https://www.wsj.com/articles/alumni-from-elite-new-york-city-high-schools-unite-to-fight-admissions-changes-1529522342?cx_testId=16&cx_testVariant=cx&cx_artPos=1&cx_tag=collabctx&cx_navSource=newsReel#cxrecs_s
As soon as Albany posted provisions that would eliminate the admissions test for eight specialized public high schools in New York City at about 10 p.m. one recent Friday, heads of the alumni associations of Stuyvesant, Brooklyn Tech and Bronx Science began trading late-night emails and phone calls.
They sprung into action to keep the test. They released a joint opposition memo. They dispatched a lobbyist to plead their case with state lawmakers. Brooklyn Tech alumni have sent legislators thousands of emails to argue for the test, says Larry Cary, a labor lawyer and head of the Brooklyn Tech Alumni Foundation.
Their argument: The sought-after schools should be far more diverse but the proposed changes would introduce subjective measures and could admit students who aren’t prepared for the schools’ academic rigor.
Mayor Bill de Blasio is championing the bill, saying that using only one exam to select students has been an unjust barrier to talented black and Latino teenagers. The Democratic mayor, whose son graduated from Brooklyn Tech, wants to admit applicants based on a mix of course grades and state exam scores, so that the top 7% of eighth-graders from each middle school citywide would get offers. In time, by Mr. de Blasio’s estimate, about 45% of offers to these eight schools would go to black and Latino students, up from 9% now.
The measure is expected to be debated in the winter legislative session that usually starts in January. The alumni groups say they will devise a battle plan during the summer.
“We want to make sure we have a seat at the table to craft a viable solution that preserves the academic integrity of specialized schools,” said Christina Bater, president of the Bronx High School of Science Alumni Foundation.
Advocating to keep the test has brought together alumni associations from three high schools that have long been rivals, competing for who had the most chess trophies, robotics triumphs and science awards (Bronx Science has eight Nobel Prizes, Stuyvesant has four and Brooklyn Tech has two.)