interview with spoken word artist Kelly Tsai:
http://openthecity.org/?p=1222
Kelly Tsai's "The Ballad of a Maybe Gentrifier"
http://kellytsai.bandcamp.com/track/the-ballad-of-a-maybe-gentrifier
Thoughts?
Friday, February 11, 2011
Specialized High School Admissions
Flipping through my Google Reader tonight, I stumbled upon a New York Times City Room blog post about the decrease in black and Hispanic students in the Specialized High Schools. In particular, my alma mater, the prestigious Stuyvesant High School, accepted 12 black and 13 Hispanic students out of a class of 937 students.
Do you know that feeling you get when you realize that another year has passed? Almost one year ago to the day (on a Friday, in fact) City Room printed the same story, when just 7 black students were admitted. I remember feeling the same shock, reading this article while sitting on the same sofa. So much has happened in the last year in my own life, but if I use these two articles as benchmarks, it seems like nothing has changed at all.
It's time to reform the Specialized High School Entrance process. We applaud ourselves for being a merit based institution (and I'm privileged to have had the opportunity to attend this great public school), but the ethnic makeup of the student body speaks to the vast inequalities in the public school system that Stuyvesant only perpetuates. Stuy, the "crown jewel" of the Specialized High Schools, is effectively only accessible to white and Asian students. Equal treatment unfortunately does not always lead to equal outcome. Equality and justice are two different things. It's time to begin the discussion about enacting progressive admission policies that provide opportunities for qualified, dedicated black and Hispanic students to join the Stuyvesant community in large numbers.
Do you know that feeling you get when you realize that another year has passed? Almost one year ago to the day (on a Friday, in fact) City Room printed the same story, when just 7 black students were admitted. I remember feeling the same shock, reading this article while sitting on the same sofa. So much has happened in the last year in my own life, but if I use these two articles as benchmarks, it seems like nothing has changed at all.
It's time to reform the Specialized High School Entrance process. We applaud ourselves for being a merit based institution (and I'm privileged to have had the opportunity to attend this great public school), but the ethnic makeup of the student body speaks to the vast inequalities in the public school system that Stuyvesant only perpetuates. Stuy, the "crown jewel" of the Specialized High Schools, is effectively only accessible to white and Asian students. Equal treatment unfortunately does not always lead to equal outcome. Equality and justice are two different things. It's time to begin the discussion about enacting progressive admission policies that provide opportunities for qualified, dedicated black and Hispanic students to join the Stuyvesant community in large numbers.
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