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A Queens forum billed as a discussion about diversity in city schools ultimately focused on one topic: the Specialized High School Admissions Test (SHSAT). And people in attendance at Queens Borough Hall were clear about how most of them felt about the controversial exam — they want to keep it.
The crowd of mostly Asian-American alumni and parents called the test the fairest way to admit students to the city's elite specialized high schools. Many also pushed back against the notion that they're against integration simply because they want to keep a test that critics say is to blame for extreme segregation at the schools. Instead they argued that officials could boost integration by improving education at the city's elementary and middle schools, including by adding gifted and talented programs.
"Fix the crisis in K through 8 schools," said Brooklyn Tech alum and pro-SHSAT activist David Lee.
For years, only a tiny fraction of black and Latino students have gotten into the specialized schools. The number of black students admitted to one of them, Stuyvesant High School, went down this year, to only seven out of 895 slots.

Last year, Mayor Bill de Blasio proposed eliminating the SHSAT and admitting the top 7 percent of students from schools across the city instead. As a preliminary step, the administration expanded a summer prep program for low-income students whose SHSAT scores fall just below the cutoff. But recently released acceptance numbers for the program, called Discovery, show only very slight gains for black students. The number of Asian students accepted also increased with Discovery's expansion. In total, just over half of this year’s admissions to specialized schools went to Asian eighth graders. And some parents worry that, without the test, their kids' chances of getting into the competitive schools would go down.

New York state Senator John Liu, who convened the forum, said the mayor and schools chancellor "intentionally and deliberately" bypassed the Asian community when crafting the proposal to eliminate the exam. He said the goal of the forum was to listen and to ensure all stakeholders had an opportunity to provide input. "This is necessary because last year [City Hall] proposed a plan without including many parts of the city," Liu said.

While de Blasio and Carranza have called for eliminating the test, in reality that power lies with legislators in Albany. That's because the exam is enshrined in state law.

At a rally outside the forum, SHSAT proponents chanted "keep the test," "save our schools" and "no quotas." Inside, speakers accused the mayor and schools chancellor of pitting groups against one other. "Many Asians feel the city is hostile to them and their families," said Linda Lam. She was one of multiple speakers to call the plan racist and compare it to the Chinese Exclusion Act, an 1882 law that restricted immigration to the United States.
But there were some voices against the SHSAT in attendance.

"I don't know how desegregation became a shorthand for anti-Asian in so many of these conversations," said Brooklyn Tech alum Alana Mohamed. She referred to experts' research demonstrating bias within standardized testing. She said tropes of "lazy black and brown" students have been "recycled" over the decades. "I sincerely hope we can get past this gridlock," she said.
Liu said lawmakers will hold similar meetings on school diversity in each borough.

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storytelling

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updated 4h ago

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While de Blasio and Carranza have called for eliminating the test, in reality that power lies with legislators in Albany. That's because the exam is enshrined in state law.

217 episodes

#News and Entertainment #Entertainment #Guest Host #News

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