NEW YORK STATE ASSEMBLY MEMORANDUM IN SUPPORT OF LEGISLATION submitted in accordance with Assembly Rule III, Sec 1(f)
BILL NUMBER: A10731
SPONSOR: Rules (Mosley) TITLE OF BILL:
An act to amend the education law, in relation to admission to the
specialized high schools in the city of New York
TITLE OF BILL:
An act to amend the education law, in relation to admission to the
specialized high schools in the city of New York
PURPOSE OR GENERAL IDEA OF BILL:
The purpose of this bill is to allow specialized high schools in cities
with a population of one million or more to establish standards for
admission to designated specialized high schools.
SUMMARY OF SPECIFIC PROVISIONS:
At present, there are nine specialized high schools in New York City,
one of which - Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and
Performing Arts - focuses on the arts. The other eight schools are The
Bronx High School of Science, The Brooklyn Latin School, Brooklyn Tech-
nical High School, High School for Mathematics, Science and Engineering
at the City College of New York, High School of American Studies at
Lehman College, Queens High School for the Sciences at York College,
Staten Island Technical High School, and Stuyvesant High School.
Section 2590-h of the Education Law requires that admission to the
specialized high schools, other than LaGuardia High School, be based on
the results of a competitive, objective and scholastic achievement test.
This test is known as the Specialized High School Admissions Test
(SHSAT).
Section one of the bill sets out legislative findings of stark racial
disparities in the New York City specialized high schools, which since
the enactment of Hecht-Calandra Act of 1971 mandated admission be based
solely on a single score obtained on a standardized test known as the
specialized high school admission test (SHSAT), a test which is in use
in no other school district in the country.
Section two of this bill would amend section 2590-h of the Education Law
to provide an amended recitation of the specialized high schools, and
the City of New York's authority to create additional such highs schools
at the discretion of the Chancellor, leaving the establishment of admis-
sions criteria to the local school district.
Section three would make the same amendment as the amendment made by
section one of this bill, as described above. Section two would take
effect when section 2590-h of the Education Law, as amended by chapter
345 of the laws of 2009, expires and reverts to section 2590-h of the
Education Law, as amended by chapter 720 of the laws of 2006.
Section four would provide that this bill takes effect on January 1,
2022.
JUSTIFICATION:
As noted in the legislative findings, since the enactment of the Hecht-
Calandra Act in 1971, the New York city school district has not been
able to make decisions about admissions to its specialized high schools.
Instead, as a result of the Hecht-Calandra Act, the city school district
has been required to base admission decisions to its specialized high
schools on only one criterion for admission - a student's performance on
a single standardized exam. As a result of the use of this criterion,
known as the specialized high school admissions test (SHSAT), the
student population of the specialized high schools does not reflect the
diversity of the City's population. Whereas the overall percentage of
Black and Latino students in the city's public schools is approximately
sixty-seven percent, Black and Latino students only represent nine
percent of the population of the specialized schools. This disparity
hurts Black and Latino students and it also harms the students who
attend the specialized high schools, who do not reap the intellectual,
emotional and social benefits from learning in a more diverse environ-
ment.
In New York State, high school admissions criteria are set by the local
school district, not the state. The only variation from this state stat-
utory scheme has been the admission to the specialized high schools
under Hecht-Calandra. By repealing Hecht-Calandra, the state will return
the authority to establish admission criteria for these schools to the
rightful authority, the City of New York, thereby allowing it to permit
a more equitable geographic, racial, ethnic and gender diversity.
In addition to promoting more diverse student bodies at the specialized
high schools, this legislation shifts the emphasis from reliance on one
exam to assessing multiple educational indicators of success, such as
student work and achievement in core academic subjects. It thereby
permits the rewarding of sustained student diligence and multiple
academic accomplishments, rather than their performance on a single
test, consistent with well-established educational and psychometric
principles.
PRIOR LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:
New bill.
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:
To be determined.
EFFECTIVE DATE:
This act shall take effect on January 1, 2022.
