Recently the nation was rocked by the admissions scandal at
the University of Southern California (USC), one of the country’s most
prestigious institutions of higher learning. Affluent families have been paying
hundreds of thousands of dollars to administrators, coaches and advisors to
have their children’s entrance into USC guaranteed. Nothing about this is new,
the phenomenon of wealthy families
securing advantage for the next
generation has existed since the accumulation of wealth itself began.
The very concept of exams, standards and qualifications were
designed to ensure that the 19th century institutions of formal education would outperform the
previous era’s informal apprenticeships and guilds in producing workers for the
industrial age. The highly coveted specialized high schools of NYC –
Stuyvesant, The Bronx Science High
School and Brooklyn Technical High
School were all modeled as “manual training” schools for boys, in the early
part of the 20th century. Even into the latter part of the century
mandatory machine shop classes were a part of the curriculum. The original
purpose of these schools was to produce all male entrants into the industrialized American workforce of the day.
In 1972, it was determined that an entrance exam would be
the only means of entrance into these schools – eliminating any form of
nepotism or corruption weighing in on admissions. Of course the impact of
socio-economics on who passes or fails the exam can’t be ignored. Even
considering those factors, Black student admissions remained at a respectable
number until the turn of the 21st century. It wasn’t until under the board of
education came under mayoral control just after the turn of the century, and
gifted and talented programs were removed from the local school district level;
that the performance of Black and Latino children on the NYC SHSAT began to
rapidly decline.
The dismal performance of Black & Latino children on the SHSAT, doesn’t
reflect the inadequacies of the exam in properly gauging gifted students, but
instead the failure of public primary education, politicians on both sides of
the aisle and even a judicial system that was unfairly criminalized Black &
Puerto Rican families specifically in this state for decades. As an a means of redress, the mayor and
schools chancellor have proposed a system that automatically guarantees
placement to the top 20% of junior high school graduating classes. Many
educators fear that this plan will disproportionately benefit a largely white,
gentrifying class of families who have been laying down roots in what were once
referred to as “Negro-Puerto Rican” neighborhoods, where the drama of
a drug war, deindustrialization and divest in education & housing played
out across three decades.
Nonetheless, changing the standard for specialized high
school admissions to some other besides a standardized test will not better
prepare black students to compete in college or beyond, but will only serve to
obscure the current divestment from their communities. It’s neither fair nor
productive to alter the admissions standard. Instead the right response is to
fix the public school system – restore gifted and talented programs in local
districts, with the standard for entrance also being determined by that local
district’s performance. The sooner we adjust for socio-economic differences in
a child’s life the better, waiting until entrance into an elite high-school is
too late.
Blandon Casenave is a
Brooklyn Tech Alumni, and President of the Harambee Educational Support
Foundation.
Last Updated: May 31, 2022 by harambeeadmin
Determined Alum Double Fundraiser Goal to Expand Educational Services to Deserving Students in Black Community
New York City has nine Specialized High Schools that serve the needs of academically and artistically gifted students. Admission for eight of the nine schools is based solely on the score completion of the Specialized High Schools Admissions Test (SHSAT). Black and Latino students only receive 10 % of specialized high school offers, even though they make up 70% of the student body in NYC – the result of poor test performance. Currently 3-5% of Black and Latino junior high school students are passing the SHSAT.
Alumni and teacher at Brooklyn Tech, Sam Adewumi started The Creative Achievement Success Prep better known as CAS Prep a community based SHSAT prep and academic enrichment company out of Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn’s Cornerstone Baptist Church in 2012. CAS Prep offers a number of academic support services starting from elementary grade through junior high school.
In 2016, a few NYC politicians announced the Independent Democratic Conference had secured $2 million dollars in funding to increase diversity in New York City’s Specialized High Schools. The NYS initiative has two-thirds of the approved funding allocated to outreach with the remainder for actual test preparedness .CAS Prep currently runs test prep summer module which consists of 24-training sessions, compared to the NYS’ funded program which will include some locations that have as little as six sessions.
