Even as the proportion of Black and Hispanic students being offered a seat at the city’s specialized high schools ticked up slightly, new data shows those students remain vastly underrepresented at the schools, which use a single exam as the sole criteria for admission.

Although Black students make up 23.7% of students citywide, they were just 4.5% of students receiving offers to the specialized high schools, according to data. However, that number was up from 3% the year prior. 

What You Need To Know

  • The number of Black and Hispanic students admitted to specialized high schools climbed slightly, according to data

  • But those students are still vastly underrepresented at the schools compared to the entire school system

  • The schools, which include Stuyvesant High School and Brooklyn Tech, used a single exam as the sole criteria for admission

And while 41.1% of students citywide are Hispanic, they accounted for just 7.6% of students getting spots at the specialized schools, according to data. The number was up from 6.7% last year.

Only 10 Black students earned admission to Stuyvesant High School, according to data. In 2023, there were seven students, and 11 students in 2022.

“The percentage increase is meaningless. We’re talking about single digit increases. So this is, you know, call it Groundhog Day, call it rinse, repeat. It is just a disaster — for kids, for the system,” David Bloomfield, an education professor at Brooklyn College and The CUNY Graduate Center, said.

Bloomfield is among those who have argued that the test, called the SHSAT, has resulted in the city’s top schools failing to reflect the system’s overall demographics. 

“It’s very different than it was decades ago when we had more students of color being admitted — because now it is about the test prep industry,” he said.

Efforts to overhaul the exam have all but died out in Albany, in part due to strong resistance from Asian American communities, who felt targeted by the efforts to diversify the schools.

About 16.5% of students citywide are Asian, while they account for 52.1% of students getting offers to specialized high schools, according to data. White students make up 14.7% of pupils citywide, but received 26.1% of the specialized high school offers.

While the schools attract outsized attention, they collectively admit just over 4,000 students a year, a tiny proportion of the 72,000 students who applied for a high school seat this year.