An X post this weekend highlighting that just three Black students received offers to Stuyvesant High School has once again thrust the Specialized High School Admissions Test (SHSAT) into the spotlight.
Notably, the author of the post, Council Member Lincoln Restler, never attended public schools. He speaks from a position far removed from the realities of most New York City families who cannot afford $60,000-a-year private schools. Calls from critics like Restler to overhaul the admissions process purposely ignore a fundamental fact—the SHSAT is not the problem. In fact, the SHSAT remains one of the few meritocratic means to excellent education in this city where money, connections, ZIP codes, and subjective reviews are gateways to access and opportunity.
New York City’s Specialized High Schools serve a student body that is 61% Asian, predominantly low-income and largely made up of students from families that don’t speak English at home. Immigrant parents see these schools as an important stepping stone towards a better life for their children. I witnessed this firsthand last spring at Stuyvesant’s Accepted Students Night. Dozens of parent volunteers served as interpreters, answering questions from joyful yet anxious incoming families, and the sense of pride, excitement, and hope in the auditorium was palpable.
The critics of SHSAT ignore the inconvenient fact that Stuyvesant enrolled more than 300 Black students at its peak in 1975, and Brooklyn Tech was majority Black and Hispanic for over a decade in the 80s. Since then, school demographics have shifted as new waves of immigrant families from China, Korea, India, Bangladesh, and the former Soviet Union embraced the rigorous preparation and hard work to gain admission to these high schools.
At the same time, the percentage of Black students in New York City public schools has been declining, from 38% in 1970 to 19% as of 2025. State test data show persistent racial gaps in reading and math proficiency. These disparities begin as early as third grade and persist through middle school, well before students take the SHSAT in eighth grade. The de-tracking movement that took hold in the 1980s and 1990s, along with the dismantling of gifted and talented programs in many Black communities, has played a significant role in devastating Black student numbers at the Specialized High Schools. NYC’s prestigious private schools are also recruiting bright Black students with generous scholarships.
The right way to increase Black enrollment is to fix the K-8 pipeline and build more SHSAT schools, which is a long-term effort. But some simple reforms can be implemented now that would increase access without lowering standards. First, ensure that all families know about the SHSAT. I am still surprised to meet parents who do not learn about the test until their child is in the eighth grade. Middle school guidance counselors should be required to hold high school admissions workshops during the spring of sixth grade, to explain both the SHSAT and the importance of seventh-grade report cards for other competitive high school admissions. Second, New York City Public Schools (NYCPS) must audit and make public the effectiveness of DREAM, the free SHSAT preparation program for low-income students. Unlike private test-preparation centers, which regularly publicize their students’ results, NYCPS has not released any data on the program’s outcomes. Third, all eighth graders who scored a 3 or 4 on their seventh-grade state exams should be required to either register to take the SHSAT or opt out.
We must keep the SHSAT as the sole admissions criterion for the Specialized High Schools. It remains the most objective, predictive, and transparent metric available. Weakening or replacing it in pursuit of racial quotas would only mask achievement gaps while undermining low-income immigrant students who have been dependent on these schools as a pathway to opportunity. New York must instead invest in stronger preparation in the early grades, reinstate academic tracking, expand gifted programs, improve outreach, and strengthen the quality of free test preparation. The Specialized High Schools have lifted generations of students from modest backgrounds to top colleges and successful careers. They deserve to be defended, not diluted.
Yiatin Chu is a public school parent, Co-President of PLACE NYC and President of Asian Wave Alliance.
