally, Mayor Mamdani \u2014\u00a0who himself benefited from a Bronx Science<\/a> education over other attractive options his family\u2019s privilege<\/a> afforded him and\u00a0surely wouldn\u2019t want to deny others the same \u2014\u00a0has every authority to implement the expansion, as Hecht-Calandra explicitly allows the city to designate additional specialized schools.<\/p>\n

With this expansion, he could even claim<\/a> that he wiped out the capitalist scarcity of seats with a socialist abundance for everyone who wants one.<\/p>\n

The software already runs. No net new seats are needed. Legal authority already exists. It\u2019d be a historic win-win for everyone.<\/p>\n

Each year, 26,000 kids wait, Mayor. Make it happen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This week, 26,000 anxious eighth graders will learn their fate: Did they get into one of New York…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":624678,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5122],"tags":[73622,5229,407,10858,405,403,5226,5225,5228,5227,1269,40852,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":["post-624677","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-admissions","tag-america","tag-education","tag-high-schools","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-newyork","tag-newyorkcity","tag-ny","tag-nyc","tag-opinion","tag-public-schools","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/624677","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=624677"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/624677\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/624678"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=624677"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=624677"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=624677"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}