Elite NYC schools need to be taught about diversity

From Jennifer Medina, The New York Times:

Just seven black students were admitted to Stuyvesant High School's incoming freshman class, down from a dozen last year, according to numbers released Friday by the city's Education Department. The number of Hispanics also dropped incrementally, with 17 being admitted this year, compared with 24 last year. A total of 958 students were admitted last week for next year's freshman class at Stuyvesant, long regarded as the crown jewel of the city's schools.

For the last several years, education officials have struggled to explain the lack of racial diversity in the city's elite public high schools. Admissions to the schools, including Stuyvesant, Brooklyn Tech and Bronx Science, are based entirely on the Specialized High Schools Admissions Test, offered each fall. Over the years, several critics have charged that the test is inadequate, and that it is unfair to make it the sole criteria for admission.

Among the 5,261 eighth-grade students who learned this week that they had been admitted to the city's top eight schools, 7 percent are black, among those whose race was known to the department. Hispanic students make up 8 percent of the students admitted, while 57 percent are Asian and 28 percent are white. Of the nearly 23,000 students who took the test, 23 percent were admitted to one of the schools.

When The New York Times reported the admissions gaps in 2006, one deputy chancellor called the numbers "extraordinarily shocking." Two years later, Deputy Mayor Dennis M. Wolcott said he was not happy with the low percentage of minorities at the so-called specialized schools.

"It's important for the halls of Stuyvesant, the halls of the Bronx High School of Science, to be reflective of the city itself," he said at the time.

Continue to the full article at The New York Times website.