NEW YORK — While he reiterated that he doesn't support the exam itself, Mayor Bill de Blasio on Monday night defended the city's decision to hold the high-stakes entrance exam to the city's specialized high schools in person this week.
"We didn't have a good alternative," @NYCMayor told @errollouis Monday about NYC holding the #SHSAT in person on Wednesday.
— Spectrum News NY1 (@NY1) January 26, 2021
De Blasio has touted schools as safe havens, and said health and education advisers assured that the exam could be administered safely. #NY1Politics pic.twitter.com/mcNo6umAAx
"School buildings, where we're absolutely secure about the safety of those buildings. It's been proven over and over again," de Blasio said in his weekly "Mondays with the Mayor" interview with Inside City Hall anchor Errol Louis. "In the end, there are some things where there aren't perfect solutions in life."
De Blasio said the city has to bring students in for the test because the city "didn't have a good alternative," but he said health and education advisers assured him the exam could be administered safely.
Despite the coronavirus pandemic having closed their middle schools, students on Wednesday will take the Specialized High Schools Admission Test (SHSAT), which determines entrance to most of the city's elite public high schools. The exam is the only criteria for getting into the schools, which include Stuyvesant, Bronx Science, and Brooklyn Tech.
It's not clear if the city considered holding the exam virtually. Students have taken exams online since the pandemic first shuttered schools last March, although some have faced technological obstacles, such as a lack of internet-connected devices or trouble getting onto the internet.
The exam is normally given in October, but the de Blasio administration moved it to this week because of the pandemic, and required students take their exam at their own middle schools to prevent large numbers of eighth graders from gathering at centralized testing sites.
There are safety concerns, though. Unlike elementary school students, the middle schoolers who will take the exam have not been regularly tested for coronavirus. They will be required to undergo health screenings, and the city education department says parents have been urged not to send their children to take the exam if they are sick or quarantined, and told them they'll be given opportunities to make it up. De Blasio confirmed to NY1 there will be a makeup date in early February.
After a fraught and controversial debate with teachers and parents over when — and if — public schools in New York City should reopen, the mayor has touted them as safe havens. For months, schools had positive COVID-19 rates around 1%. But while the city's positive coronavirus rate has decreased recently, it's still much higher than it was when the school year began in September, when the city's rate was around 1%. As of this writing, more than 100 city schools are closed due to COVID-19 cases. Since September 14, 549 schools have been closed for 24 hours, and 1,065 have been closed for an extended period of time. And since that date, there have been 12,318 confirmed COVID-19 cases in schools, according to the city, including 5,478 students.
The SHSAT has long faced criticism. Both de Blasio and Schools Chancellor Richard Carranza say it is a poor evaluator of student potential and instead contributes to a serious lack of Black and Latino students in the specialized schools, most notably Stuyvesant High School. The mayor tried to get the state legislature to change the admissions process, but was unsuccessful. And he faced intense protests from exam supporters, who argued the city should instead focus on improving all schools. Asian American parents and groups have been particularly vocal, arguing that the plan to scrap the exam amounts to racism and unfairly targets Asian students, who make up a large share of those admitted to the specialized high schools.
When asked if it would be a priority in his final year, the mayor in his interview on NY1 said he thought the state legislature will not attempt any changes this session due to the problems related to the coronavirus pandemic. Instead, de Blasio urged mayoral candidates to reform the SHSAT, seemingly kicking the divisive issue down the road to his successor.
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This story includes reporting from Jillian Jorgensen.
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Faraz Toor - Digital Producer
Faraz Toor is a NY1 digital producer with a focus on local politics. He is also the digital producer for the “Off Topic/On Politics” podcast, which has won awards from the Associated Press and the New York Press Club. Faraz graduated summa cum laude from Brooklyn College.
