Talent Should STEM from Every Neighborhood: New York City Alumni Answer the Call
Submitted by Guest Blogger on Fri, 2012-05-25 05:28
On occasion, CTEq welcomes guest blogs ab
out key issues or engaging ideas that may be of interest to our audience. Lorita D. Watson, a Brooklyn Technical alumnae, is the founder of Empowerment via Education and Technology.
The New York City public high school system is 70% African- Americans and Latinos, yet they represent less than 15% of the population in the city’s competitive specialized high schools. And many students are not immediately ready for the challenge of the Specialized High Schools Admissions Test (SHSAT), which has been in existence by law since 1972 and is the only objective means of entering these prestigious schools. Each year, more than 25,000 students take the test in hopes of gaining one of the 5,000 open seats.
Yet the tide may be turning, thanks in large part to concerned alumni. After decades of continuous decline, Stuyvesant, Bronx Science, and Brooklyn Technical—known as the Big 3—as well as the five newer schools, noted a 14% rise in 2012 of African-American and Latino students.
As graduates of Stuyvesant, Bronx Science, and Brooklyn Technical high schools, the Black Brown Big 3 alumni know what is required to succeed in a rigorous program. Most of us came from neighborhood schools around the city that once created a pipeline for the specialized schools by offering Special Programs (SP) for talented and gifted students. In contrast, today only a handful of neighborhood schools are deemed Gifted and Talented, such as Mark Twain Middle School, which continues to be a pipeline for specialized high schools.
Alumni stepped up to the plate in several ways:
- Black Stuyvesant Alumni offer test preparation and mentoring. They have an ongoing program called Why Stuy? Students tour and meet with current students, faculty and alumni. Last summer they reached out to 800 students, including about 300 who attended the September Open House and 120 who participated in SHSAT boot camp.
- The Science Schools Initiative, a program with outstanding results, provides low cost SHSAT preparation.
- Black Brown Big 3 focuses on bringing together over 800 alumni via social networking disseminating information, including policy, scholarships, programs and NYC Department of Education happenings (letter to Assemblyman Camera).
In addition to academic support, alumni offer mentoring, as many African American and Latino students don’t feel as though they fit in. Realizing part of the challenge was having qualified students take the test, local alumni did outreach at each NY DOE high school information sessions in all boroughs, speaking to parents and students about the benefits of attending these schools.
Those benefits are enormous. For example, many graduates of Brooklyn Technical, the largest STEM high school in country, go on to prestigious colleges and universities and pursue noteworthy and lucrative STEM careers. These specialized high schools are the gateway to the world.
For more insight on NYC’s specialized high schools, watch the Inside Schools segment.
Comments
NY Girl, I'm not quite sure
NY Girl, I'm not quite sure what motivated that comment.
First of all, who is campaigning for low standards? The blog posting makes it quite clear that alumni efforts are getting more qualified students of color into the pipeline. They pass the test, don't they? The blog also notes that gifted and talented programs in city schools used to create a pipeline into schools like Bronx Science and Stuy. That's called nurturing talent.
Second of all, your notion of immigration and the working class seems pretty blind to history. We need all the talent we can get, and it comes from all quarters. A nation that prides itself in equal opportunity should never pre-destine any group to any set of careers.
And the "working class" doesn't mean what it once used to. Strong STEM skills are becoming much more important across the job market.
Why would anyone want to have
Why would anyone want to have low standards? If these kids can't pass a test they shouldn't be in the schools. Are you going to tell me that immigrant kids from Asia and Russia who barely speak english can pass the test American kids cannot? Sorry America needs a working class and this is what will ensure that we have one!
Post new comment