STATE OF NEW YORK
________________________________________________________________________
10731
IN ASSEMBLY
July 8, 2020
___________
Introduced by COMMITTEE ON RULES -- (at request of M. of A. Mosley,
Barron, Blake, Epstein, Simon, Wright) -- read once and referred to
the Committee on Education
AN ACT to amend the education law, in relation to admission to the
specialized high schools in the city of New York
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. Legislative findings. Since the enactment of the Hecht-Ca-
2 landra Act in 1971, the New York city school district has not been able
3 to make decisions about admissions to its specialized high schools.
4 Instead, as a result of the Hecht-Calandra Act, the city school district
5 has been required to base admission decisions to its specialized high
6 schools on only one criterion for admission - a student's performance on
7 a single standardized exam. As a result of the use of this criterion,
8 known as the specialized high school admissions test (SHSAT), the
9 student population of the specialized high schools does not reflect the
10 diversity of the City's population. Whereas the overall percentage of
11 Black and Latino students in the city's public schools is approximately
12 sixty-seven percent, Black and Latino students only represent nine
13 percent of the population of the specialized schools. This disparity
14 hurts Black and Latino students and it also harms the students who
15 attend the specialized high schools, who do not reap the intellectual,
16 emotional and social benefits from learning in a more diverse environ-
17 ment. Furthermore, the city school district is alone in its reliance on
18 a single metric to make admission decisions. Universities across the
19 country consider multiple factors when selecting their incoming student
20 body; selective institutions do not rely on the results of a single
21 exam. It is time for the city school district to follow suit and for
22 admissions to no longer be based on the procedures prescribed in the
23 Hecht-Calandra Act. This legislation will allow the city school district
24 to develop its own admissions criteria for specialized high schools, as
25 it develops admissions criteria for other schools within the district,
26 and ensure that high-performing and talented students across all five
27 boroughs have the opportunity to attend its specialized high schools.
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD13454-02-0
A. 10731 2
1 § 2. Paragraph (b) of subdivision 1 of section 2590-h of the education
2 law, as amended by chapter 345 of the laws of 2009, is amended to read
3 as follows:
4 (b) all specialized [senior] high schools. The [special] specialized
5 high schools shall include the [present] schools known as[:] The Bronx
6 High School of Science, Stuyvesant High School, Brooklyn Technical High
7 School, Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music [and the Arts in the
8 borough of Manhattan] & Art and Performing Arts, and such [further]
9 additional schools [which the city board may designate] as may be desig-
10 nated by the chancellor from time to time[. The special schools shall be
11 permitted to maintain a discovery program in accordance with the law in
12 effect on the date preceding the effective date of this section; admis-
13 sions to the special schools shall be conducted in accordance with the
14 law in effect on the date preceding the effective date of this section];
15 § 3. Paragraph (b) of subdivision 1 of section 2590-h of the education
16 law, as amended by chapter 720 of the laws of 1996, is amended to read
17 as follows:
18 (b) all specialized [senior] high schools. The [special] specialized
19 high schools shall include the [present] schools known as[:] The Bronx
20 High School of Science, Stuyvesant High School, Brooklyn Technical High
21 School, Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music [and the Arts in the
22 borough of Manhattan] & Art and Performing Arts, and such [further]
23 additional schools [which the city board may designate] as may be desig-
24 nated by the chancellor from time to time[. The special schools shall be
25 permitted to maintain a discovery program in accordance with the law in
26 effect on the date preceding the effective date of this section; admis-
27 sions to the special schools shall be conducted in accordance with the
28 law in effect on the date preceding the effective date of this section];
29 § 4. This act shall take effect on January 1, 2022, provided that the
30 amendments to paragraph (b) of subdivision 1 of section 2590-h of the
31 education law made by section two of this act shall be subject to the
32 expiration and reversion of such section pursuant to subdivision 12 of
33 section 17 of chapter 345 of the laws of 2009, as amended, when upon
34 such date the provisions of section three of this act shall take effect.
