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SHSAT On The Line
NYC students’ futures could be derailed over delayed vote on specialized HS exam
NY Post, 11/16/2024
A vote on a contract for the company that administers New York City’s elite, specialized high schools’ entrance exams has been delayed, sparking fears that the test won’t be given next year and potentially derailing kids already preparing for it.
…Over 2,500 parents signed onto a letter this week urging the PEP to approve the nearly six-year, $17 million contract and avoid any disruptions to the already complicated admissions process.
“Failure to approve the Pearson contract will leave no other means to administer the test,” a letter from the parent group PLACE NYC warned.
The Specialized High Schools Admissions Test is the sole criterion for admission to eight of the city’s nine specialized high schools, which enroll more than 16,000 kids, per New York State law.
PLACE NYC Media Advisory on SHSAT Vote
PLACE NYC Urges the Panel for Education Policy to Approve the SHSAT Contract
PLACE NYC Media Advisory, 11/14/2024
PLACE NYC urges the Panel for Education Policy (PEP) to approve the contract with Pearson Inc. to provide the test used to admit NYC students to the eight Specialized High Schools. The Specialized High School Admissions Test (SHSAT) is the sole method for determining admissions to New York City’s Specialized High Schools as enshrined by New York State’s 1971 Hecht Calandra Act. Failure to approve the Pearson contract will leave no other means to administer the test. As such, eight NYC high schools will be without a freshman class starting in the fall of 2026.
SHSAT Vote Delayed
NYC ed panel delays SHSAT vote, teeing up public debate over admission to specialized high schools
Chalkbeat, 11/15/2024
New York City’s education panel is once again pumping the brakes on a roughly $17 million contract for a computer-based version of the admissions test for the city’s specialized high schools as its members seek additional input from the public on the proposal.
The proposed contract was initially slated for an October vote by the city’s Panel for Educational Policy, or PEP, which votes on major policy proposals and contracts. It was moved to the panel’s Nov. 20 meeting, before being pushed back again at least until December, PEP Chair Gregory Faulkner said this week.
Regents Phase Out
N.Y. to phase out Regents exams as high school graduation requirement by 2027
NY Daily News, 11/4/2024
The Class of 2027 is expected to be the last in New York who need to pass Regents exams to earn a high school diploma, state education officials announced Monday.
The projected timeline is part of a $11.5 million, five-year plan presented to the Board of Regents to rework graduation measures, including to drop the high-stakes tests as a requirement. Other changes on the horizon would consolidate three types of diplomas into one, adjust credit requirements, and broaden the skills and knowledge students need to graduate.
…The Regents exams administered in January 2028 would be the first that students are not required to pass in order to graduate.
Advocacy Corner
Sign the PLACE NYC Open Letter to Save the SHSAT
Open Letter to the PEP: Approve the SHSAT Contract
PLACE NYC Open Letter, 11/14/2024
Call for 8th Grade Parents – Crowdsource Data Request
2025 NYC HS Admission Predictions Survey
Amelie Marian, 11/15/2024
High School Admissions Resources
Decoding the NYC School Admission Lottery Numbers
Amelie Marian, 6/7/2021
Results from the 2024 NYC School Admission Lottery Surveys
Amelie Marian, 9/15/2024
NYC-SIFT High School Finder
NYC SIFT
Elections Watch
These NYC Council challengers are fundraising aggressively
City & State, 10/21/2024
Who will be New York City’s next mayor? It just got a lot more complicated.
City & State, 10/1/2024
How your NYC neighbors voted in 2024
The City, 11/6/2024
Other Headlines
PLACE NYC Urges PEP to Approve SHSAT Contract to Ensure Future Admissions
NY Voice News, 11/15/2024
Parent Perspective
Make NYC Education Great Again
NY Voice News, op-ed by Chien Kwok, 11/15/2024
I am a father of a 7th grader at a NYC public school who is studying to take the SHSAT next year in October 2025. If the contract to continue administering the objective standardized admissions test is not approved, there will be no test administered next year and no students admitted, starting September 2026, to any of the eight Specialized High Schools that base their admissions solely on the test. This means the highest academically performing students across NYC, including a majority who are from first generation immigrant and low income families, will lose access to schools that have, for many decades, provided students like them with rigorous, challenging and fulfilling curriculum that enable them to pursue advanced degrees and successful careers in STEM or other intellectually challenging fields.
