With the city’s Panel for Educational Policy (PEP) delaying approval of the Department of Education’s choice to design a digital test for admission to the city’s specialized high schools, Assemblyman William Colton (D—Gravesend, Bensonhurst, Bath Beach and Dyker Heights) is concerned that such foot-dragging could impact the city’s ability to administer the Specialized High School Admission Exam (SHSAT) in the near future, potentially injuring students who rely upon the test to jumpstart their futures.

“It’s been months since the city approved the plan, and state law requires that an exam be used to determine whether a student qualifies for admission to one of the specialized high schools. Nonetheless, PEP has yet to ratify the contract, which is extremely concerning,” said Assemblyman William Colton. “Students and their families, including many of my constituents, need to have confidence in the city’s ability to administer the test fairly, and such delays do not instill that confidence. Indeed, they imperil not only the future of the exam, which could be thrown into chaos with this unacceptable delay, but the entire ecosystem that students rely on in order to succeed. I am calling on PEP to ratify the contract immediately to avoid such a scenario.”

Upwards of 26,000 eighth grade students took the SHSAT in 2023, with 4,072 being accepted to one of the eight schools across the city that use the exam to determine admission. The contract, worth a total of $17 million, would go to Pearson, the company that has for years prepared the paper version of the text, and covers six years of test creation. According to Chalkbeat, PEP was originally supposed to vote on the contract at its October 30 meeting.