FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM JUNE 28, 2018 • KIDS & EDUCATION • THE QUEENS COURIER 51
kids & education
Photo by Ryan Kelley/Queens Courier
District 24 Superintendent Madeline Taub-Chan, CEC Co-President Dmytro Fedkowskyj and council member Jo Ann Berger debate the advisory group’s resolution on the removal of SHSAT exams at the P.S.
199 Annex in Woodside on June 19.
Education council takes stance
against removing SHSAT exams
BY RYAN KELLEY
rkelley@qns.com
Twitter @R_Kelley6
Mayor Bill de Blasio’s announcement
that he would seek to remove the
Specialized High Schools Admission Test
(SHSAT) sparked protests from parents
and responses from politicians in Queens,
and one local education advisory group
recently joined the movement.
The Community Education Council
24 (CEC) — an advisory group to the
Department of Education representing
parents of School District 24 — voted
on June 19 in favor of a resolution that
calls upon Governor Andrew Cuomo,
Mayor Bill de Blasio, School Chancellor
Richard Carranza and the New York State
Legislature to vote against changing the
admissions criteria for the city’s eight specialized
high schools.
The mayor has proposed the removal
of the SHSAT or a set-aside of 20 percent
of the schools’ seats for low-income students
who score just below the lowest cutoff
score in hopes that it will increase the
number of black and Hispanic students
accepted to the schools.
After some minor debate and changes
to the original text of the resolution, all
but one member of the council voted in
favor of it.
The proceedings began with a reading of
the resolution by Henry Choi, vice president
of the council, and it raised several
questions from CEC member JoAnn
Berger. Referring to data showing the
number of students from District 24 that
are taking the SHSAT and how many of
them are getting attendance offers from
the specialized schools, Berger said that
she took issue with several paragraphs in
the resolution.
“We are education advocates and I don’t
believe we should ever deem a student as
not having a realistic chance to succeed,”
Berger said.
Her suggestion referred to a section
stating that removing the SHSAT could
lead to the admission of students that
aren’t prepared for the curriculum of a
specialized school and “may place them in
a position where they do not have a realistic
chance to succeed.” That phrase was
removed from the resolution.
Berger also pointed out another paragraph
stating that removing the SHSAT
could lead to “the deterioration of the
quality of the student body” in the specialized
schools. That paragraph was removed
as well.
“Each child, each student brings with
them wherever they go a certain set of gifts
and skills, so I don’t think that you should
ever say that the students that enter in
there will deteriorate the quality of the
student body,” Berger said. “I completely
disagree with that.”
When the council opened the floor to
questions from the public, one audience
member suggested that the vote on this
resolution be delayed because the state
Legislature has already said it will not vote
on the mayor’s proposal until next year’s
legislative session.
Charlie Vavruska, an education adviser
for Councilman Robert Holden, then
pleaded with the council to vote on the
resolution immediately.
“The SHSAT does not ask you who your
family is. It doesn’t ask you what your
race is. It is completely determined by the
child who takes the test,” Vavruska said.
“We need to keep this test merit-based …
I urge you to vote on this now. It’s necessary
now because the chancellor and the
mayor are trying to destroy these schools.”
In taking a stance against the mayor’s
proposal, the resolution also suggested
possible solutions to make the specialized
high schools more diverse. The city
should focus on improving the quality of
education in its grade and middle schools
across the city, as well as offer expanded
and free SHSAT preparation courses that
are accessible to all students, the resolution
states.
While Berger out forth a motion to
delay the council’s vote on the resolution,
that motion was voted down.
After the resolution passed, Choi read
a letter that he wrote to the mayor and
chancellor about the SHSAT and specialized
high schools in which he said that
“there is something wrong” with the fact
that so few black and Hispanic students
are admitted to some of the schools, but
the mayor’s plan is not the answer.
“It is our communal fault if we do not
or will not help any child to have the intellectual
curiosity and drive in attaining his
or her best possible New York City public
high school outcome,” Choi said. “We
should be asking why there are so few children
of African-American and Hispanic
communities that are being properly prepared
for rigorous high school work.”
Legislation put forth in the Assembly
to change the specialized high school
admission process did pass the Education
Committee, but the legislative session
ended on June 20 without a rush into a
final vote on the bill.
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