Enrollment Dip
NYC Public Schools spared major enrollment decline in 2024
NY Daily News, 11/15/2024
The number of students enrolled in New York City public schools slipped this year by just 0.1%, according to preliminary enrollment data released by the city’s education department Friday.
About 911,000 students registered for classes this fall, including in preschool and K-12 programs. It is the second school year in a row the city largely avoided the dramatic enrollment declines that plagued its school system during the pandemic.
Schools Chancellor Aviles-Ramos set to start citywide listening tour with parents
amNY, 11/14/2024
A crisis over special education at NYC’s Beacon High School erupts in calls for new leadership
Chalkbeat, 11/13/2024
ICYMI
What Parents Should Know About Trump’s Plan to Dismantle Dept. of Education
Newsweek, 11/11/2024
Trump had repeatedly said on the campaign trail that he would “close the Department of Education, move education back to the states,” reviving a promise that many Republicans, from Ronald Reagan to Ted Cruz, have flirted with.
…Since its inception, the departments biggest responsibility is dolling out federal education funds to supplement state resources and fund a variety of programs. Those programs include Title I, which provides financial assistance to schools with a high percentage of low-income students, and the Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP), which is dedicated to “improving results for infants, toddlers, children and youth with disabilities.”
Rita Joseph, NYC Council’s ed committee chair, talks school budgets, curriculum mandates, and more
Chalkbeat, 11/11/2024
The Bosses Who Don’t Care About Your Ivy League Degree
Wall Street Journal, 11/11/2024
Kids packing heat in NYC: Number of teens arrested with guns rises for sixth straight year
NY Post, 11/9/2024
Regents Rebuke
NY school brass are set to let even unprepared kids graduate high school
NY Post Editorial, 11/9/2024
They’re really going to do it — scrap the Regents exams that have been a staple of New York education for more than a century and a half.
On Monday, the State Education Department presented its timeline for ditching the exams; the Board of Regents is now expected to green-light it.
The plan is to simply award “diplomas” to all students, whether they’ve learned enough to function beyond high school or not.
How Trump’s Second Term Will Affect Education: 4 Things to Know
EdWeek, 11/6/2024
NYC forces Asian students to disclose ‘sensitive’ background info: ‘CCP would love this’
NY Post, 11/2/2024
NYC parents call for student version of LinkedIn to showcase achievements
NY Post, 11/2/2024
Feeders With Benefits
Most Schools Dream of Sending Students to Harvard. These 21 Expect To.
Harvard Crimson, 11/1/2024
When William E. Buehler ’28 was applying to elite private high schools in eighth grade, one of the considerations was enrolling in a school that would give him the best chances at attending a top Ivy League college.
Buehler was offered admission to Phillips Academy in Andover, Mass., a prestigious preparatory school that sends roughly 11 students to Harvard each year from a graduating class of less than 350.
“I did not go to Andover purely because I wanted to go to Andover,” Buheler said. “I went to Andover partially because I wanted to go to Harvard.”
Andover, like a series of other highly selective and affluent schools, has been considered a “feeder school” to Harvard — one that sends an exceptionally high number of students to the College every year.
Class Size Framework for 2025-26
New York City Public Schools Unveils Framework for Class Size Planning and Funding for the 2025–26 School Year
NYC Public Schools, 10/31/2024
What Happened When Chicago’s Mayor Followed a Teachers’ Union Playbook
NY Times, 10/29/2024
This NYC father’s tool got his kids into high school. Now thousands use it
Epicenter NYC, 10/22/2024
Missing School: New York’s Stubbornly High Rates of Chronic Absenteeism
NY State Comptroller Report, 10/2024