The city will lengthen and remove unpopular portions of the its infamous Specialized High Schools entrance exam starting this fall, Education Department officials said Wednesday.
The test, which is used to admit students to the city’s eight Specialized High Schools, including Brooklyn Technical High School and Stuyvesant High School in Manhattan, has remained unchanged for two decades, even though it is disliked by many.
Just 4% of offers at the elite schools went to black students and 6% to Hispanic kids, even though they account for about 70% of the overall student body.
“Changes to the Specialized High Schools Admissions Test make it fairer and more equitable for our students by better reflecting what they actually learn in class,” said Education Department spokesman Will Mantell. “Now our focus is on getting practice items to schools, students and community organizations in every neighborhood across the city.”
The changes revealed Wednesday will remove certain portions of the test that were based on scrambled paragraphs which were not commonly taught in city school classes and typically only taught by private tutors. They will also lengthen the test, Education Department officials said.