Bronx resident and Brooklyn Tech alum, Blandon Casenave, wanted to support the efforts of Sam’s program and led a fundraising effort via GoFundMe in the spring of 2016. The fundraiser successfully raised $10K within two months that provided 15 Black students from NYC with a SHSAT prep learning opportunity.
Since the success of the first fundraiser, Blandon and his fellow BTSHS alumni were inspired to continue the momentum and set the bar higher for 2017. The group has now formed the Harambee Educational Support Foundation (HESF) now having non-profit status in New York State and 501(c)(3) Federal Tax exemption status. HESF recently kicked off their 2nd Annual Fundraising for the Harambee SHSAT scholarship program on their GoFundMe page and doubled their goal from last year, aiming to raise $20K so they can provide more students with scholarships. This year, the priority is to expand test preparedness to 6th graders, providing SHSAT preparedness for two full years for enrolled students, with the goal of improving entrance exam success rates and overall academic performance.
With more eyes on CAS Prep thanks to features in a news articles featured on WNYC.org and Amsterdam News Sam is bringing more awareness to the lack of test prep resources in the Black community.
[D1]Two thirds of the budget is allocated for outreach NOT outreach and preparedness
[D2]CAS Prep and the Harambee Educational Support foundation believe that the primary focus of SHSAT funding should be preparedness, given the low pass/fail rates of Black and Latino students.
Last Updated: May 31, 2022 by harambeeadmin
Learning from the USC Admissions Scandal in NYC’s Elite HS
Recently the nation was rocked by the admissions scandal at the University of Southern California (USC), one of the country’s most prestigious institutions of higher learning. Affluent families have been paying hundreds of thousands of dollars to administrators, coaches and advisors to have their children’s entrance into USC guaranteed. Nothing about this is new, the phenomenon of wealthy families securing advantage for the next generation has existed since the accumulation of wealth itself began.
The very concept of exams, standards and qualifications were designed to ensure that the 19th century institutions of formal education would outperform the previous era’s informal apprenticeships and guilds in producing workers for the industrial age. The highly coveted specialized high schools of NYC – Stuyvesant, The Bronx Science High School and Brooklyn Technical High School were all modeled as “manual training” schools for boys, in the early part of the 20th century. Even into the latter part of the century mandatory machine shop classes were a part of the curriculum. The original purpose of these schools was to produce all male entrants into the industrialized American workforce of the day.
In 1972, it was determined that an entrance exam would be the only means of entrance into these schools – eliminating any form of nepotism or corruption weighing in on admissions. Of course the impact of socio-economics on who passes or fails the exam can’t be ignored. Even considering those factors, Black student admissions remained at a respectable number until the turn of the 21st century. It wasn’t until under the board of education came under mayoral control just after the turn of the century, and gifted and talented programs were removed from the local school district level; that the performance of Black and Latino children on the NYC SHSAT began to rapidly decline.
The dismal performance of Black & Latino children on the SHSAT, doesn’t reflect the inadequacies of the exam in properly gauging gifted students, but instead the failure of public primary education, politicians on both sides of the aisle and even a judicial system that was unfairly criminalized Black & Puerto Rican families specifically in this state for decades. As an a means of redress, the mayor and schools chancellor have proposed a system that automatically guarantees placement to the top 20% of junior high school graduating classes. Many educators fear that this plan will disproportionately benefit a largely white, gentrifying class of families who have been laying down roots in what were once referred to as “Negro-Puerto Rican” neighborhoods, where the drama of a drug war, deindustrialization and divest in education & housing played out across three decades.
Nonetheless, changing the standard for specialized high school admissions to some other besides a standardized test will not better prepare black students to compete in college or beyond, but will only serve to obscure the current divestment from their communities. It’s neither fair nor productive to alter the admissions standard. Instead the right response is to fix the public school system – restore gifted and talented programs in local districts, with the standard for entrance also being determined by that local district’s performance. The sooner we adjust for socio-economic differences in a child’s life the better, waiting until entrance into an elite high-school is too late.
Blandon Casenave is a Brooklyn Tech Alumni, and President of the Harambee Educational Support Foundation.