Cathy and James Harris (whose names we have changed at their request) are a New York City couple with two Black sons. Their boys are both extremely bright young men who have defied the odds and are among the increasingly rare number of Black young men who have attended one of the seven specialized high schools in New York City.
Their eldest son, now 18, graduated last year and is attending one of the most prestigious colleges in the country. Their 16-year-old son is a junior at one of the seven schools and has a 97 average.
The Harris family knows what it takes to get in and succeed at these elite schools
But despite the fact that they have two very bright sons, the struggle to ensure that they succeed has never been easy or without struggle. Theirs is a story of determination and overcoming obstacles put in their family’s way by the Department of Education and the system as a whole.
When their eldest son was getting ready for high school, like many parents of Black and Brown children, they weren’t told by school administrators, PTA members or teachers about either the specialized schools or the testing process their kids would have to take in order to get into the schools. They also weren’t told about the proliferation of courses available to help then prepare for the rigorous examinations.
“We just weren’t told about it,” said Cathy when she spoke with the AmNews. “It was a bit easier for us to know what was going on because this is our second child in a specialized high school, so we knew what to do this time.
“But with our eldest? We had the toughest time trying to find out the programs that told you about getting ready,” said Cathy. “Nothing was offered.”
As the AmNews reported last week, statistics from InsideSchools.org report the Bronx High School of Science’s current ethnicity breakdown to be 61 percent Asian, 25 percent white, 8 percent Hispanic and 3 percent Black; Stuyvesant High School’s breakdown at 69 percent Asian, 26 percent white, 3 percent Hispanic and 2 percent Black; and Brooklyn Technical High School’s breakdown at 59 percent Asian, 21 percent white, 12 percent Black and 8 percent Hispanic.
The other specialized high schools in the city are the High School for Math, Science and Engineering at City College, High School of American Studies at Lehman College, Staten Island Technical High School, Queens High School for the Sciences at York College, the Brooklyn Latin School and the Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts, where you must audition.
Some would argue that these schools are the model of meritocracy–that only the best and brightest are able to get in–but what has become increasingly clear from reporting is that there are institutionalized issues that are leaving Black and Brown students, especially boys, woefully underrepresented in some of the city’s best schools. Cathy and James provided some insight into the process.
“I know through the grapevine, you hear that they are a limited number of seats [for preparation courses] and it’s on a first come, first served basis,” said James. “Which means you either have to be in the PTA or in the network to get the information right away so you can react on it. And after a while, all the seats fill up before you even realize the situation. They tell you that there are no more seats available or you will have to find a prep course on your own or do some studying outside of the classroom [for the exam] unless you’re really involved in school activities.
“A lot of the time, working parents or parents who don’t get to network with the teachers in the school, they’re some of the last ones to know about a lot of activities that are going on, including the specialized schools exam.”
Many educators and some students who have taken the test believe that the examinations really do not measure great intellectual ability, but rather your level of preparedness. Joe Hughes, who graduated from the Bronx High School of Science in 2000, is in this camp.
“There are kids all over this city who spend summers and weekends taking prep courses to get ready for these exams, but the vast majority of those kids aren’t Black. There are far too many Black and Latino students who don’t even know about the tests, and certainly don’t have the easy access to prep courses and tutoring that other students do. I doubt there’s a Kaplan Test Prep Center in Brownsville or Queensbridge.”
Jason Clinkscales, who was a classmate of Hughes at Bronx Science, agrees. “A few years back, I taught a Kaplan test prep class at a school in Pelham Parkway,” said Clinkscales. “Little to zero to do with aptitude. Kaplan taught you how to take the test, emphasizing the test design, not exactly the test content. If I knew what I was teaching, I think all of us could have reached the top scores with ease. Yet, it’s not taught at all anywhere for free.”
While teaching the Kaplan test prep course, Clinkscales saw the difference in those who had prepared before attending his sessions.
“These kids were from a mixed bag of schools, so it was evident to see the confidence levels of these kids when it came to not only the course itself, but fellow students,” said Clinkscales. “I made sure–outside of the course parameters–that I told these kids that I was teaching them these methods for all tests in the future, not just for entrance exams. I drilled into their heads that even if they attended schools elsewhere, they still needed these tools in order to move forward in their educational careers.”
But even after Black and Brown children get into these prestigious schools and achieve, the battle does not end there. Cathy and James Harris say their high-achieving sons were given limited information about top colleges by teachers and administrators in their specialized school.