To tackle the ongoing racial disparities at New York City’s highly sought-after high schools, members of the city council are pushing legislation to address any underlying structural barriers causing a decline in Black student enrollment.
Over the course of years, the same outcome seems to be consistent: very few Black students are getting into the city’s nine specialized high schools –– eight of which use a controversial admissions exam. A whole host of reasons are theorized, including a lack of resources and tutoring at younger grade levels for Black students. Many have blasted the Specialized High Schools Admissions Test (SHSAT) for “lopsided scoring” on a multiple-choice exam that further segregates a school system already rife with racial disparities, and demanded the city get rid of the test.
Yet little has changed.
“I do not believe that you need to go to Stuyvesant, or if you go to one of these specialized high schools, you’re going to be successful. However, I do believe that all people should have the opportunity and those things should not be limited to some folks,” said Althea Stevens, who co-chairs the City Council’s Black Steering Committee. “Our Black and Brown students are just as smart as anyone else…and it should not be taken off the table just because there are other options.”
With the other council members in the Black Steering Committee, Stevens is calling for an examination of schools that have historically served as pipelines to the city’s specialized high schools and develop preparation programs for students of color beginning as early as fifth grade; a review of SHSAT outcomes, investment in equitable access to advanced coursework, increased transparency around admissions trends, and a commitment from the education department and the Mayor’s office to address systemic inequities.
Only three Black students were admitted to Stuyvesant High School in Manhattan with an incoming fall class of 777 students. One Black student out of 300 was admitted to Staten Island Tech. Larger schools, like Brooklyn Tech and Bronx High School of Science, did accept more Black students, but overall in 2026, Black students received 3.5% of the 4,023 acceptance letters to specialized high schools. While Latino students received 6.5%, white students received 23%, and Asian students were given more than half of all offers, according to Community Service Society (CSS) data.
While not a question of the ability, intelligence, or potential of Black students, these figures tally with the trend over the years that show a dwindling number of Black students in these schools. In 2025, Stuyvesant admitted eight Black students. In 2024, there were 10 Black students. In 2019, when former Mayor Bill de Blasio proposed eliminating the SHSAT and replacing it with a system based on grades and state exams, there were seven Black students.
To further complicate matters, many noted that in previous decades far more Black students were admitted into specialized high schools. Although objectively, the rates were still low in comparison to other races. For instance, in 2003, Stuyvesant High had 23 Black students in its graduating class, according to the New York State education department accountability report.
Vladimir Lewis-Thomas, an administrator of school counseling for the Department of Education (DOE), served for almost 33 years before retiring in 2020. He remembers that diversity wasn’t an issue the way it is currently.
“I worked in The Bilingual Center, PS 189. I started there as a school counselor back in the early 90s, and I became an assistant principal. We had 125 eighth graders, and out of that we easily got 25 students into the specialized high school. And that was from just one school,” said Lewis-Thomas. “We would identify kids as early as grade 5 who were doing well in reading. Every student who scored three years above grade level we’d provide with additional ELA and math, not just one time but until they sat for the exam. What it takes to get into these schools is preparation, and I think that’s what we lack today.”
According to the Manhattan Institute, under former Mayor Michael Bloomberg in 2002, the city expanded SHSAT-based admissions. The city also massively overhauled the entire public education system by eliminating the school board in 2002, or “decentralized.” This moved crucial funding away from school districts and superintendents to the DOE with a distinct lack of transparency, said Lewis-Thomas.
Coupled with the fact that there’s been a mass exodus of Black families from the city, and therefore fewer Black students in the public school system, since the early 2000s, said Lewis-Thomas.
As of the 2024-25 school year, Black students make up only 19% of all New York City public school students, according to NYCPS data. The majority of school children are Latino at 42%, while Asian students make up 19% and white students make up 16%.
Additionally, Lewis-Thomas pointed out that today’s generation of students might lack interest in preparing for or taking the exam. He noted they could feel compelled to go to “the city’s ivys,” even if those institutions do not align with their educational or cultural preferences. As a student, he nervously took the SHSAT test in the 1980s because his parents desired to see him be a doctor, but he recalls that he didn’t want to take it.
Stevens attended the High School for Leadership and Public Service in Manhattan in the early 1990s. She remembers being interested in Brooklyn Tech, but her mother said it was too far away to travel to. She felt she ended up at the school that she needed, a smaller campus and a nurturing environment.
“I think that we have a serious issue in school in general, because a lot of times, families are looking at schools that they think are good and not what schools are good for their kids,” said Stevens. “So I personally believe that we need to be looking at revamping the whole high school process anyway.”
At her core, Stevens said she’d rather improve all the city’s high schools unilaterally in the long term than just increasing access to a select few. “I think it’s so important that we’re putting a light to it and making sure that when we’re thinking about education, we’re really thinking about equity and equity is about not everybody getting the same amount, but people at least having access to it.”
What can be done now?
To initiate legislative action, Deputy Speaker and Council Member Nantasha Williams introduced a resolution this year calling on the state to repeal the Hecht-Calandra Act of 1972, which is the state law that requires the city to use the SHSAT test for admission for three of the eight specialized high schools: Stuyvesant High School, Brooklyn Tech, and Bronx Science.
There is also a state bill on the books, introduced by Senator Julia Salazar, that would repeal the Act as well.
“It has been very difficult because, as a locality, we’re either preempted by state law, or we’re preempted by mayoral control. And so I have not been able to pass actual legislation,” said Williams at a roundtable about Black issues in City Hall on July 21, 2026. “The truth of the matter is that the test, to me, is a very clear example of how we at city public schools are failing our children. I don’t think that students should only be judged by a single test, [but] I do understand that if our students were more prepared to take the test, we would see better results.”
City Council Speaker Julie Menin added that she is focused on providing more free test prep for young students, and expanding the Gifted & Talented programs in Black and Brown communities that work as a “pipeline” in many cases for these specialized high schools.
Currently, the city has the power under mayoral control of the schools to end the use of SHSAT for five specialized high schools. As of July 14, Mayor Zohran Mamdani said, at a press conference, that there’s more work to be done for young students, especially to address the racial inequities that exist across the whole system. He said there have been internal conversations with Chancellor Kamar Samuels, deputy chancellors, and the team at DOE on how to do that tangibly, but he did not commit to eliminating the test –– as he considered while campaigning.
“I will say that we know that a single test does not reflect the aptitude of students across the city. We know that Black and Latino students are excelling across the five boroughs, as are students in a wide variety of schools,” said Mamdani, who attended Bronx High School of Science. “We have to ensure that we’re doing everything we can to deliver for those students at the earliest ages.”
The council’s Black Steering Committee is hoping to meet with Mamdani and Samuels to discuss reforms, said Stevens.
