City Council moves to level the playing field in racial disparities in specialized high school admissions

NEW YORK - The acceptance letters are in for New York City's coveted specialized public high schools, and the disparities remain glaring. 

Now the City Council wants to take on the issue by focusing on test preparation. 

CBS2's Aundrea Cline-Thompson has more on the effort to level the playing field. 

Stuyvesant is among the eight elite public high schools in the city requiring the SHSAT to get in. Of the 756 new students admitted next year, only 34 identify as Black or Latino, highlighting a lingering problem. 

"We have three black students going to Stuyvesant High School this year. We've gotten students into Bronx Science, Brooklyn Tech, several of the other specialized high schools so we know that it's possible," said Tai Abrams. 

Abrams owns test prep company Admission Squad, which specifically targets underserved populations. She says it's not aptitude, but a lack of access to test preparation classes that widens the disparities. 

"It shouldn't be a cost barrier, or a location barrier. Sometimes parents can't even get to the location because they don't have someone who can get them there," Abrams said. 

Across the city's specialized high schools, Black students made up nearly 21% (20.7) of test takers, but only 3.2% of those admitted. Nearly 26% (25.8) of Latino students took the test, but only 5.7% were admitted. 

Now, the City Council is looking for new ways to level the playing field, by introducing a package of bills to make test preparation and the test itself more widely available to students.  

"We want to offer better opportunity for students who want to take that test to be able to take it and not have to think about getting to school on the weekends to take it," said Councilmember Keith Powers. 

Powers' bill would require the SHSAT to be administered during a regular school day, and not on a weekend. Other bills would require the city to fund exam prep for all middle school students, and direct the Department of Education to pilot an afterschool program. 

"Our whole package of bills is aimed at making sure New York's public school students have access to the test, know how to prepare for it, know what it is," Powers said. 

"We try to do as much as we can in four to six months, but ideally a student needs one year minimally to get prepared for this exam," Abrams said. 

Her program includes both enrichment and test taking strategies. 

She's fueled by the hope that access to a good high school can change the course of students lives. 

There were nearly 28,000 applicants to the city's specialized high schools. Only 4,000 students got it. 

Families have until June 24 to finalize their decisions.