Schools
Chancellor Richard Carranza, in a fervent Saturday address, reiterated
his call for an end to admissions tests at the city’s eight specialized
high schools.
Carranza,
speaking at the weekly National Action Network event in Harlem,
squeezed in a few shots at President Trump while advocating a change in
the city’s educational status quo.
“There’s
a question to be asked,” said Carranza, who took over as chancellor
April 2. “Either black and Latino students cannot, because of biology,
genealogy . . . be successful in schools. Or perhaps the policies and
the regulations need to change. They need to change.”
Carranza
noted that fewer than 10% of the students admitted to the city’s
specialized high schools are black and Latino despite constituting 70%
of the student body citywide, and cited the Specialized High School
Admissions Test as the primary reason for the disparity.
Schools Chancellor Richard Carranza once again called Saturday for an
end to admissions tests at the city’s eight specialized high schools.
“We must be warriors for our children, not for the status quo,” he said.
“We’re
the only city in America that requires a single test for admission to a
public school,” he said. “So I’m asking the question . . . ‘Is that
OK?’ I’m asking the question, ‘Is that justice for our kids?’ ”
Mayor
de Blasio supports abolishing the admissions test as well, although
backers of the current system cite the test as merit-based for all
students. Carranza argued that too much attention is focused on a single
test rather than a student’s body of work.
“You
have brilliant black and Latino students . . . if they don’t do well on
that test, given one day, for one time period, for one opportunity, if
they do not do well they don’t get the opportunity,” said the
chancellor, who derided the current system as “neither reliable or
valid.”
Carranza, who came to New York from Houston, closed by asking the parents of students to join the fight for change.
