Read on Twitter
Yesterday I attended a meeting about proctoring the SHSAT and also listened to the 2nd ep. of Nice White Parents on the same day. NYC schools are doubling down on segregation and I’m incensed. A thread— @MOREcaucusUFT @UFT @UFTUnity @ChalkbeatNY @TeensTakeCharge @AntiracistEdNow
For those that don’t know, this week, NYC middle schools will open for one day to proctor the Specialized HS test. NYC MSs are not currently in-person and this test is usually administered by the city.
Specialized HSs are among the most White (and Asian) in the city—like at Stuyvesant, the city’s top HS only 10 out of 766 freshman last year were Black. Admissions are decided solely by this test. https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2020/03/19/10-out-766-number-black-students-admitted-nycs-most-selective-high-school-fall-more-stunning-admissions-data/
Any child in the city may take the test, however...many families pay $1000s for a full year to get their child the best SHSAT prep to make them “good” at the test so they can attend the elite public schools. So the economic disparity is pretty clear.
But this year, due to COVID, the city has made quite a few changes to its admissions policies for both middle and high schools.
For middle schools, screening for selective schools has been halted for the year, though the longevity of this effort post-COVID is unclear. https://champ.gothamist.com/champ/gothamist/news/complete-education-overhaul-nyc-plans-drop-middle-school-screens-geographic-district-priority-high-schools
And for high school, geographic screens for highly touted District 2 have been withdrawn in an effort to allow a larger range of students to attend some of the more selective HSs in Manhattan. Sounds like progress, right?
But there’s something really sinister about the message being sent this week by reopening schools to maintain the historically segregating SHSAT.
And the message follows a pattern of White support for integration that quickly turns to “but not in our schools” when it approaches fruition.
In episode 2 of Nice White Parents, @chanajoffewalt outlines the way, when NYC schools began to truly attempt integration in the 50s and 60s, it resulted in a lot of White flight from public schools and...
if you study the DOE’s history further into the 70s and 80s, you can see how the screening of schools, including the use of SHSAT swiftly followed attempts at school integration.
In a report from @ChalkbeatNY, they discuss the impact of screening and quote @MATTtheG who states that screens “are designed to privilege and preference white and middle-class students... a function of exclusion for black and brown and low-income kids.” https://ny.chalkbeat.org/2016/12/19/21103651/great-divide-how-extreme-academic-segregation-isolates-students-in-new-york-city-s-high-schools
So what does this have to do with the DOE reopening schools for the SHSAT?
Despite the message of changing some screening techniques because COVID has made screening more difficult, they are still asking teachers and students to risk their health to maintain a tool notorious for segregating elite schools.
And it’s not just the city that’s complicit in this, the Hecht-Calandra Act, which @TeensTakeCharge has been opposing with legal action for a while, upholds this test at a state level. So , not shockingly, there’s lots of politics wrapped up in this, too. https://www.teenstakecharge.com/repeal
But, as a teacher at a school with a lot of White parents who are panicked about the way unscreening might hurt their children’s chances at getting into the best schools, I can see history repeating itself.
The SHSAT is a bit of comfort to wealthy White parents who invested in classes and tutoring to make sure their kids went to the “right” schools.
Who would be up in arms about the city canceling the test? White parents. And who does the city answer to, time and time again? White parents.
& while every parent just wants the best for their child @chanajoffewalt hit the nail on the head about Nice White Parents: “We want innocence. We need it to protect us from the reality that we are the ones creating the segregation, and we’re not sure we’re ready to give it up.”
Because the same parents who donate to BLM, support their school’s anti-racism efforts,and call for diversity, will be the ones who will leave the system for private schools & suburban neighborhoods if the city’s integration efforts take away their kid’s privileged opportunities.
So, as I sat in a meeting learning the logistics of administering this segregationist exam in a pandemic, I was reminded once again who the NYC DOE cares most about. It’s not teachers. And it’s certainly not Black and Brown and low-income students.
Want to help? Sign the petition from @TeensTakeCharge https://www.change.org/p/mayor-de-blasio-cancel-the-shsat-and-g-t
