FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM NOVEMBER 19, 2020 • THE QUEENS COURIER 17
Advocates call for continuation of SHSAT
BY JACOB KAYE
jkaye@schnepsmedia.com
@QNS
Parents, advocates and elected offi cials
gathered outside of Nathaniel Hawthorne
Middle School in Bayside on Th ursday,
Nov. 12, to demand students be given
the opportunity to take the Specialized
High School Admissions T e s t
(SHSAT), aft er the timeline for
the exam was thrown into
fl ux by Schools Chancellor
Richard Carranza earlier
this year.
“In September,
we were repeatedly
assured that by October
they would tell us that the
Department of Education
would announce what the rules
are, what the admission criteria
would be for entry admissions
in the fall of 2021. Guess
what? It’s November and we still
don’t know anything,” State Senator
John Liu said.
Schools Chancellor Richard Carranza,
a notable critic of the SHSAT, delayed the
test, as well as the entire process for applying
to specialized high schools earlier this
year due to COVID-19.
Th e original deadline to register for specialized
high school admission was on
Oct. 21 and the original deadline to apply
to the city’s eight specialized high schools
was Dec. 4. Not only have both deadlines
been changed, but neither of the processes
have even been opened.
Th e DOE hasn’t off ered a renewed timeline
to parents, schools or students.
“For the past eight months, hundreds of
thousands of parents and kids have been
waiting anxiously for the Department
of Education to announce the details on
the admissions of high schools and specialized
high schools and they are also
waiting to sign up for the testing for the
Gift ed and Talented program,” said Phil
Wong, president of the Chinese American
Citizens Alliance of Greater New York.
“When parents attempted to register for
these information sessions, when they
visited the link, they were horrifi ed to see
a window informing them that those sessions
have been postponed until further
notice. Meanwhile there is not a word on
any dates on how to sign up for Gift ed and
Talented testing.”
Liu said he recognizes the pressure and
logistical nightmare the DOE faces in trying
to implement the test, which approximately
30,000 students take each year.
“We’ve been dealing with 2020, all the
parents have been dealing with it trying
to make sure their kids get the proper
education all the while balancing their
workdays,” Liu said. “Th e Department
of Education, I’ll give them a little bit of
credit for trying to fi gure out how to deal
with a worldwide pandemic right here in
the city.”
Th e test, which four of the specialized
high schools must use to for admissions
in accordance with state law, has been the
cause of confl ict for years now.
Opponents of the test, including
Ca r r a n z a
and Mayor Bill
de Blasio, argue it
widens the education
gap between lowincome
Black and brown
students and their peers.
Students with access
to more resources at a
younger age perform better
on the test and then
Photos by Dean Moses
gain access to even more resources while
attending the specialized high schools,
they say.
While no timeline on specialized high
school admissions been given, the DOE
has created an email list, where parents
and students can receive updates.
“We appreciate your patience and will
update this page with more detailed information
and timelines as soon as we can,”
the DOE’s website reads.
Additional reporting by Dean Moses.
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