More Black and Latino Students Admitted to New York’s Elite High Schools

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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. Last year, Black and Latino students made up 10 percent of all students offered admission to the schools. 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.

Why It Matters: Elite high schools symbolize success and segregation.

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.

Still, the annual admissions numbers attract considerable attention because the schools are regarded both as crown jewels and symbols of segregation.

Test-based admissions are rare in high schools across the country, and the low numbers have prompted calls for the schools to stop relying on a single entrance exam. About 25,600 eighth graders took the admissions exam last fall, and just over 4,070 were offered spots.

More than 2,100 offers this year went to Asian students. Many come from low-income or immigrant homes, and some Asian parents have argued overhauling admissions would disproportionately penalize their children and hurt disadvantaged teenagers who worked hard to gain entry.

Background: Students at specialized high schools used to be more diverse.